Fridges & Freezers – Helping Cool the Planet by Fighting Global Warming
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Most people don’t realize that their refrigerator uses up more energy in your kitchen than anything else – a fact that has big implications for global warming and your carbon footprint.
When it comes to your fridge and freezer, there is a lot you can do to make your current unit more energy efficient and help cut your carbon footprint. To start, you should defrost your freezer regularly. Formations of ice tend to build up in your freezer, which absorb a lot of the freezer’s cooling power, thus drawing more and more energy, in turn causing global warming by creating more carbon emissions.
Take a second to think about where you fridge is in your kitchen. If possible, try to keep it away from anything that could give off heat in its direction, as this would require it to use more energy to keep your food cooled and thus increase your carbon footprint. The main things to watch for are where your fridge is in relation to your stove, and if it will receive direct sunlight. Both of these will have a big impact on how much energy your fridge will use and how much carbon emissions will result from it.
While looking at where your fridge is, you could also check out have far away it is from the wall behind it. There should be several inches between your fridge and the wall to allow air to circulate freely through the condenser coils at the back. This will help your fridge run much more efficiently which will save you energy – and of course save you some cash on your energy bills.
The last thing that you can do to help your carbon footprint in relation to your fridge and freezer, is to let your leftover foods cool off before you put them in your fridge. Why make your fridge cool something if leaving on the counter to get to room temperature will do half of the job? This is a simple and easy way to reduce your carbon footprint.
Buying a New Fridge
Now let’s look at buying a new fridge and freezer, as this can generate some big savings on your carbon emissions and help you reduce your carbon footprint. Generally, the older you fridge, the worse it will be for energy consumption and global warming. Upgrading to a new fridge from one made before 1990 would save enough energy to light your house for four months! A pretty significant savings on carbon emissions each year, to say the least.
This is because newer models have better insulation, more precise controls to regulate the temperature in your fridge and freezer, and better defrosting mechanisms in the freezer. All these factors lead to less energy consumption and less carbon emissions which means that you will shrink your carbon footprint and help fight global warming.
Today you can get energy efficient units in all shapes and sizes (freezer on top, bottom, or one side). You can also get models with external water and ice dispensers. However, there are some that will generally use less energy and help you cut your carbon footprint by even more. Having an external ice and water will inevitably use more energy than not having them. Also, top mounted freezers are usually better. That being said, there is lots of variation from one model to the next. You will be able to find side by side fridge/freezer units with water and ice dispensers that use less energy than come models that have a top mounted freezer and no external dispensers.
The important thing is to put a bit of time into researching different models so that when you upgrade you are getting the most energy efficient model that fits your needs. This is the best way to reduce your carbon footprint and fight global warming.
Here is a list of Energy Star qualified fridges and freezers.
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