Great Savings Tip #75

Published January 31, 2011

Today’s tip: Recycle The Extra Fridge.

This post is part of our continuing Great Savings Tips series, designed to help find ways to spend less and save more. Join us for new tips every week until we bring our tip count “All The Way To 100!”

75) Recycle the extra refrigerator: Okay, you just bought a new refrigerator and instead of recycling the old one, you moved it out to the garage. Now, while this strategy is tempting for storing extra food items, especially for large families who use up a lot of food, it is important to understand that an “extra” fridge is almost always much older and less efficient.

According to the U.S. Government’s Energy Star website,

“If you still have a fridge from the 1980s, replace it with an ENERGY STAR qualified model and save over $100 each year on your utility bills. Replace a fridge from the 1970s and save more than $200 each year!”

The site also says,

“ENERGY STAR qualified refrigerators are required to use 20% less energy than models not labeled with the ENERGY STAR logo.”

How much is your extra fridge costing you?

It’s worth asking how important it is to chill extra pop or beer (if that’s all you’re really doing). It’s also worth considering whether any extra produce you might store in it gets used up before some or most of it spoils. This is one of those lifestyle questions that become personal for some families who have a lot of mouths to feed, or for those who cook or can a lot of their own food. We recommend doing the thing that makes most sense for your family, while being aware of the extra dollars and power an older unit requires. If you can, consider going green by recycling. And to figure out the savings you can expect to receive from buying a new refrigerator try out this ENERGY STAR calculator.

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By Bob Anderson