How to Reduce Appliance Energy Use With Refrigerator Repair.
Reminiscent of an ancient prank call, the age-old question “Is your refrigerator running?” now takes on a whole new light. Your refrigerator is one of the most energy-hungry appliances in the home, eating up about 13% of your monthly power consumption all by itself, rivaled only by the HVAC heating and cooling system. Following your fridge are all the other large or constantly running appliances in your home like the washer, dryer, coffee machine, dishwasher, and so on. When trying to achieve an energy efficiency goal in your home, one of the most important things you can do is track and reduce the amount of power your appliances use up. Fortunately, this is easier than it sounds and refrigerator repair could be needed.
Install a Smart Meter
By far one of the coolest things you can do to track your power use in the home is to install a few smart meters on your biggest energy eating appliances. A smart meter can be spliced into the power cord function as an additional step between the plug and the wall. What they do is monitor the amount of energy that flows through to the appliance and then sends that information to an app on your smartphone or a platform that can be accessed through a web browser. This will give you a baseline and a clear indication of whether or not your energy saving techniques are working.
Always Optimize Your Settings
The way you use your appliances will make a significant difference in how much energy they use. Washing on ‘hot’, for instance, uses more energy as does the dryer and the heat-drying function in your dishwasher. If you run small loads, set your appliances to use less water or energy by indicating the size of your load. To make the most of your appliances, always use the correct settings. For things that run batches or loads like a washer or coffee maker, always select the correct settings for batch size. For more steady items like the water heater and fridge, consider the warmest safe setting for the fridge and the coolest safe setting for the water heater.
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Washing Machine – Settings for Small Loads
Dishwasher – Warm Water, Air Dry instead of Heat Dry
Dryer – Only Fill Halfway
Coffee Maker – Make Half-Pots At a Time
Water Heater – Set to 120 F
Turn Down the Brightness
Creating light is one of the most energy-hungry electric functions we know of. Lamps, bright UI screens, and other forms of light on or in your appliances can burn a lot of energy. Turn off the lights you don’t need and turn down the brightness of any screens and lights if you can. This can notably reduce the amount of power they use when on.
Dust Mechanisms and Empty Filters
Of course, energy efficiency isn’t just a buzzword, efficiency really is an important concept to remember. Anything you can do to improve the efficiency of your appliances can also reduce their energy consumption. Dust is a major efficiency detriment to any appliance, either covering the internal machinery causing it to heat and gum-up or in the filters, preventing air and water from flowing freely thus forcing the appliance to work harder. By keeping both clean for each appliance, you can change their energy consumption profile to something lower than you thought possible after taking your baseline.
Places to Check
- Underneath the Appliance
- Between Appliance and Wall
- Cables, Hoses, and Vents
- Behind Maintenance Panels
- Inside Filter Housing
Keeping your appliances clean, maintained, and optimized is the best way to reduce their power usage without going out and replacing them with a new model. Join us next time for the second half of this article where we’ll talk about outlets, vents, drains, and much more! For more information on how to maintain and repair your home appliances, contact us today for all your refrigerator repair needs today!
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