Save Energy by Filling Your Refrigerator
This may seem counter-intuitive. It would seem that if you have fewer items in the refrigerator, there are fewer items for the refrigerator to keep cool, and it should have less work to do.
Actually, that’s not how it goes. There are a couple reasons for this.
First, once you have the food cool, it tends to stay cool. If you’ve ever gone camping and jammed a week’s worth of food into a cooler, you know this works. I remember going camping once and was surprised to find, days later, that the frozen food was still frozen. All of the ice and other frozen food packed tightly in the cooler kept the food cold. On the other hand, if you had packed just one ice cube, the warm air trapped in the cooler would melt the ice in a matter of hours or minutes.
That brings us to the other factor in keeping your refrigerator cool: air flow. When you open the fridge door, you’re letting warm air from the room flow into the fridge. If the refrigerator is empty, the air can breeze right in. But if the refrigerator is fuller, the items inside block the air flow a bit. The more warm air you allow into your refrigerator, the harder your refrigerator has to work. (However, don’t pack it too full; you want a little bit of room for air to circulate for even cooling.)
Everything we said about the refrigerator goes for your freezer compartment, too. However, you can keep the food more tightly packed in the freezer so the items keep each other cold.
How else can you save more energy at home? Find out by getting a Free Energy Analysis. For more information, please call 866-284-8604.
