The shopping is in the kitchen, waiting to be put in the fridge. Many people ask themselves the question: Can the refrigerator door remain open the entire time when you're putting it away or is it better to close it between each move?
Background: Refrigerators can be real energy and cost guzzlers. To ensure that your appliance's consumption does not increase when you put away the groceries, it makes sense to turn off the refrigerator and the…
Filling organizers with the right tactics.
Save electricity on refrigerators
To ensure that the refrigerator doesn't cause your electricity costs to skyrocket, there are a few things you should consider before opening and closing the door. First of all, you should not place the device directly next to the stove or heater. Because the adjacent heat has to be compensated for by the refrigerator. Clogged ventilation slots also cost extra energy.
If you want to store your food in the fridge for the next day, make sure it is completely cool. This means that the refrigerator does not have to draw extra electricity for cooling. It's also worth always having a full fridge. Because a fully packed device usually uses less energy. This is mainly because there are fewer air spaces between the food that can fill with warm air.
The question about the door
There is no way to avoid opening the refrigerator door every now and then. But while some say it makes sense to leave it open for a longer period of time, others dispute this and close the door occasionally.
Stiftung Warentest addressed this phenomenon back in 2014. Two experiments tested which actions increase electricity consumption. In the first experiment, the testers opened the refrigerator door less often, but left it open longer. During the second run, the door was opened more frequently but remained open for a shorter period of time.
The results showed: If the door remained open longer, power consumption tended to increase more than in the second attempt. When putting away your groceries, this means that if you close the door every now and then, you use less energy.
However, it should be noted that all refrigerators differ in their energy class or device type when it comes to power consumption. Added to this is how often you use the refrigerator and how old the device is.
