Convenience vs. Financial Reward

How many of you have a second refrigerator or freezer in your home?

And for anyone who answers “yes,” how many of you keep that appliance in an unconditioned part of the house, i.e. your garage?  And what about the age of that appliance?  Is it older than your primary unit?  I’m quite certain that there is a fair number of us with a second such appliance, and likely a majority of those are indeed in an unconditioned part of the house.  And probably even truer is the fact that many of these appliances are the older, inefficient models of our newer, classier, more efficient ones that grace our kitchens. 

You may not realize this, but the location, age, and efficiency of those second appliances all factor in to how much that extra convenience is actually costing you.  Location is critical because the wider the variation in temperature surrounding the unit, the harder it has to work to keep its contents at a consistent temperature.  Age is more obvious, as a piece of equipment ages, the harder it has to work.  And efficiency speaks for itself, but did you know that a unit older than 2001 may use up to three times as much energy as a newer unit?

 

Fortunately, there are some communities that are working hard to eliminate these energy hogs.  In fact, they are taking that one step further by actually paying, yes paying, consumers to hand over those old units so they can be removed from the market altogether and recycled.  Efficiency Vermont

is one and National Grid (serving Massachusetts and Rhode Island) is another. 

How receptive are Arlingtonians to this concept?