What comes to mind when you think of the things in your house that drive up your energy bills? Old windows, lack of insulation in your attic, leaving the lights on, using conventional lightbulbs - those are all things that most people would address when considering how to save money on their energy bills.
But what if I told you that there’s one thing in your house that is stealing $90 each year from you? It’s something you use every day, you never unplug, and that lasts a long time...It’s your refrigerator!
Unless your refrigerator is an Energy Star rated appliance, it’s likely that you are losing hundreds and hundreds of dollars each year simply by letting it run. Newer, more energy efficient appliances simply use less energy to do the same job. It will actually cost you less, in the long run, to buy a brand new refrigerator than it will to let your current one run until it dies a natural death.
Let’s do the math, using my refrigerator as an example.
First, I went to the
Energy Star Refrigerator Retirement Savings Calculator.
I filled out the fields as follows:
- I wanted to replace my refrigerator.
- The price per kilowatt hour according to our energy bill is $.13
- I have a side to side model.
- My model year is 1993-2000. We bought our refrigerator in 2000. I don’t consider it an old refrigerator because it runs just fine, but it is not an Energy Star appliance.
- Our refrigerator is large, It is in the 24.5+ cubic feet category.
- Then I chose “Calculate Savings.”
According to this, I can save a smidge under $90 a year on my electric bills by getting a new refrigerator. I've had my eye on a fancy little retro model that is fairly expensive...but according to the Refrigerator Retirement Savings Calculator my new refrigerator will save me almost $450 over the next 5 years!
What about you? Did you do the Energy Star Refrigerator Retirement Savings Calculator? What did it say? Will you save money by getting a new fridge?
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