I live in a dorm on campus here. As such, I very rarely cook for myself and equally rarely buy food items which absolutely need to frozen or refrigerated. However, I do have a mini-fridge in my room and often fill it with unnecessary items such as snacks, ice, and fun beverages. Refrigerators are among a number of unfortunate appliances which must always be on and always operate at a relatively constant level of power consumption. Thus, I imagine that by turning off my mini-fridge for the rest of the quarter, I could save quite a bit of energy.
When I do buy foods that need to be frozen, I will use a communal refrigerator and calculate the amount of energy I use in that process. At the end of the quarter I will compare the amount of power I’ve used in communal refrigerators to the amount I’ve saved by turning off my own. Additionally, I may also do research on the environmental damage my refrigerator might cause – though refrigerants these days are far less harmful than they used to be, they must still have some impact on the atmosphere.
April 22, 2009 at 10:03 pm |
Fabulous! Refrigerators are wasteful and this is a great PSP to bring up their impact on the environment. I have a huge gripe with the old refrigerators that are shipped to developing countries to store medicines. They are SO wasteful and it requires an enormous amount of energy to power them… but at the same time, they do provide medicine. Tough choice.
Anyhow, look forward to seeing your results!
June 4, 2009 at 5:48 pm |
Looking back on it, I didn’t really find my PSP difficult at all. I didn’t effect any hugely significant lifestyle changes, nor did I have to log a great deal of data. However, as I mentioned in my presentation, I think this is really the best way to encourage people to think green: the less work one has to put in, the more likely they are to be environmentally conscious.
Of course, this project is not at all applicable to people who don’t live in large complexes like I do. For those who live in houses, a refrigerator to store food is essential. I’m not sure how to reduce refrigerator electricity usage in a house without buying a new, low-energy model (http://mtbest.net/chest_fridge.html), but I’m positive some great ideas are floating around out there.
I guess it’s always bothered me a little how wasteful refrigerators are. I’m pretty sure I will be getting rid of mine for next year, since I’ve already seen that I don’t need it.