cover image: Stronger Refrigerator Standards Are a Must to Save Consumers Money, Protect the Climate

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Stronger Refrigerator Standards Are a Must to Save Consumers Money, Protect the Climate

24 Jan 2023

Stronger Refrigerator Standards Are a Must to Save Consumers Money, Protect the Climate JANUARY 2023 Federal efficiency standards for residential refrigerators and freezers have not been updated in more than a decade, even as energy-saving technologies have improved. [...] A preliminary DOE analysis from 2021 found that for the popular models with freezers at the bottom, stronger standards could potentially reduce energy use for the least efficient models by more than a third—all while ensuring consumers save money overall. [...] These improvements would help refrigerators in the United States catch up to models in Europe and Japan, where the efficiency standards for refrigerators are more stringent. [...] DOE is expected to issue its proposal for household refrigerator and freezer standards early this year, with separate efficiency levels for different types of standard-size refrigerators (such as top-mount and bottom-mount refrigerator-freezers) and standard-size freezers (upright and chest freezers), as well as for compact refrigerators and freezers (used in hotels and dorm rooms, for example). [...] ASAP organizes and leads a broad-based coalition effort that works to advance, win, and defend new appliance, equipment, and lighting standards that cut emissions that contribute to climate change and other environmental and public health harms, save water, and reduce economic and environmental burdens for low- and moderate-income households.

Authors

Mary Robert Carter

Pages
2
Published in
United States of America