The Garage
Like all garages our is full of all kinds of things like garden equipment, tools, bikes all the kind of stuff that isn't allowed to live inside the house.
Most of the electrical stuff in there is used as and when required, like power tools, mower etc. However some things have to be plugged, like the freezer.
Our freezer is a Norfrost Aura C6AEW-H with an energy rating of "A" but its was quite badly frosted up and had a lot of empty space, both of which cause it to use more electricity. The seals of the freezer also needed a clean.
The garage is also home to a number of things permanently on charge. This includes an electric scooter, 2 cordless drill batteries, a car battery booster and a large halogen torch.
Changes Made
Firstly we cleaned the condenser coils behind the freezer. These don't work so well when dusty. People on the internet say dirty condenser coils could use up to 30% more power.
The coils also give off a fair bit of heat so we moved the freezer 20cm away from the wall to let it escape faster.
To make sure the lid was shutting properly we did the paper test. If you put a piece of paper between the freezer lip and the lid, when the lid is shut it should grip it tight enough so you cant easily pull it out. On the left hand side ours didn't grip quite as well as on the others, so the hinges were tightened to make it grip better.
Next we defrosted it and cleaned up the seals before putting the food back in.
To fill up the gaps we've started to fill them up with old plastic milk bottles filled with water. So now the freezer is freezing its contents rather than a lot of air trapped inside. As the air makes a break for freedom every time the freezer is opened it means the freezer has to cool down the air again.
Finally using old bits of cardboard and polystyrene we had lying about in the garage we built a freezer jacket. Think like a hot water jacket but to keep the cold in. This has added another 3cm of extra insulation which we hope means it uses less power.
For the things that are permanently on charge some of it are things that are needed as and when. Its no good realising you need a torch only to find it hasn't been charged and the same applies to the power tool batteries. But on the other hand it seems a waste to have them on all the time so we have put them on a timer that comes up for an hour a day.
Estimated Savings
The week prior to the above the freezer used 3.03kwh of electricity, the first week after the above it used 3.36kwh and 3.13kwh it the second week.
So not off to a great start as its costing us more now than it did before.
However we think some of that can be put down to the fact that at the moment its having to freeze the water in the milk bottles which are being used to fill up the gaps.
We will continue to monitor the consumption over the next few weeks now that the freezer is nearly full.
Before being put on a timer the things on charge used approx 2.27kwh per week, now they use 0.09kwh a week. That works out to be a massive 96% saving or something like £19 per year or 46.5kgs CO2.
What else do we plan to do?
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Look at ways to off set the CO2 produced by our cars.
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Look at ways to reduce our gas consumption.
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Look at ways to reduce our electricity consumption.
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Look at ways to reduce our water consumption.
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Work out what our Carbon Footprint is after we have done the above.
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Find out how to recycle more and monitor just how much we do.