My
fridge sucks. It sucks energy
, and it sucks the life out of my veggies.
It's a
clunker - think "beer fridge
in my pal's basement" and you're probably thinking of the right kind of refrigerator. I don't know what vintage it actually is, except OLD
. The darn thing doesn't seem to keep anything fresh - if I buy anything that comes in bunches, like spinach or lettuce, I'm almost guaranteed to be throwing some of it out. I
hate that - it makes me feel guilty. And irritated that I've wasted perfectly good spinach that I paid for.
On the other hand, shopping for fruit and veg every single day is a bit tiresome. In the last few years, it's been fairly easy because of my flexible graduate-student schedule. Lately though, I've been busier and the time it takes to maintain a stash of fresh produce is getting to be a bit of a bore.
But, wait! It's not
all about
MOI. Did you know that refrigerators use the most energy
out of any household appliance?
According to the David Suzuki Foundation,
A 2002 Energy Star refrigerator uses less than half the electricity of a standard 10-year-old model. Geez, we're letting Nanticoke pump all that air pollution into our city air for this?
So, my fridge contributes to poor air quality, food waste, and my own personal frustration. Sadly, I live in a rental unit and don't have a whole lot of control over the appliances in it... I have a feeling that as long as it seems to be colder inside than out, nobody will be replacing it anytime soon.
3 comments:
I feel your pain! We hate our fridge too, it's either freezing the lettuce and whatever else we have in there or else the milk is going bad b/c it's too warm! - there does not seem to be an inbetween. As you say, it's one of the downfalls of renting, it's hard to demand the most up-to-date energy efficient appliances. Don't even get me started on the insulation (or lack thereof) in our place!
You could always buy a new fridge (with that grad student salary) and take it with you when you leave, but it's a major outlay and I can't even imagine getting it up those stairs. We're lucky that although we rent, our landlords fitted the place out with good appliances (including a front-loading washing machine -- woohoo!)
simone: I won't get started on ehating issues either. That may be a wintertime post...
Don't even talk to me about washing machines! ;) The trek to the laundromat is another thing that's getting to be a bit of a bore...
*goes off to look up energy efficiency info about washers and dryers currently in use at said laundromat just in case that's worth complaining about too*
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