Can I afford to replace that freezer?
Kill-A-Watt electric meter
Let’s see; our old chest freezer, though bigger than we need now, is working fine. As it has been since about 1972, actually. That is a high-quality appliance, no? Why would I want to replace it? Well suppose I bought one of those Kill-A-Watt electric meters for about twenty-five bucks. I’ve been measuring different things to get a bead on where energy is being wasted.
P3 Kill-A-Watt data from old chest freezer
I tried it on the freezer and here’s the result, written in Sharpie marker on the freezer lid. The well-made old freezer devoured 12.95 kwh in 60 hours. There are 146 60-hour periods in a year. Times 12.95 kwh equals 1,890… times the EPA standard of 10.65 cents per kwh, means that freezer costs me $201/year to operate. (Our electricity rate may actually be a bit higher than that here).
A new freezer is $300, and by the same standard uses $35/year electricity.
There’s more: Ameren will come haul the old freezer away AND give us a $50 credit on our electric bill.
So that puts the payoff right around 18 months, followed by… bacon!
This is why I think cars should have gas mileage meters instead of tachometers. Sometimes the right information can have a clarifying effect.
NOTES:
- This post has been edited for accuracy – see the first two comments.
I don’t agree with your arithmetic. Surely that should be about 200 $/yr to operate?
And 200-35=165. So 300-50 = 250 / 165 = 18 month ROI.
You’re right; I dropped a zero! Which makes it $200/yr to operate. This may be the reason my 3′d-grade arithmetic book said it was a bad idea to do arithmetic while moving a loaded freezer, all covered with dust.
Well If I have to wait 18 months for bacon, forget it. I’ll just take the new freezer back.