10 Top Tips To Reduce Your Fridge And Freezer Running Costs
As many of us are becoming increasingly pushed for cash, we begin to look at ways we can save on our household bills. Naturally, our first thought is always to look at things such as the shopping, water and energy bills. The latter one is where you are likely to see the most saving. That’s because there are so many appliances and lights that we can be conscious about switching off. Unfortunately, some always have to be on – such as refrigerators and freezers. We would advise you to check the energy consumption of your home appliances. However, there are things you can do to actually reduce your fridge and freezer running costs. Here are ten of our top tips:
1. Always Shut The Door
Try to keep the fridge and freezer doors shut. If the doors are open, then the temperature will start to rise. For every minute that the door is open, it will take units a few minutes to get back to the ideal temperature. As this requires them to work harder, it means that they will be using more energy. So keep those doors shut to save money.
2. Seal ‘n’ Save
A good way to make sure that your fridges and freezers are as efficient as possible is to check the door seals are working as intended. One way to check this is by opening the door, holding a bit of paper where the door shuts, and then shutting it. The paper should now be jammed in the door. If the paper can’t be pulled out whilst the door is shut, then everything is okay; but if the paper comes out, then the seals need to be sorted. To do this, simply tighten the hinges or, if you have a bit of spare cash, replace the seals. If you’re not sure how to do that, then find a reasonably priced fridge freezer repair company to help, such as Repair Aid. This will stop cold air escaping which, as above, will only drive your energy bills up.
3. Stock It Up
Not only can buying in bulk save you money, it can also drive your energy bills down. If your fridge is kept as full as possible, then the food will retain the cold better than air retains it. Because of this, an empty fridge costs more to run than a full fridge. Bizarre, we know, but it’s science.
4. Don’t Recoil At Cleaning
This one requires a bit of work, but is worth doing to keep your fridge and freezer efficient. Get to the back of your unit and locate where the condenser coils are housed. Turn the electricity off, disconnect the plugs, and then vacuum and brush away the dust. Thankfully, you only need to do this once a year.
5. Buying Energy-Efficient Units
A more obvious one, but when it comes to buying a new fridge or freezer, make sure to look for the most energy-efficient model you can. While a cheaper model that isn’t as energy efficient may be enticing, just think about the years of saving you’ll be making on your household bills with a more energy-efficient unit.
6. Don’t Keep A Back-Up
When you buy a new fridge or freezer, you might have the space to keep your old one in a garage or a spare room. Don’t. Not just because of the additional electricity being spent to power that spare unit, but also because older fridge and freezer units are more likely to gobble up more energy than newer units.
7. Regularly Defrost
To keep your freezer efficient, defrost your freezer at the start of every season. While this may be a pain, you’ll also save more time doing it this way as it can be difficult to defrost a freezer that’s full of frost and ice.
8. Keep It Cool… But Not That Cool
There’s a temptation to set fridges and freezers to the coldest temperature possible, but this will drain more energy. The ideal temperature for freezers is -15°C to -18°C, whereas for fridges that’s 3°C to 4°C. For every degree you get closer to this, you’ll make your units 5% more energy efficient. Well worth it!
9. Long Vacation? Give Your Fridge A Break
Unfortunately, fridges aren’t smart enough to know you’re gone. Yet… So if you’re going away for a long period of time, empty your fridge and switch it off. Not only will this save your nose from the stench of food that has gone off when you get back, but it’ll save you energy.
10. Finding The Right Spot
If your fridge doesn’t have the right ventilation, or lacks space around it, then this can drive energy efficiency down by as much as 15%. Try to make sure that the coils at the back are at least three inches from a wall. Also, make sure to keep your fridge away from products that create heat. The warmer it gets, the longer it will have to work to drive the temperature down, and the harder it will need to work.
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