Reset your fridge and freezer temperatures

Refrigerators are big energy sucks in the average household, averaging 20% of your yearly energy bill.  That's why I was delighted when I read a great green tip in a magazine. The tip in question:

"To help your refrigerator be as energy-efficient as possible, set your fridge temperature to 37 degrees Fahrenheit, and set your freezer to 0 degrees Fahrenheit."

The magazine estimated that this would reduce the energy consumption of my fridge/freezer by 25% for each 10 degree correction! It sounded like an awesome, easy project.

But like so many of these green projects I've embarked on, not so much...

I raced over to my fridge, opened the door to find the temperature gauge I would easily program, and was met with this:


Um...what? Are we consumers so stupid that we can't be trusted with a temperature slider? Instead, we have temperature "levels" from 1-9?  My fridge is supposed to be the height of modern technology and it doesn't even have a built-in thermometer? Thanks a ton, GE.

I immediately went to my kitchen drawers, hunting for thermometers. Candy thermometers, meat thermometers, human thermometers. I had nothing that could measure below 60 degrees.

Luckily, the problem was easier to remedy than I thought. Since refrigerator manufacturers are not kind enough to build thermometers in, extremely cheap fridge/freezer thermometers are widely available. I bought this one for $3.00.

When it arrived, I put it in the fridge first, for 24 hours on a middle shelf. It read about 34 degrees, so I gently eased the slider up the scale until it read 37. This process took a few days, because it takes about 24 hours for the fridge temperature to normalize. Rinse and repeat for the freezer.

Overall, I've upped my fridge/freezer temps about 8 degrees, so I estimate it's running 20% more efficiently now. Not a bad project for $3.00.

Comments

[Dian H]

Good information. I am glad you mentioned the thermometer. I was wondering how you could tell what the temperature was in the fridge when there is only that dial (btw mine only has that dial too and it's a few years older than most -ok so my landlord thinks ancient means it works so don't worry about energy efficiency or how well it works). I am now saying, duh (to myself of course) because the thermometer thing is rather basic but heck I didn't even think of that. Thanks.
Go Green!

[BroTee]

Nice tip. I've got to try this one out.
I got here via Entrecard Group on Blogcatalog. You've got a nice blog. Cheers.

[Lu]

My fridge has a "recommended" temp setting on it. When I used this I found that the actual temperature for this setting was 31 degrees!!! I think its absolutely crazy that this is the recommended setting! When I turned mine down, I noticed that my electric bill went down almost 10 dollars that month!

So users beware, the recommended setting on your fridge and freezer may just be a really bad recommendation!

Thanks for the tips!