The Interest: issue #4 If you punch a hole in the side of your fridge, it will become less energy efficient. (What other personal finance newsletter is dishing out that kind of insight?). We can actually calculate how much less efficient. There’s about 0.5kg of air in an empty fridge and we’ll take a total guess that the hole would result in a full air replacement every minute. The task, then, is to cool 0.5kg of air from 70º to 35º 1,440 times per day. Doing it once uses about 0.002 kWh. Doing it 1,440 times per day for 30 days uses 86 kWh which at $0.10 per kWh would cost $8.64 per month. [Sidenote: the main cost of running a fridge is cooling the food, not the air — let those leftovers cool before sticking them in.]
Home energy efficiency 101
Home energy efficiency 101
Home energy efficiency 101
The Interest: issue #4 If you punch a hole in the side of your fridge, it will become less energy efficient. (What other personal finance newsletter is dishing out that kind of insight?). We can actually calculate how much less efficient. There’s about 0.5kg of air in an empty fridge and we’ll take a total guess that the hole would result in a full air replacement every minute. The task, then, is to cool 0.5kg of air from 70º to 35º 1,440 times per day. Doing it once uses about 0.002 kWh. Doing it 1,440 times per day for 30 days uses 86 kWh which at $0.10 per kWh would cost $8.64 per month. [Sidenote: the main cost of running a fridge is cooling the food, not the air — let those leftovers cool before sticking them in.]