Mr. Electricity ranks refrigerators & electrical wasters
by grmeyers
Michael Bluejay on his bike. Photo: Bluejay
For those wondering if they or their friends have attained the 21st century status of being electricity hogs, they might wish to get familiar with Michael Bluejay, known to many as Mr. Electricity on his website. He publishes useful information about how much electrical energy various home appliances use, and often waste. He starts off with the second biggest user, the refrigerator (The top rank goes to the air conditioner). In most homes the refrigerator is the second-largest user of electricity (13.7%), right after the air conditioner (16%). (Dept. of Energy).
Bluejay refers to his lifestyle as that of a minimalist, saying saving electricity is about more than saving money. “Saving electricity doesn’t just save money, it also saves the environment.”
He goes on to state this is news to a lot of people. “After all, when you plug something into the wall, it seems clean enough — you don’t see or smell any pollution, like you do with your car. But the pollution is there — it just happens at the power plant.”
What this means to today’s electricity gobbling homeowners involves either using less electricity in certain cases or sometimes just better, or newer appliances. Consumers can start lowering appliance electricity use by choosing more efficient appliances. With most appliances you save energy by using them less, but you can’t very well do that with your fridge. The main way to save money with your fridge is to use an efficient model.
