With the electricity bill soaring, every extra watt we use at home counts, since it translates into a electricity cost plus to be added at the end of the month.
We have already seen which are the electrical appliances that consume the most energy in our homes, being one of the ones that spend the most on the refrigerator, not because of its instantaneous power consumption, but because they are operating continuously to cool the food that we put in it.
With consumptions that rarely exceed 200-300 watts, the key with these appliances is that they are on 24 hours a day, which represents up to 18.9% of total spending.
Is it possible to reduce this consumption in a simple way? Below you have four simple but effective tricks with which to help you in this task and with which you can scratch a few euros at the end of the month.
Always have it full to the brim
The refrigerator cools its walls which in turn transfer this cold to the elements in its interior receptacle. If there is nothing stored and we have it completely empty, what gets cold is the air, an element with a small thermal inertia that loses cold quickly and is susceptible to sneak out of the fridge as soon as we open the door.
Hence, it is convenient to keep the inside of the fridge and freezer as full as possible. In this way there will be less air that can escape when opening the door, losing the cold and with it all the effort and electrical expense of the machine to lower the temperature inside.
Some of you will think that you are few at home and that you never have enough food to fill it to the fullest. It does not matter, in these cases you can resort to the helpful trick of use water bottles of different sizes or soda cans with which to reduce the number of holes available. The more metais there will be less gaps and thus less loss of cold each time you open the door.
Select a suitable temperature
Modern refrigerators often offer control knobs that allow you to select very precisely what is the temperature we want to have inside.
This selection will depend on the one hand the good food preservation, but also the electrical consumption of the appliance, since each extra degree that we lower will mean a longer operating time of the compressor and with it a greater expense for our electricity bill.
It is recommended that the refrigerator be kept at a temperature around 4-5 degreesAlthough occasionally, if we want to store some more delicate food, we can lower it slightly or better yet place that food in the lower part of the refrigerator, which is where it is always colder.
As for the freezer, it depends on the type of food we store, but in general with have it at about -16 or -18 degrees It is more than enough, although our model can reach -22 or -24 degrees it is not necessary to put it at such temperatures.
Maintain it well every year
The refrigerator is basically a heat exchanger. It generates cold inside at the cost of emitting heat to the outside through heatsinks that are generally located at the back of the device.
The most modern models come with these racks covered by a plastic and there is not much to clean, but the older ones and those of lower ranges usually have these clearly visible. rear racks that tend to fill with dirt making it difficult to emit the heat generated by the compressor.
It agrees clean them at least once a year to facilitate this function and thus improve heat exchange while reducing the electrical cost of the refrigerator.
It is also convenient that you check that the weatherstripping surrounding the door are in good condition. They are the main insulators of the equipment and they are responsible for not escaping the cold or entering heat from the outside. If they are in bad condition you can try to fix them or if your model allows you to change them by asking the manufacturer for new ones.
Check that the interior light is LED
Until less than ten years ago the internal lights of the refrigerators were almost all incandescent type or at most low consumption. Nowadays they usually ride LED type, which have a lower consumption but also have an additional advantage.
LEDs hardly generate heat and therefore they do not reduce the internal cold of the refrigerator each time they are turned on. It may seem like a small thing, but depending on the power of the bulb and how long you have the door open, the temperature reached can be considerable, forcing the machine to turn the compressor on again to lower it.