How to reduce fridge running costs in Sydney
Energy efficiency is a favourite topic here at our solar powered warehouse in Marrickville, Sydney.
You can do a number of things to reduce running costs of refrigerators*. Aside from replacing your refrigerator with the most energy efficient model, you can:
- Put things in at cold temperatures – limit the amount of warm food and drink placed in it, and use a chiller bag or esky/coleman to keep your groceries and drinks cool on the way home etc
- keeping upright/cabinet fridges full – reuse milk bottles, water containers, freezer bricks etc – these act as a ‘cold sink’, taking up ‘air’ space that would otherwise fall out when you open the door
- keep the door seals in good condition – you can have these re-sealed for reasonable cost
- *Important* allow plenty of air circulation around the rear of the fridge – make sure not to push the fridge up too close to the wall and don’t surround the rear radiator with other items
- dust the radiator – carefully dust the outside radiator at the rear of the fridge to improve efficiency
- experiment with the thermostat – you may find that the fridge is set a little too cold – maybe you can keep your goods fresh at a slightly higher temperature
Extra Points
- install a small fan to further ventilate the radiator if practical, desired, and fun – use a small computer cooling fan and power off a tiny solar panel.
- add extra insulation to the sides of the fridge
*it is thought refrigerators started to be commonly referred to as ‘fridges’ after the introduction of the popular ‘Frigidaire’ range of refrigerators, produced historically by General Motors. We’ve used the term refrigerator to help international searchers, who stumble across our site looking for everything from cookie cutters and solar ovens, to BP Solar and LED lamps.
