What counts for 25% of most households’ electricity consumption? Your refrigerator. So, of course, you are going to want to make sure you are running it the most efficient way that you can!
1. Be Organized–You waste time and energy with keeping the door open while trying to find something in your messy fridge. I have to admit that I am horrible with this, which is why I tidy up my fridge one day a week. If I didn’t, it would be scary! Up to 30% of the cool air in the fridge escapes every time you open the door, which is quite a bit! Be quick when you get something out!
2. Going on Vacation–Usually we think of going through our fridge before a vacation so nothing spoils, but it turns out the emptier the fridge, the better. You can turn down the power or even turn it off entirely.
3. Clean Yearly—By keeping the coils in the back of your fridge dust free it makes your fridge 30% more efficient!
4. Wait for Food to Cool–If you wait for the food to cool before putting it in the fridge and make sure it’s covered, it means less energy is used from the fridge to cool it!
5. Check the Door Seal– Try this great test I found online, “By putting a piece of paper in the door you can check your door’s seal! If it slips out when the door’s closed, you may need to change the seal and/or door magnets, to stop cool air from escaping.”
Now we can all get to work on checking our fridges!
Great tips,
With point one about an empty fridge being better, its a little confusing. I assume your only talking about when on vacation. As with freezers you should fill them as much as you can because objects hold on to the cold better then air, so once an item is cold/frozen it cost less to keep that object cold then it does to keep cooling the air around it.