How to Make Your Refrigerator More Energy Efficient in 5 Easy Steps

Over time, refrigerators become less efficient resulting in higher electricity bills. Who wants that? Thankfully, there are a few simple things you can do to improve your refrigerator's energy efficiency. Here's how:

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Brush or broom
• Screwdriver (flat head or phillips head, depending on screw type)
• Hair dryer
• Cloth towel or paper towels
• Vacuum cleaner (optional)

1. Check Your Refrigerator's Temperature Control. True story: I once complained that the refrigerator kept running endlessly. So, I turned the knob to setting "8," thinking the higher the number, the lower the temperature. Wrong! It was the opposite actually. Now I have the thing set to "2," and it's working quite well.

2. Clean the Condenser Coils. First, unplug the refrigerator and pull it out from the wall. Located underneath the appliance behind the bottom kick plate, condenser coils dissipate heat as part of of the cooling process. If dirt, dust, and pet dander clog up the coils, the refrigerator won't cool properly, causing the appliance to run continuously and running up your electricity bill. Remove the kick plate from the bottom front of the refrigerator. If you cannot, you will have to tilt the entire unit up and backward in order to get to the coils. Using your brush or broom, sweep the coils clean. Alternatively, you can use your vacuum cleaner to suck up all the dust.

3. Clean Bottom Rear of Refrigerator. Using your screwdriver, remove the bottom back plate, usually a cardboard piece. Dust out all the dirt with a brush. If you are using a vacuum cleaner with a hose extension, be sure not to suck up water from the drip tray up into the vacuum. Been there, done that; and what a mess it made. Replace back plate.

4. Remove Ice-Buildup From Back of Freezer. This step is more complex. What happens is that ice builds up over time around the coils underneath the cooling fan. To solve the problem, first clean out the freezer and remove back plate with screwdriver to expose cooling fan and coils. For faster thawing, hold hair dryer to back of freezer to melt ice. Dab with towel as the ice melts. When it appears ice is all melted away, dry with hair dryer for another couple minutes. Replace back plate.

5. Clean the area of dust and dirt. Push refrigerator back against the wall leaving a few inches of space for heat dissipation. Plug the appliance back in. You're done! You should begin to see a noticeable improvement in your refrigerator's energy efficiency.

Tips & Warnings

• Make sure you are aware of your refrigerator's temperature settings; i.e., "9" means coolest and "1" means warmest. Around 3 or 4 is the preferred setting.
• Clean the condenser coils underneath your refrigerator every six months for maximum efficiency. You'd be surprised how quickly dust builds up under there.
• Unplug your refrigerator before working on it.
• If you use your vacuum cleaner with hose extension to suck up dust from the back of the refrigerator, be sure not to accidentally suck up water from the drip tray into your vacuum. All the dust in the dust cup gets wet and it gets pretty messy.

Resources

• HomeTips.com: How To Clean Refrigerator Coils
• AAA-Appliance Parts.com: Refrigerator Basics: How They Work