Fridge freezer

Energy efficient construction methods and insulation
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Stig
Posts: 164
Joined: Tue Jun 15, 2021 9:08 am

Fridge freezer

#1

Post by Stig »

I finally got around to replacing my 30 year old fridge freezer recently and it's made a huge difference to my electricity consumption. The old one was still working but seemed to run its compressor ~80% of the time and I'm pretty sure it couldn't really cope with the hot spell last summer. What's more, I discovered that it was using 25W even when the compressor wasn't running! :shock: (and it wasn't the light, I checked that did switch off when you closed the door)

The upshot is that my total import for June 2021 was 28 units compared with 55 units for June 2020. That's half the energy! Given that I've got PV so electricity is free for ~12hrs a day at the moment it'll be cutting my bill even more come the winter. I reckon I'll have paid for the new one within 4 years in bill savings and got more freezer space. :D
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Joeboy
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Re: Fridge freezer

#2

Post by Joeboy »

We had a similar experience when tracking down and lowering the background load on house. Those units are sneaky! I also added timers on the new units to shift demand into daylight hours. Thought being for Winter morning/days. It was very apparent when we had less battery storage and that Soc % plummeted through the night.
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Stig
Posts: 164
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Re: Fridge freezer

#3

Post by Stig »

I was amazed when I saw it used 25W doing nothing! How can anyone design a simple thermostat that does that? I'm guessing it had some auto-defrost heater or maybe had developed a fault -if so it's probably as well I replaced it before it burned my house down!

Anyway, my new smart meter shows I'm below 50W background load now (Wifi router, CH controller with Raspberry Pi, aquarium pump, MVHR and a few TV/Hifi things).
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Joeboy
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Re: Fridge freezer

#4

Post by Joeboy »

50W is an outstanding result! My average is 130W, pretty sure the Goodwe hybrid unit is most of that so nothing I can do about it..

The country could save GW's of power per week if everyone woke up to this. Need a new infomercial to appeal to self interest. 'Hey kids, u could earn an IPhone 15 by just switching s**t off, girls those light switches work two ways you know'! :)
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Stinsy
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Re: Fridge freezer

#5

Post by Stinsy »

Joeboy wrote: Sun Jul 04, 2021 10:32 am 50W is an outstanding result! My average is 130W, pretty sure the Goodwe hybrid unit is most of that so nothing I can do about it..

The country could save GW's of power per week if everyone woke up to this. Need a new infomercial to appeal to self interest. 'Hey kids, u could earn an IPhone 15 by just switching s**t off, girls those light switches work two ways you know'! :)
The problem is the majority don’t give a shit.
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dan_b
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Re: Fridge freezer

#6

Post by dan_b »

Strangely enough, my 15 year old fridge freezer packed up completely on Saturday - I had suspected it was on the way out as milk was seemingly going off in 48 hours for the last two weeks). Just ordered a new one, delivery on Wednesday.
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