One way of reducing your electricity bill might upset Dad, but your costs will be lower – by up to 60 per cent – if you ditch the beloved beer fridge.
Graeme Ambrose, sustainability consultant with Ecodecisions - a company set up to help consumers become more energy efficient, said his idea to get rid of the bar fridge might well be controversial in some households, but the benefits could outweigh the sacrifice.
"Running the old bar fridge can make up 30 per cent to 40 per cent of your energy bill," Mr Ambrose said.
But how do you broach this sensitive subject to Dad? “I tell them in front of the wife it costs them 25 slabs a year to run it and they tend to see sense.”
Ambrose says an assumption is made in carbon accounting that a domestic fridge will lose three per cent of its refrigerant every year. Also, old fridges, even when new, were very inefficient.
“A 400 litre fridge in 1988 would, according to its energy sticker, pull 1500 kWh per year when new and a 2015 fridge of the same size will pull around 400 kWh per year. The average household uses 16 kilowatt hours a day, however, one of Ambrose’s customers reported his energy usage dropped from 30 kilowatt hours a day to 9.32 kilowatt hours a day just by turning off the old beer fridge.
‘‘Getting rid of the old fridge freezer reduced the electricity bill by 60 per cent,’’ Ambrose says, adding that convincing blokes to turn off the beer fridge is one of the toughest parts of his job. He also has to work hard to convince people to put pelmets over curtains, which some think are old-fashioned, but which are a great help in keeping heat in a room.
Interested to learn more about saving energy? Take a look at these energy saving ideas and tips.