Is it Time to Replace Your Refrigerator?

Is it Time to Replace Your Refrigerator?

Do you have an old refrigerator in the garage? Is the fridge in your kitchen older than your college-aged children? Don’t ever remember shopping for a fridge? Then it may be time for a more energy efficient refrigerator. Older refrigerators use roughly between 1,000 KWh and 2,000 KWh per year. If you’re paying 11 cents/KWh for electricity, that’s between $110 and $220 per year to run the refrigerator. A new ENERGY STAR fridge generally uses less than 500 KWh per year. That’s less than $55 per year to run it. The older the refrigerator, the more savings you get when you replace it and the faster the payback period. Appliances manufacturers were required to upgrade the energy efficiency of their refrigerators in 1993 and 1999. You can determine savings by using the Energy Star Savings Calculator.

A common refrigerator replacement scenario

Let’s say you replace your 20 year old refrigerator with a new Hotpoint 16.6 cubic foot refrigerator from Home Depot for $404. (They’re on sale as of 9-25-10.) Assume an 8% sales tax and delivery and installation charge of $75. That’s a total of $517. If you’re currently paying $220/year to run the fridge, then you’ll save $165/year in electricity costs to run the fridge, assuming an electricity cost of 11 cents/KHWh. That means your investment will payback in 3 years and one month. In some places, you can get a rebate from your utility for replacing your refridgerator. In Austin, TX for example, Austin Energy will give you $50 for your old refrigerator and haul it away for free. Here’s the payback with the Austin Energy rebate:

Cost of fridge: $436 (with tax)

Cost of delivery: $54 (with tax, minus $25 for hauling away the old fridge)

Austin energy rebate: -$50

Total Cost of fridge: $440

Payback period: 1 year, four months.

Here are a few ways to determine the age of your refrigerator.