It’s hot and the sun is shining. There is no longer any doubt: summer is here! Especially at this time of year, the fridge and freezer are true allies. But they also consume a lot of electricity. Here is some advice to help you save energy with your appliances.
At this time of year, we all crave ice cream, summer salads to go with our barbecue or even refreshing drinks… More than ever, the fridge and freezer are our best friends!
All year round, thanks to these electrical household appliances, we can preserve vitamins and minerals from fruit and vegetables, preserve fish, meat and dairy products in the best possible way, or even freeze certain dishes to enjoy later … It is impossible to imagine the kitchen without the fridge and freezer.
But because they are in operation around the clock, refrigerators and freezers are real power guzzlers. With a few simple measures, however, you can save energy. Discover here measures you can take to lower your electricity bill and reduce your ecological footprint.
Use less electricity with the right appliance
The choice of your refrigerator or freezer is crucial for energy savings.
Buy an appliance whose size matches your needs: the bigger and emptier a fridge is, the more energy it consumes.
- Choose an eco appliance that uses less electricity.
- Choose a fridge without a freezer compartment: it uses 20% less energy.
- Choose one large energy-saving fridge rather than two small ones.
Prefer a chest freezer: With this type of appliance, the cold accumulates at the bottom and thus there is less energy loss when it is opened.
Prefer a freezer with reinforced insulation: it has the advantage that you can keep the frozen products longer in case of a power cut.
Routine to save electricity
Once you have bought your appliance, you need to use it in an appropriate way to save energy.
- Do not place your refrigerator or freezer next to a heat source (fireplace, cooker, oven, etc.). By doing so, you will affect the proper functioning of your appliance. In addition, it requires more energy to cool.
- Do not open the door of your appliances too often or for too long: this will disturb the temperature regulation inside the appliance.
- Do not overload your refrigerator and switch it off when it is empty.
- Let a hot dish cool down to room temperature before putting it in the fridge or freezer.
- Remove all packaging from fruit, vegetables, yoghurt and other foods before placing them in your refrigerator.
Save energy with the right temperature
To save electricity, it is important that you set your fridge and freezer to a good temperature. The temperature should not be too high in order to store your food properly. But it must not be too low either, because that would lead to extra energy consumption and unnecessary costs.
The ideal temperature for a freezer is -18 °C. The temperature in a refrigerator should be between 0 and 7 °C, according to the different temperature zones in your refrigerator. If you set the temperature of your refrigerator to 5 to 7 °C, you can save 15% on electricity.
Save energy by cleaning
Even though you generally don’t like to do this kind of work, it is important to clean and maintain your refrigerator and freezer properly, not only for hygiene reasons, but also because it will save you energy.
- Check the exhaust grills regularly for dust deposits and remove them so that the air in your refrigerator can circulate freely.
- Check the tightness of your appliance: dirty or damaged seals allow the cold to escape – and therefore the energy.
- Freezers without automatic defrosting must be defrosted as soon as the ice layer is thicker than one centimeter.
Now you can enjoy all the freshness of your refrigerator and freezer while reducing your energy consumption!
Last tip 😉
