refrigerator: summer: less heat-loss? Hang wide plastic-strip inside?

[David Combs]

refrigerator: summer: less heat-loss? Hang wide plastic-strip inside?

Sometime big-box stores with cold-rooms (for milk, eggs, etc), having a two-shopping-carts-wide entrance, will hang down 3-inch-wide plastic strips to retain the cold air, but they're easy to just push your way through. We've all seen these things, yes?

Well, in the summer-time, with electricity non-cheap in these coming-depression times, with house temperature maybe 85 or 90F, every refrigerator door-opening (we work at home, so there's LOTS of those) is a big heat-loss.

QUESTION: Try that plastic-strip trick on the REFRIGERATOR?

Where to get it (them)?

How to attach?

Thanks!

David

[sligoNoSPAMjoe]

They will help, but I believe you would gain a lot more by not opening it as often and then reducing the time the door is open. The kid standing there deciding what they are going to take out is the real cause of high energy loss.

Good Luck

[Ed Pawlowski]

First of all, opening the refrigerator will not give you any heat loss. Oh, you meant heat GAIN.

What is the payback if they cost you $50 and the fridge had to be open for an hour to install them? Once installed, how long will it take you to find the item you want between slats? My guess is the payback will be measured in decades.

[trader4]

My new Kitchenaid side by side uses a whopping $90 a year in electricity to run. The 24 year old one it replaced used about $180 a year. I measured both with a kill-a-watt meter. So, I agree with Ed. You aren't going to save much at all. Compared to the hassle of having it in the way so you can't find things, it makes the whole idea a joke.

[ransley]

Not heat loss, cold loss. It sure would be butt ugly. New friges can use 75% less than 20 yr old units, my 19.5 cu ft costs about 4$ a month. Mine I picked with bottom coil and recessed it into a Foam enclosure.

rates them all

[aemeijers]

It would be a tradeoff with losing door storage space, but I wonder why glass-door residential fridges never caught on? I know even insulated glass would leak more heat than the inch or so of foam in the door, but if there are lots of people poking around in the fridge, the shorter door-open times might make up for it.

-- aem sends...

[RicodJour]

If the refrigerator were kept full it wouldn't matter as much how long the door was kept open.

There was some show or other on the tube that had a prototype frig with a digital camera built in to the door and an LCD screen on the outside. Every time the door was shut it took a picture of the contents and display it on the screen so you'd know what was inside without opening the door. Interesting idea, but it has some pretty obvious and major limitations.

R

[Ed Pawlowski]

Having your contents "exposed" may not be desirable. You'd have to keep the fridge neat, clean, tidy all the time and the neighbors would see if you drank cheap beer. I never understood the glass doors on kitchen cabinets either. The insides are utilitarian, not artistic works for display. Stacks of dishes and a jumble of glasses don't add to the elegance of the room, IMO.

[RicodJour]

As Dalton said in Roadhouse, "Opinions vary."

R

[Anonymous]

You must have teen-agers in the house. They usually open the fridge, stand there and stare...... Give 'em a piece of the electric bill every month and they'll improve. ( at least while you're watching )

As for fridge efficiency; Clean the coils/heat exchanger REGULARLY. ( we moved into a house where the fridge compresser was packed with cat hair ) Be sure you have good air flow around the heat exchanger......