Your refrigerator uses the most electricity
of all your kitchen appliances. It can account for as much as 15 percent of a
home's total energy usage. A typical refrigerator costs about $1,140 to operate
over its lifetime. And the older the model, the more electricity it's using. If
your present refrigerator is more than 15 years old, you'll save money on your
electric bills if you replace it with a new, more efficient unit. New models
can be as much as 50 percent more energy efficient than older refrigerators.
Refrigerators made to meet the latest DOE
standards (which will take effect in 2001) will cut consumers' energy costs by
30 percent compared to the previous (1993) standards. And a family replacing a
1972-vintage model with a product that meets the new standard will see their
utility bills drop by over $120 a year. There are super-efficient refrigerators
currently on the market that save even more. If every household in the
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Provided By the DOE