Are you worried that your fridge is depreciating daily and thinking of ways to increase its efficiency quickly without much effort and time? Then there are a few ways to increase its efficiency without much technical work. These steps help not only in increasing the efficiency of the fridge, but it also helps in saving energy and benefits us economically too.
Contents
12 Ways to Improve the Energy Efficiency of Your Refrigerator
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Replace the rubber seal on the door
The rubber seals are also known as gaskets, are those coils which are present in the doors of the fridge. These rubber seals have suction power which is lost over the period due to repeated usage. The seals protect the warm air entering the refrigerator and cool air moving out which helps in maintaining proper temperature that it needs. Worn coils cause the units to work even harder which means more energy bills and less lifespan of those units. Therefore it is necessary to have a look at these seals and replace them if they are worn, by doing so we can save energy and money.
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Protect your fridge from high heat sources
Fridge is basically designed in such a way that it will maintain certain amount of temperature always to keep our food and provisions fresh. Therefore when it is kept near heat sources the compressor works harder than usual to maintain the required temperature leading to shorter life of the appliance and waster of energy and higher bills. Hence it is necessary to place the fridge away from heat-generating appliances like the oven, griller, stove etc. It is only advisable to protect the refrigerator from the outside but also from the inside. Do not store hot food items instead place them inside once they are cool.
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Tidy up your condenser coils
Condenser coils are designed to remove the warmth from the unit. These are generally placed either behind or under the fridge. When these parts get dusty then it prevents the fridge from working more efficiently and consumes more power to work harder which could also result in high fluctuations in the electricity line. Therefore it is better to keep them clean. These condensers need not be cleaned more frequently but once in a while, sufficient enough to be free from dust. Bristle brush could be used the best option for cleaning these condensers.
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Cool off your leftovers
As discussed earlier, fridge is designed in such a way to maintain certain amount of temperature to keep the food fresh. Therefore when the food that is stored inside the fridge are kept hot it increases the temperature of the fridge causing it to work more to get it back again to the required temperature which not only increases the energy consumption but also shortens the life of the refrigerator. Therefore avoid keeping hot items place them inside once they have cooled down. But don’t wait for too long as it may cause the food to get spoiled.
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Keep the doors closed
This is one of the simplest step that one can follow. Keeping the doors closed is one overlooked step but it can add more weight to the efficiency of the fridge. When doors are kept open for a long time, it causes the cool air to escape outside and increases the temperature, which causes the compressor to work harder, comparatively higher than usual, to regulate the temperature leading to higher bills and reducing the efficiency of fridge as the spares tear over time due to overworking. Therefore open only when it is necessary, and avoid frequently opening it for a long time.
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Take advantage of In-Door water & Ice
Recent days this has been one of the most important feature that is incorporated in refrigerators. The water and ice cubes can be accessed without opening the fridge these can be taken from the door itself, this job is taken care by the ice dispenser that is built in the refrigerators. This reduces the frequency of opening the door every time you want to take water or ice. If this feature is not built in your refrigerator, then we could move to portable ice makers if we are very fond of ice and use them more frequently.
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Organize and remove clutter from your fridge
Organizing the fridge can help you take out and keep things faster, thereby reducing the time the door is kept open, which saves energy. Crowding out things in the fridge not only takes up time but also traps the heat causing the compressor to work harder. Therefore by removing unwanted things, we can save space and time. This also helps in keeping things in easily without much difficulty in finding spaces. Clutters are those unwanted items that are kept inside the fridge for a long period without any use. When these clutters are removed, it not only creates space for other items but also helps in preventing other items from getting spoiled.
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Check the temperature inside
This trick will not only increase the efficiency of the fridge but also saves electricity and money. You will have to set the temperature slightly up. 36-38ºF will be the optimum temperature. If your fridge does not provide the exact temperature set the dial in the middle and you are done. The appliance takes 24 hours to maintain the temperature. This is one of the best ways to save money and electricity.
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Initiate the power-saver switch
Fridge consumes electrical power as watts and it is worth to track and save as much as possible. Power switch option is not present in all the refrigerators, only few have them. By turning on this we can save the energy consumption. This switch allows us to turn down the heating coils that prevent condensation. This results in better control of anti-sweat heaters in fridges which can lower energy costs. This has been a recent addition in refrigerators which is appreciated mainly by the environmentalists as it saves lot of electricity and is largely beneficial to the environment.
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Reduce your frost accumulation
Ice can make the compressor work harder and can reduce the efficiency of the fridge over time. Another practical difficulty is that when the ice gets frozen in the freezer, it prevents the freezer door from closing letting the air to escape resulting in an increase in temperature. Therefore defrosting is one of the best solutions to this problem. Defrosting can be both an automatic and manual process. The manual process of reducing frost accumulation is seen to be comparatively better than the automatic process as it uses more energy. But on the other hand automatic is a faster and more convenient way. In recent times automatic defrosting is part of every refrigerator, the coils produce heat that melts the ice. This is automatically done, but the fridge when the ice becomes heavy or reaches a certain level of thickness.
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Keep your fridge organized
Arrange the food properly. The more organized it is, easier it is to take out and keep things. Do not jam the fridge with huge containers as it blocks the air circulation and traps heat, causing the compressor to work much harder. Remove unwanted things and place things in visible containers for quick identification, which can save the time for which the door is kept open. When the door is kept open for less time, it prevents cool air from escaping, and hence the temperature of the fridge can be maintained, this is the reason why the fridge should be organized. Also, an organized fridge can help us in finding out and removing the unwanted things that are spoiled, which could otherwise cause other items to spoil too.
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Keep your fridge full
Yes you heard it right, keep your fridge full to increase its efficiency. A fridge that is full has less air to keep the cool compressor has to work comparatively less than an empty fridge. Try keeping things to fill at least 2/3 capacity of the fridge. If you cannot find things to fill the fridge, add water bottles to fill in the spaces. When the fridge is loaded, items help each other to keep things cool, and the temperature can be easily maintained with fewer efforts.
Conclusion
A refrigerator is one of the most complex and hardest working appliances at home, so it is important to make an effort to keep it efficient which could benefit us both economically and environmentally. By following the above 12 steps, make your fridge work smarter, not harder. If your refrigerator is more than 15 years old then it is feasible to replace them with new model refrigerators with more power-saving options.
Recycling the old refrigerator can add to your contribution to a green environment. Little drops of water can make a mighty ocean similarly, small steps can make a big change. These steps increase efficiency and contribute to the environment by minimizing energy consumption and saving money. Therefore always try to make optimum use of resources around us never waste or exploit the environment around us. let’s be beneficial not only for ourselves but others too. Let’s give the future world a better environment.
