Cold comfort
by Simon Handby in At home on 01.11.07
The fridge is the latest household gadget to fall under the spotlight of our power meter, and the results are curdling.
Things got off to a worrying start last week when, after the first day, the fridge-freezer had already used as much power as the kettle did in a full week. Sadly, it kept up the hard work, with the week’s electricity consumption totalling a shocking 15.27 kilowatt-hours (kWh).
To put that number in context, it’s about the same as running our 2.1 kilowatt (kW) kettle continuously for 7 1/2 hours. We’re not sure how many cups of tea that is, but drinking them all would certainly give you an OO.
Label-conscious
To be fair to the fridge, we think that it might pre-date the European Union directives that gave rise to the current Energy Labels for appliances. The £1.40 or so that it’s costing to run every week has got us thinking about a replacement, but now we’re wondering whether the money that a new fridge would save on electricity would repay the outlay on buying it. This US site seems to suggest that it would.
We’ve been trying to find out the criteria for the different EU efficiency grades, but the labelling system for fridges isn’t quite as straightforward as the test for washing machines, which is based on a 60° cottons cycle.
Despite working our way through a lot of documents with names like “Energy efficiency test methodologies for domestic cold appliances” we’re none the wiser, so we’ve asked the Energy Saving Trust if it can help.
We’ll let you know what we hear back, but in the meantime, if you’ve got a (polite) suggestion for where we can stick our power meter next, please add a comment or send us an email.
Just been reading up on ‘Electric Domestic’, an idea from Forum for the Future. It’s a proposed smart meter that would enable householders to monitor usage from all appliances within a home. By 2022 they’re suggesting that all appliances will be able to communicate with the device via wireless networks - giving consumers the ability to control energy usage to the nth degree.
03.11.2007 at 11:06 pmhttp://www.forumforthefuture.org.uk/lowcarbonliving2022/products/electricdomestic
Why not try the microwave if you haven’t already? It might not be a huge consumer of electricy, but I understand it takes as much power to keep it on standby as when it’s used in cooking and I’d like to see if that’s true. I only use mine once in a while and have got used to switching it off at the plug when not in use.
11.02.2008 at 7:01 pmHi Sandra, thanks for the comment. We’re currently using the power meter for a more in-depth investigation into washing machines, but testing the microwave is a great idea.
Please check back in a two or three weeks and I hope we’ll have answered your question.
11.02.2008 at 10:05 pm