I know it's pathetic that at the age of almost-60, I know next to nothing about electricity. I know that compact fluorescent bulbs use less than, even if CFLs are environmentally friendly picnic. So we changed most of the lamps by Taylor Springs, NM.
I also know of phantom power, the power you have with yourself when things like TV, are "off". So, here I am writing this book, I got up and went to close the power strips and UPS TVconnected, and the fan and the power cable for satellite radio indoors. None of these devices in use during the day, when I'm home by myself, so why should pull juice.
But the only device that is running all the time, if he wants, and is the biggest energy gobblers, and the least efficient of all is - the refrigerator. We have an old Crosley, the Energy Star rating older. We have a Kill-a-Watt meter ($ 25 for all), soI do not know exactly how much electricity you use, but I'm sure that there is more than $ 100 per year, perhaps much more, and it is stupid.
I always knew that the refrigerators to the design, do not work well. You're cold by removing heat through coils and compressors and motors and fans, heat vent in the kitchen, which helps in football during the summer in the A / C. And every time the door of the refrigerator or freezer, you dump all the cold air from the device and forces him to run again.Insane.
I read about the conversion of a top-opening freezer for use as a refrigerator. Making sense: they are better than the normal stand-up fridges, insulated and because they open from the top, which remains cool to the inside instead of running on the floor. I have seen a change in use, in an off-the-grid home in Indiana, and it worked fine, but as I said, I'm not much of an electrician, I never did my refrigerator chest. Yes, they are smaller than most freezersrefrigerators, but it tends to have a lot of stuff in the fridge that could hold and must be kept in place in the pantry. And we tend to only put things in the refrigerator in all directions, a little 'organization and security do not kill us, especially if it results in a permanent savings.
So I had on my to-do-written sheet "freeze", and began poking around the internet to see if I could use a meter cheaper to convert a small freezer chest are coolingUnits, and save a bundle of energy ... and money.
And voila. In addition to Mikey Sklar and Wendy Tremayne Jehanara site, http://blog.HolyScrapHotSprings.com "Digital & homesteading do all our stuff in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico," I have a $ 49 plug-in control unit by Mikey to refrigerators, freezers, to convert. Sklar says it will reduce the energy consumption of $ 100/yr. less than $ 10/yr., the device pays for itself in about six months.
And with 200 millionRefrigerators in the U.S. alone, the savings are mammoth, both in dollars and the cost to the environment. Let's see, which is 200 times 100 million per year, which is 20 billion dollars a year in electricity, we could cut $ 2 billion, only with the installation of a plug-in into a $ 50 gadget freezer used. The need for the equivalent of a power plant or two, be easy. A no brainer, no home should be without.
By isolating the front and side, so that the room where the air intakeat the bottom, and not for the back up to where the heat is released, you can use energy more costs. Have you ever heard the side of the refrigerator, and I noticed that you can always cool down a bit '? This is because, though the walls and doors are insulated, are not sufficiently isolated, and a simple polystyrene panels and housing is certainly a useful addition.
So, as environmentalists and greedy, I finally have this conversion on my Christmas wish list. There areused a device that stores up to Raton, I go to the vet for a low cost of labor and freezer. Free or cheap at a yard sale would be good.
