Re: [GBlist] freezer on top or bottom and energy efficiency

[deumling@socrates.Berkeley.EDU]

On Thu, 28 Mar 2002, Sacie H Lambertson wrote:
> Why is a refrigerator with a freezer at the bottom more efficient than
> those with freezers at the top?...           ...what is the energy use
> difference between placing a freezer on top vs on the bottom.  ie is it
> significant?  and what does that mean?

Bill makes some excellent points about greater size and more features
consuming additional energy.  However I think it is important to keep
our terms clear.

What most of us (I suspect) are interested in to greater or lesser
degrees is reducing the number of kWh that whizz through our meters per
day or month or year.  I think of the actions taken to achieve this as
CONSERVATION.  What the EPA uses as a proxy for this is ENERGY EFFICIENCY.

Unfortunately the way they have set it up, e.g, when you sort for
"efficiency" on the energystar.gov page, what comes out on top are not
the models that use the least amount of energy but those which under-bid
the standard for that particular model.  Interestingly those that do tend
to be large, feature-laden models because the energy efficiency standards
stipulate "credits" for them which are not granted the smaller, simpler
models.

Although there are instances where energy efficiency and conservation
result in the same thing, new refrigerators are not by-and-large such an
instance.  Greater efficiency in a new refrigerator tends to mean more
energy consumption.  Strange, no?

The new fridges which use the least amount of energy are not found either
on the Energy Star webpage or in ACEEE's guides, because both draw an
unacknowledged line at about 14.5 cubic feet-implying that there is
nothing (worth looking at) smaller than that.

Reuben Deumling



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