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[Phys-L] The bigger the 'fridge the better.



From Sierra Club e-letter:

New Fridge? Does Efficiency Pencil Out?


Sierra's Mr. Green has the answer down cold.


New Fridge? Does Efficiency Outweigh Energy to Make It? | Sierra Club

http://content.sierraclub.org/new/sierra/green-life/2014/04/new-fridge-does-efficiency-outweigh-energy-make-it?utm_source=insider&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter

"It’s also important to note that SIZE MATTERS. You may have read my latest rant against the giantism of today’s new homes, which have bloated from an average of 980 square feet in 1950 to more than 2,400, despite the fact that families are smaller. We suffer from a similar megalophilia (love of the gigantic) with refrigerators. The proportion of bigger models has risen sharply, with the share of small ones down correspondingly, which maybe explains our obesity epidemic: The bigger the fridge, the more junk food it’ll harbor. Like cars with low mileage, this trend eats away some of our total energy savings. For example, a 17.5 cubic foot Energy Star refrigerator-freezer takes about 380 kWh a year, while his behemoth 25-cubic-foot brothers are up around 580 kWh."



My comment:


Thinking a large refrigerator is an energy glutton, and, therefore, eco-noxius is a bit simple minded. Because, inter alia, of the volume--area scaling law, a smaller refrigerator is not much more efficient. Using your example [25 ft^3--580kWh and 17.5--380], for a 53% increase in energy consumption one stores a 43% increase in volume. This means fewer trips to the store, thereby, a reduction in CO2 and a later replacement of the 'bile. Other savings follow, for example, doubling the volume of a refrigerator does not require a doubling in the cost of manufacture, price, and using of raw materials. Therefore, I recommend the larger the 'fridge', the better, especially, as many veggies have low density. Of course, ones unusual circumstances may cause an exception.

Regarding the scaling law: the 27% increase in area (heat loss proportional) results in a 43% increase in volume.

bc, prays he made no arithmetic error(s), and purchased the largest 'fridge that would fit in the space.

p.s. Quoting Glen C.’s comment, and [commenting] "I have never heard "some philosophical wizards on the right wing who argue that this forced efficiency is an intolerable violation of their sacred constitutional right to warm the globe to the boiling point" [I was kicked off a physics list for confronting a member who objected to the partial federal ban on incandescent lamps. I accused him of being an AGCC denier.] and I don't think insulting right wingers is going to get them to listen to reason. [I agree reasoned discourse is likely more effective, but when unavailable an insult may initiate thinking.] Can't we all get along? [Not bloody likely. Such ideology, like religion, is often acquired at a young age and rarely changes, OR it’s driven by short term (unenlightened) self interest.]