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| Is Buying a New Refrigerator
a Good Investment?
By James Cavallo, Associate Editor of Home Energy
Magazine and Principal at Kouba-Cavallo Associates in Downers
Grove, IL
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If you have an older refrigerator - particularly
one that is more than ten years old -
it may be a good idea to recycle your
old refrigerator and replace it with a
new refrigerator that complies with current
energy efficiency standards.
Below is a calculator to find out if you can buy a new refrigerator
with the energy savings from recycling your old unit. Just
fill out the tables below with the information requested.
If you don't know the energy rating of your current refrigerator
check out if it is listed in the refrigerator
database.
When you have filled in the information to your satisfaction,
click on the "Compute" button below the tables.
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| Now that you have compared the lifetime cost
of continuing to use your old refrigerator with a new one,
you need to make a decision. If it is cost-effective to purchase
a new unit, we hope that you will be a good citizen of the
earth and properly recycle your old refrigerator. Don't put
it out in your garage - you'll save nothing then! Also resist
the temptation to sell it on the secondary market. If the
energy cost is too great for you to keep it in your kitchen,
it will be a worse investment for another family to pay even
a small price for your refrigerator on top of its energy cost.
The calculation above assumes a 4 percent interest rate
and five years remaining life on the old refrigerator. If
you believe these are incorrect assumptions, click
here for a calculator that allows for changes in these
assumptions.
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