You might want to run the Kill-A-Watt meter for a longer period, like
24-48 hours. You may have hit a defrost cycle which consumes a lot of
power in a short time as heaters are activated to melt accumulated ice.
Ben.....
On 9/10/2010 11:41 PM, Jimmie Mayfield wrote:
> Hoping to tap the collective knowledge for ideas. I'm stumped.
>
> Parents have a 3-year old Whirlpool refrigerator, 21 cuft or thereabouts,
> that runs excessively. Certainly runs more often than my 7 year old Maytag.
> At first I wrote this off as simply expected behavior; thinking that newer
> Energy Star units are designed with smaller, more efficient compressors that
> run more frequently but still save money. But I think something else is
> going on.
>
> Twice my parents have had techs come out to examine the fridge on the basis
> that it was running too frequently. Neither could explain the behavior but
> one replaced the thermostat and the other replaced both the thermostat and
> the defrost controller. No change. To me, this lent support to
> my idea that the fridge was operating normally. But now I'm no longer
> convinced.
>
> Today, I lent my parents my Kill-A-Watt meter. In 9 hours, with nobody home,
> the fridge drew 5.3 KWh. That works out to 14 KWh/day or over 5000 KWh/year.
> According to a quick Google search, that's about 4x higher than what a typical
> 22cuft 3-year-old fridge should be drawing and about 10x higher than what an
> Energy Star-rated fridge of that vintage should be drawing.
>
> Neither the fridge nor the freezer are set to an abnormally low temperature
>and
> the house isn't abnormally warm (72-74 degF). I don't detect any air leaks
> around the door seal nor do I feel any cold spots around the fridge's exterior
> that would suggest faulty insulation. The fridge shipped with an automatic
> ice maker but I'm told my parents have disabled it.
>
> I don't know a whole lot about refrigerators so I'm at a loss to explain
> what's going on. Any ideas what might be going on?
>
> JM
> _______________________________________________
>
> Shop-talk@autox.team.net
> Donate: http://www.team.net/donate.html
> Suggested annual donation $12.96
> Archive: http://www.team.net/archive
> Forums: http://www.team.net/forums
> Unsubscribe/Manage:
>http://autox.team.net/mailman/options/shop-talk/bjzwissler@gmail.com
_______________________________________________
Shop-talk@autox.team.net
Donate: http://www.team.net/donate.html
Suggested annual donation $12.96
Archive: http://www.team.net/archive
Forums: http://www.team.net/forums
|