My mom recently bought a brand new refrigerator to replace a ten year old one. The old fridge is still running pretty good so she intend to keep it and put it in the garage. However, the problem with doing this is that the old fridge is not energy efficient and it would cost her more to keep it than to purchase another new one.

Her utility company is Southern California Edison and they are offering $35 rebate for recycling the old fridge with free pick-up. I’m not sure if other utility companies are offering this kind of rebates. According to SCE, not only that my mom can receive the $35 rebate but she’ll also enjoy approximately $280 in annual energy savings! So that would be a total of $315 savings in the first year alone. And guess what, my mom can use that savings to purchase another low cost fridge that is energy efficient should she need another one! The cheapest fridge at Costco is only $325.

So the question is “How would you know when to get rid of the old fridge?”

The best way to find out is to determine how much would your savings be by using the Energy Savings Calculator provided by Energy Star. Energy star is  a joint program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy helping us all save money and protect the environment through energy efficient products and practices.

In my mom’s case, she is wasting approximately $280 with the junkie refrigerator. The new regrigerator only cost her $600. My mom would recover the cost of the brand new fridge in just two years time! Not only that she enjoy the savings, she would have helped the environment as well!

Photo Credit: Dean Franklin