Recycle Your Fridge

By: Jennifer Brite, This Old House online

If you're ready to take part in the program, here are a few Energy Star fridges for you to consider

LG's new 4-Door Refrigerator (set to be released this month) has two refrigerator doors at eye level and two bottom freezer drawers, the top for everyday items and the second for longer-term storage. The unit also has a nearly 1-foot-high ice and water dispenser. It retails for between $3,199 and $3,499.

Available in stainless steel, black, and white, this side-by-side refrigerator from Electrolux features Wave-Touch Electronic Controls, which light up at a slight touch and fade away after a choice is made for an uncluttered display. Other highlights include a 9-inch-tall water and ice dispenser and an alarm system that activates if there is a power failure, the door is left ajar, or the internal temperature rises above 56 degrees for 20 minutes. It retails for between $2,199 and $2,999.

ge french door bottom freezer refrigerator

French door bottom freezer refrigerators are gaining in popularity, and this is the first model GE is offering for the mass market. With a 26-cubic-foot interior, it isn't lacking in storage space, and a dual-evaporator system controls air separately in the fresh-food and freezer compartments. Without an ice and water dispenser, it retails for between $1,599 and $1,799.

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You've probably been pining for that energy-efficient fridge for awhile (especially considering if your current model was built before 1993, it costs at least double to run than new Energy Star-rated models of the same size), but throwing away your old one isn't exactly eco-friendly. To address the problem, the Department of Energy has announced its new Recycle My Old Fridge Campaign. Check out RecycleMyOldFridge.com to figure out how much your inefficient current fridge is costing you, compare those costs to an Energy Star appliance, find a recycling program in your area along with contact details, and enter the Recycle My Old Fridge Video Challenge for a chance to win a trip for two to Washington, DC.

The campaign was launched in conjunction with new Energy Star guidelines released April 28, which state all standard-sized refrigerators must be 20 percent more efficient than the federal standard to qualify. (Under the old system, fridges only had to be 15 percent more efficient.)

Interesting facts:

• If you ditch your pre-1993 fridge, you'll save enough on energy costs to buy coffee for nearly 80 days.
• If every American home replaced its pre-1993 fridge with an Energy Star model, we would prevent annual greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to those of more than 8.3 million cars.
• If everyone who buys a new refrigerator in 2008 chooses an Energy Star model over a non-qualified one, it would save $92 million each year in energy bills.
• Refrigerators qualified under the new Energy Star guidelines use less energy than a 75-watt light bulb left on full time.

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