ENERGY BOOMER

Shut That Refrigerator Door!

Written By John Westenhaver

Your mother almost certainly told you to "shut that refrigerator door!" when you were a kid; mine certainly did. There is something magnetic about the refrigerator; my kids will open the door and stand there, mesmerized, patiently waiting for inspiration to strike and tell them what they want to eat.

Echoing my mother, I generally shout, "Shut that refrigerator door; you're letting all the cold out!" Being me, however, I also wonder; just how much cold is being let out? That is why, last night, I enlisted the aid of my youngest daughter, a stopwatch, and a digital thermometer for little science experiment.

Here's what I discovered: Opening the refrigerator door at all raised the temperature inside by about 1 degree F. Leaving the refrigerator door open for 15 seconds raised the temperature inside by 4 degrees F  and leaving it open for 30 seconds raised the temperature by 6 F. Every appliance is different, of course, so your results may vary if you want to check this for yourself; but now you can answer the question when your smart-aleck kids (or grandkids) ask.

Just for reference, according to various experts, refrigerators should be set at 35 to 38 degrees F.

This is a guest written article by our friend John Westenhaver from the energy conservation blog Energy Watcher.

 

Click here for a free money saving report titled HOW SAVE MONEY ON YOUR NEXT HEATING BILL

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SAVE ENERGY IN YOUR KITCHEN

Written by Thomas R. Newman, Energy Engineer

Some would say that The Energy Guy should stay out of the kitchen. Let’s just say that these are things my Mama told me, and I ran the numbers and she was right. Thanks Mom!

1      Vacuum the refrigerator coils about twice a year to keep the compressor running efficiently.

2      Make sure the refrigerator is level, so the door automatically swings shut instead of open. If the floor isn't level, use shims to prop up the front of the refrigerator. And Mom kept saying: KEEP THE DOOR CLOSED!

3      Use smaller kitchen appliances whenever possible. Microwaves, toaster ovens and slow-cookers (Crock Pots)can use 75 percent less energy than a large electric oven.

4      Run the dishwasher only with full loads, and use the air-dry cycle. If your dishwasher has a "booster" water heater, use it; this will heat the water to the 140 degrees recommended by manufacturers. And you can set your water heater to a safer and an energy-saving 120^o.

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This money saving tip falls in the category of small improvements, that add up over time, to save you money.

Some cooks can tell when the bake goods are done just by using their sense of smell, the rest of us use a timer. If you are like most folks when you roast or bake something in the oven, you set a timer to remind yourself to check it when you expect it to be cooked.

I know at our house, when the timer alarm goes off, the first reaction is to open the oven door and look at what ever is cooking. The next action is to organize a search party to find the big kitchen fork. When the long handle fork is located, the food in the oven gets poked a few times to see if it is done. This is usually followed by taking the food out of the oven for closer inspection.

If the cooking directions were right, the food is done and ready to eat. The next step is to prepare the food item for serving and the very last action taken is to shut off the oven. You did remember to shut the oven off right.

Let’s step back and change the program.

When the kitchen timer alarm goes off the first action should be to shut the oven off. Then open the door to look inside. This stops the heating element from drawing more power or gas from your bank account, while you decide if the food is ready to eat. Opening the oven door will cool the oven temperature sensor and the heating element will come on, almost right away, unless you shut it off first.

If you decide that the food needs to cook 5 minutes more, quickly put it back in the hot oven. Wait for it to finish cooking without turning the oven back on. Wait one extra minute since the oven will not be as hot as it was.

A hot oven will coast for a long time allowing you to finish the cooking with the oven off. I know that last minute seems like an hour while you wait for something good to eat.

Why change, you ask?

That big heating element in an electric oven costs you about 9 cents for every 10 minutes that it is on. Natural gas ovens cost a penny or two less, but the principle is still the same.

How many minutes of oven heating time can you save a month? It will show up as savings on your energy bill. The savings depends on how many batches of goodies you bake in a month.

I really like oatmeal cookies and those healthy one’s made with applesauce instead of sugar. Plus, I like….. You know I don’t think I’ve meet a cookie that I did not like. Then there are apple pies, blueberry pies, pumpkin pies, homemade bread… Yes, you are right I am spoiled.

Click here for a free money saving report written by the Energy Boomer titled HOW SAVE MONEY ON YOUR NEXT HEATING BILL

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CLEAN YOUR REFRIGERATOR TO SAVE ENERGY

When I say clean your refrigerator, I am not talking about eating up all those leftovers. The part that I am talking about is the functional part on the back that is up against the wall. For some refrigerators the only time they get cleaned back there is when it is time to move or a favorite toy rolled under the beast.

