Your old refrigerator may be costing you more money

Source: Dominion Virginia Power

Did you know that old refrigerator in your garage could be adding more than $100 to your annual energy bill? Through its new Residential Appliance Recycling Program, Dominion Virginia Power is making it easy for customers to recycle their old refrigerators and freezers. Dominion will pick up and recycle appliances at no cost and customers will receive a $50 incentive for participating.

“Refrigerator efficiency has improved dramatically in the past 20 years,” said Ken Barker, vice president of Technical Solutions at Dominion. “Homeowners oftentimes don’t realize how much their old refrigerators may be impacting their energy bills. We not only want to educate our customers on this lesser-known source of wasted energy, we want to help them do something about it.”

The Environmental Protection Agency encourages consumers to shift to Energy Star appliances which are over 15 percent more energy efficient than appliances built according to 2009 regulations. Energy Star estimates that out of approximately 170 million refrigerators currently in use in the United States, more than 60 million are over 10 years old. When kept in a hot garage or exposed to the elements, these older refrigerators consume even more energy. To find out how much it costs to run your old refrigerator, visit Energy Star’s Refrigerator Retirement Savings Calculator.

To qualify for Dominion’s appliance recycling program, refrigerators and freezers must:

• range from 10 to 32 cubic feet in capacity,
• be at least 10 years of age, and
• be operational and empty at the time of pickup.

To participate:

• Residential customers in Virginia can enroll online at www.dom.com/appliancerecycling or call 1-844-685-7462.
• Dominion’s contractor, JACO Environmental, will call the customer to schedule a pickup date and time.
• Following the pickup, the $50 check will be mailed to the customer. Customers are eligible to recycle two qualifying appliances per account over the life of the program.

After appliance pickup, Dominion’s contractor will disable the unit, recycle the applicable components, and properly dispose of the refrigerant chemicals.

The Residential Appliance Recycling Program joins 12 other Dominion programs that promote energy conservation. For more information, visit www.dom.com and search energy conservation.