Efficient Refrigerators - cheap????

[East-of-lake]

Sunfrost's electric or one of the gas/propane units are very efficient but
all of them are expensive. It's a toss up whether the Sunfrost is cheaper
than buying a "normal" refrigerator and putting the savings into extra PV
capacity.

Don't any of the "mass market" manufacturers make any high efficiency
refrigerators and freezers? This isn't rocket science; a smaller compressor
with 1/4 to 1/2 inch thicker insulation would to wonders for power
consumption. Surely GE, Kenmore, etc could sucessfuly market them.

 

[Lee Smith]

Sunfrost's electric or one of the gas/propane units are very efficient but
all of them are expensive. It's a toss up whether the Sunfrost is cheaper
than buying a "normal" refrigerator and putting the savings into extra PV
capacity.

Don't any of the "mass market" manufacturers make any high efficiency
refrigerators and freezers? This isn't rocket science; a smaller
compressor with 1/4 to 1/2 inch thicker insulation would to wonders for
power
consumption. Surely GE, Kenmore, etc could sucessfuly market them.

If you look at : www.aceee.org/consumerguide/topfridge.htm
they list a few of the "top performers" including:

Sunfrost RF-16 with 14.31 cubic feet using 254 kWh/year
Kenmore 6397*30* with 18.79 cubic feet using 392 kWh/year
and many others..

Lee

 

[Ben Simons]

Sunfrost's electric or one of the gas/propane units are very efficient
but
all of them are expensive. It's a toss up whether the Sunfrost is
cheaper
than buying a "normal" refrigerator and putting the savings into extra PV
capacity.

Don't any of the "mass market" manufacturers make any high efficiency
refrigerators and freezers? This isn't rocket science; a smaller
compressor
with 1/4 to 1/2 inch thicker insulation would to wonders for power
consumption. Surely GE, Kenmore, etc could sucessfuly market them.

They do, at last european companies. They are at about 10kWh/feet^3/year
(if i have done the conversions right). This number depends on the ambient
temperature. Perhaps the european test-procedure is different than
US-test. Who knows?
--> See www.topten.ch (german). Klick on "Haushalt/Kühlschränke"

 

[[email protected]]

If you look at : www.aceee.org/consumerguide/topfridge.htm
they list a few of the "top performers" including:

Sunfrost RF-16 with 14.31 cubic feet using 254 kWh/year

....17.7 kWh/ft^3-year, or 7.2 kWh/ft^2-year, as
a 14.31 ft^3 cube with 35.4 ft^2 of surface...

Kenmore 6397*30* with 18.79 cubic feet using 392 kWh/year

....20.9 kWh/ft^3-year, or 9.2 kWh/ft^2-year.

...european companies...are at about 10kWh/feet^3/year (if i have done
the conversions right). This number depends on the ambient temperature.
Perhaps the european test-procedure is different than US-test. Who knows?

Maybe you could compare the European and US standards.

www.topten.ch (german). Klick on "Haushalt/Kühlschränke"

The most efficient at "16-38C" ambient temp is the Candy CPDC 320AA plus,
with a 253 L (8.9ft^3) combined fridge/freezer cap and a 203 kWh/year
consumption, ie 22.7 kWh/ft^3-year, or 7.9 kWh/ft^2-year.

I like the heat pump clothes dryers and drying closets. The hot air dryers
also look more efficient, at about 0.3 kWh/kg, with a 5-6 hour drying time.
The horizontal-axis washers also take longer, use less water and soap and
energy, and heat their own water. How much of this stuff would run on our
240 V 60 vs 50 Hz?

Nick

 

[Ben Simons]

The most efficient at "16-38C" ambient temp is the Candy CPDC 320AA plus,

If you have 16C or 38C makes a BIG difference I think.

with a 253 L (8.9ft^3) combined fridge/freezer cap and a 203 kWh/year
consumption, ie 22.7 kWh/ft^3-year, or 7.9 kWh/ft^2-year.

I like the heat pump clothes dryers and drying closets. The hot air
dryers
also look more efficient, at about 0.3 kWh/kg, with a 5-6 hour drying
time.
The horizontal-axis washers also take longer, use less water and soap and
energy, and heat their own water. How much of this stuff would run on our
240 V 60 vs 50 Hz?

Hmm We have 230/50Hz in CH. Hmm, interesting question.

More Frequency->Motor is faster-> dryer/machine runs faster (20%).
Probably too much for a washing machine??
More Voltage -> Heating is faster too (9%,U^2)

Since Bosch AEG,Liebherr, Electrolux etc are big companies they probably
have devices with other tensions/frequencies. Check it out.

 

[Chris Torek]

I like the heat pump clothes dryers and drying closets. The hot air dryers
also look more efficient, at about 0.3 kWh/kg, with a 5-6 hour drying time.
The horizontal-axis washers also take longer, use less water and soap and
energy, and heat their own water. How much of this stuff would run on our
240 V 60 vs 50 Hz?[/QUOTE]

I bought a Miele washer/dryer set; it works fine on 240V 60Hz but
"wants" 15 amp instead of 30 amp breakers. Miele include a kit that
plugs into the 240V 30A dryer socket and presents two European-outlet
15A circuits, each with its own breaker. The washer, at least, uses
a variable-speed DC motor with up to 1600 RPM on the spin cycle,
so the change in frequency is no problem there. (The dryer is also
electronically controlled, but has a single speed as far as I know,
so there is no reason it would particularly *need* a DC motor.)

(First machine I ever used that got the rust stains out of my old
gym shirt. But the rust chewed up the cotton fibers, so now I have
a line of small holes instead. )