Cleaning the back of your refrigerator is a once a year task to keep it operating at full efficiency. The grid of small tubing attached to the back of the refrigerator is called the condenser. It is the way the machine gets rid of the heat that it removes from the food storage and beer cooler part.

The object is to clean the condenser so air can flow freely around those tubes. Pet hair, dust bunnies and lint can slow down the removal of the heat making the compressor motor run more than needed. That wastes energy and your money.

Here is a list of the tools you need to do a good job of it.

Vacuum cleaner

Duster brush or vacuum brush attachment

A cotton rag or the sock that is hiding behind the refrigerator

Spray Window Glass Cleaner

Trash bag

Before you start, look inside the refrigerator to see what is going to tip over when you shove the refrigerator around.

Step One Pull the refrigerator away from the wall and unplug it. Pulling the plug and moving the cord out of the way will make the job easier and safer. Pick up all the toys and missing socks that hid back there. No, I do not know why socks hide behind the refrigerator they just do. Stick your hand inside the sock and use it as the rag in the next step.

Step Two The condenser will be the radiator-looking part on the rear of the refrigerator. If you have a pet, expect to see a large amount of animal fur on the condenser.

If a lot of dust, lint or fur is present then clean off with a dry rag (sock) and dispose of it in the trash bag. We suggest using the rag method first to avoid clogging up the vacuum hose.

Use a brush or vacuum cleaner to remove any buildup on the condenser. The brush attachment of the vacuum cleaner works particularly well at this point. The brush will allow you to get in between all the fins and remove the dust hiding there.

Remember, the condenser is made of thin tubing and is full of a high-pressure gas. So be gentle. If you break the tubing, a simple cleaning could turn into an expensive repair.

Step Three Use the rag and spray cleaner only if there is sticky greasy stuff that will cause the dirt to stick. Since the condensers job is to transfer heat, any residue left by a cleaner could make it less efficient. Do not use furniture polish (example lemon furniture polish) or a dust removal spray. They would leave a waxy residue that will end up attracting more dust.

Step Four Use the vacuum to remove dust from the cover that is near the bottom rear of the refrigerator. It is covering the area where the compressor and electrical components are located. It will usually have ventilation holes in it where dust can hide. While your are bent down there, do the floor too.

Step Five Vacuum the floor and the area where the refrigerator normally sits. Vacuum the sides of the refrigerator. If there is a kick plate floor level grille, at the front of the refrigerator, vacuum it also. Do not remove the kick plate to clean. Some are very difficult to re-install. Once they are off, they tend to stay off.

Step Six Plug in the refrigerator and push back into place. Look inside the refrigerator and see if you were right about which items were tipped over.

Add up your score In the space of a few minutes, you have accomplished a number of objectives.

You have:

1. Removed a major accumulation of dust from your home

2. Made the refrigerator operate more efficiently

3. Lowered your electrical bill

4. Found those missing toys and socks.

Take a break you earned it.

Now that you know how easy it is, you have to add it to your spring cleaning list of items to do every year.

Click here for a free money saving report written by the Energy Boomer titled HOW SAVE MONEY ON YOUR NEXT HEATING BILL

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Which is better Freezer Stuffing or Freezer Blocking?

I have been thinking about stuffing the empty space in freezers with jugs of water. Folks all over the internet keep saying that filling the empty space in a freezer makes it more efficient.

This makes no sense to me, as an engineer! The power needed to freeze something is related only to the weight of material and the energy needed to change water into ice. The power, to keep stuff frozen, depends only on the amount of heat that sneaks into the freezer, not on what is in the freezer. The keep it cold energy does not depend on how full or empty a freezer is.

It has been suggested to me, that my thinking is off.

When I think freezer, I think of the chest freezer out on our back porch that has a top lid that opens for access. Most folks think of the freezer section of their stand up refrigerator that is typically located in the kitchen.

If you stand in front of the monster in the kitchen, wearing your bare feet, you feel the cold air fall out of the freezer when you open the door. Yes, warm air moves in to replace any cold air that fell out on your toes. That warm air does need to be cooled down from house temperature to near zero F (-18C). That does take some energy, but air is not very heavy and cools down easily.

In doing some research the only manufactures instruction that I found suggested loosely packing new items in a freezer until they are frozen hard then packing it all tight together.

Freezing water jugs uses energy

Bottom line: Freezing jugs of water in a partly full freezer to make the food stay frozen longer in case of a power failure is good, but it does not save energy. The frozen water can also be used as emergency power failure drinking water when it thaws. You should replace the water with fresh every few months.

It will cost you more energy to freeze the water. You will NOT Save Energy by freezing water to fill empty space in your freezer.

Pack the frozen water bottles around the sides of a freezer. Keep the perishable food in the middle for maximum power failure protection.

