Good Hardware Tools

On Mon, 04 Jan 2021 04:09:06 -0800, Rick C wrote:

> On Monday, January 4, 2021 at 4:03:54 AM UTC-5, Brett wrote:
>> Mat Nieuwenhoven <mni...@zap.a2000.nl> wrote:

>> > Well, I've measured the fridge's energy use for 25 days. Extrapolated
>> > to a year it used 118 kWh, let's say 130 because in summer our
>> > kitchen is warmer.

>> Times 11 cents a kWh in Texas that&rsquo;s about 14 dollars a year if I have
>> done the math right. Never going to be cost effective to replace.
>> 
>> Can I assume no kids at home as that could multiply the result by four.

Indeed no kids at home normally. But the result doesn't get much higher
even then. I saw a minor increase over the festive season when it was 
used much more.The cooler door bleeps if is it is open for longer than a 
short time (a minute or so).

>> > It ran 38% of the time. If I take freezer and cooler volume together
>> > (330 liter), then it comes out to 0.39 kWh per liter per year.
> This is a very small refrigerator, approx 11 cu ft.  But even so, this
> energy usage is very, very low, about 13.5 watts. 

You mean on average over the year if it were running continuously? White-
good equipment like a fridge or washing machine in the EU must be 
specified in kWh/year based on a prescribed use pattern. Our model is 
specified for 167 kWh/year. It was not even the most efficient in the 
catalog, there were other considerations too. It is this model without 
the no-frost:
https://home.liebherr.com/en/deu/products/household-appliances/floor-
mounted-appliances-for-households/freestanding-fridge-freezers/details/
cnp-4813_89392.html

I guess for most households here this is upper middle class fridge/cooler 
with vertically stacked cool/freeze section. About 60 cm wide which is a 
standard here for kitchen cabinets. You can buy side-by-side freeze/
coolers, but they are much less efficient and not many people have the 
space for it. Those who want a large freezer frequently have a box-type 
(lid on top) freezer in the cellar of garden shed. Our kitchen is 
250x250cm exactly, and I guess that is about normal for standard houses.
But you don't really need much storage because the supermarkets are 
usually close (walking or bicycling distance). I guess if you buy things 
once a week for the whole week you'd need more. But if we have a three-
course meal for 9 persons, indeed space is tight.

> When you open the
> door and the light bulb comes on the energy use quadruples.

3.6 W according to my power meter. The light is a bright LED at the top 
front shining downwards, which illuminates the cooling section very well. 
But even on older fridges we had the bulb was only 5W or so.

> I believe > he already said his unit has no defrost cycle, so that 
alone makes it > very different from 99.9% of the units sold in the US.

The cooling section doesn't need one, because it's minimum temperature is 
+ 1 centigrade, and like I wrote before, there is no air connection 
between freezing and cooling sections. We could get almost the same model 
with no-frost in the freezer section, but it used like 50% more energy, 
and that's not worth it for us. There's not much ice accumulating there 
anyway.

> Even so, I find the numbers to be surprising.

Energy efficiency is very important here. Most people would pay 23 
eurocent/kWh . In test of consumer organizations energy use is a major 
point for any product. Cheaper models are usually worse on energy use per 
liter. I don't think there are double-door models that rely on airflow 
from freezing to cooling section.

Mat Nieuwenhoven