Older Refrigerator how do you check the amount of energy

It's using... My friend has an older refrigerator from GE and we aren't sure if it's the reason her LIPA bill is so high..

General Electric TBF14DBB

I know one way of testing it our self but if we can find it online it would be cheaper then buying one of these...

Re: Older Refrigerator how do you check the amount of energy

There is no way to check unless you have it metered. There are too many variables that a reference online wouldn't be able to tell you.

That device can be bought for like $20 bucks on amazon, and it's quite handy and definitely worth it. I own one and I use it to check all my items out. It has given me a ton if info about things I thought were energy hogs and things I thought weren't, but were.

Re: Older Refrigerator how do you check the amount of energy

We have one of the meters that straps around our meter outside and we have a digital display inside.

its by blueline innovations.

it works really well

Re: Older Refrigerator how do you check the amount of energy

If you do get a kill-a-watt meter, newegg.com will typically have it on sale for $18.99 with no tax and free shipping (right now it's $14.99 plus $5.99 UPS ground). Just remember that your fridge isn't always "on," it kicks on once the temperature gets too high, so you don't want to get an instant reading, you want a reading over a day or so and even that won't be the most accurate because how often the fridge kicks on is also going to depend on the temperature outside of the fridge (ambient air around the fridge will be hotter in the summer).

If your fridge is old, it's likely sucking up a LOT of juice. I replaced a 21 year old GE fridge with a new one given to me free by LIPA and my electric bill plummeted.

To determine the age of your GE fridge, take the serial number from the plate that's probably located inside the door and go to this site: http://www.applianceaid.com/age_usaGE.html

And after typing all of that :p, I decided to just go to the energy star site and found out that your fridge was likely made in 1981 or 1982 and is sucking up more juice than my old one is using. I would HIGHLY recommend replacing it.

Go to http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?fuseaction=refrig.calculator and put in your model number (leave off the last B because that just signifies that it's a bisque color).

Before buying a new fridge, check out LIPA's REAP program... even if you don't qualify for the fridge because your income isn't below their standards, they may let you slide in (I didn't exactly qualify): http://www.lipower.org/residential/financial/reap.html Schedule an in-home energy audit and someone will come by and check out your fridge, give you free CFLs, and check a few other things for you. Call 1-800-263-6786 to schedule an appt.

Message edited 8/11/2009 8:17:50 PM.

Re: Older Refrigerator how do you check the amount of energy

Re: Older Refrigerator how do you check the amount of energy

It could be even more than that now because it's probably not running at it's peak efficiency since it's so old and I don't know if the energy star site is taking that into effect.

Re: Older Refrigerator how do you check the amount of energy

Re: Older Refrigerator how do you check the amount of energy

Re: Older Refrigerator how do you check the amount of energy

I looked at that wrong.. It's $193 per year to run...

Re: Older Refrigerator how do you check the amount of energy

My number came out a little lower than the $193/year (don't remember exactly), but my electric bill dropped considerably more than that when compared to the same month in the previous year. I did also do a few other upgrades to save on electricity, so I can't tell exactly how much I saved, but the fridge switch was by far the biggest upgrade.