Freezer blocking is a money saver

Freezer blocking is filling the empty freezer space with sealed boxes of insulation. This is a good idea. You are adding insulation that can save energy, if it is packed around the sides if the freezer with the food in the middle.

Make your own freezer blocking boxes yourself. Just stuff fiberglass or other insulation into a box, seal it with freezer tape and, poke it into your freezer. Fit it in between the walls of the freezer and the food. If you have lots of empty space, you can use milk jugs filled with foam packaging peanuts. Empty plastic milk jugs will work almost as well.

The best types of materials to use are things that do not absorb water. Water or frozen water makes poor insulation and is not sanitary to have close to your food. Cardboard boxes can be used until they get wet. Use what you have but throw it out if it gets wet.

Blocks of solid Styrofoam would work just fine but they tend to break apart when handled.

Children's toy Jumbo Foam Blocks would work for freezer blocking.

In a stand up freezer, filling the air space with insulating freezer blocks will stop the cold air from falling out and wasting energy. Make your freezer blocks out of lightweight material to prevent injury when they fall out and hit your bare toes.

If you have a chest freezer, throwing a blanket or two over it will help keep it cold especially during a power failure.

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We use our smoke detctor to tell us when dinner is cooked. When the alarm goes off the steaks are done. The only problem is the neighbors hear the alarm and start arriving with knife and fork in hand. Providing steaks for all the neighbors is expensive.

Using a good vent fan that moves the smoke from the kitchen to the outdoors stops the smoke detector from going off. Now the only hungry visitors we get are the down wind neighbors that smell the steaks cooking.

In the heat of summer the kitchen vent fan helps remove the excess heat from all that cooking. It is also very helpful to get the excess moisture out of the house. The air conditioner works hard enough to move the heat out and reduce the humidity in the house without the added kitchen heat and steam.

The problem with the kitchen vent fan is that every lung full of air that is pushed out of the house has to be replaced. When you push indoor air out of the house an equal amount of outdoor air sneaks in to replace it. You can not stop it. You can not have a vacuum inside your house.

When it is bitter cold outdoors in the winter you might not want to invite any of that cold air in. Avoid using the kitchen fan when it is either very cold or very hot and humid outdoors. Running the kitchen vent fan in extreme weather will add to your heating or air conditioning bills.

The kitchen vent fan is great to clear the air but avoid wasting energy by over using it. Shut it off as soon as it has done its’ job.

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SAVE ENERGY IN YOUR KITCHEN

The kitchen is my favorite room in the house. It is also a big energy user. The way you work in your kitchen can lower your energy and water bills and help the environment. Small changes aimed at reducing kitchen water and energy waste will make a big difference in your bills.

When you are washing dishes by hand, fill one basin with warm soapy water and the other with cold rinse water. This uses less water than leaving the water running while rinsing. If you don’t like this idea, use a sprayer to rinse the dishes. Get one that shuts off with a spring-loaded valve. When I suggest to my wife that she should only rinse the inside of the pots and pans she squirts me with the sprayer.

Do not pre-rinse dirty dishes before hiding them in the dishwasher. If you need to rinse the dishes before loading them into the dishwasher, use cold water. Hold off running the dishwasher until it is full.

Turn off the heated drying cycle switch. Let dishes air dry. If your dishwasher does not have a switch, turn the control knob “OFF” after the final rinse. Prop the door open a bit, so the dishes will dry faster.

Microwave ovens are great energy savers. Microwave ovens use only one-fifth as much energy as conventional stoves.

Microwaves are by far the most efficient way to cook small portions. I think that they are great for making hot snacks in the winter.

Food cooks faster and uses less energy, when placed on the outer edges of a rotating tray rather than in the center of the microwave.

Food cooks faster and uses less energy, as the surface to volume ratio increases. What do I mean by that? If you spread food out in a thin layer it cooks faster than if it is in a thick lump in the middle of the microwave.

During hot weather, using the microwave reduces heat build up in the kitchen reducing the load on your air conditioner.

When using a gas or electric oven try to reduce the number of times you open the oven door. Each time the oven door is opened, it looses about one fourth of its heat.

Match pot size to burner size on your stovetop. Heat is lost and energy is wasted if the burner is bigger around than the pot.

Clean range top burners and reflectors to better reflect the heat to where it can be used.

Put a lid on those pots. Lids hold the heat in and save energy.

On electric stove tops use flat bottom pans to make full contact with the heating elements.

If you cook with an electric range, you can turn OFF the burners or oven before the cooking is finished. It takes several minutes for the heating elements to lose their heat.

You can save on your energy bill by avoiding cooking on the range or in the oven by using a crock pot or slow cooker. They put just the right amount of heat just where you need it to get the job done.

Saving water and energy, while you are in the kitchen is good for your cash flow and good for the environment.

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