On 1/7/05 7:29 PM, "Jim Felder" <felder@KNOLOGY.NET> wrote:

>>> 
>> Out here in the west ... The land of the coal fired power plants where
>> even
>> the hoover dam doesn�t put out enough hydro.
>> 
> 
> I picked up an August 2004 Fortune in the Dr.'s office this summer and
> read an interesting article about weaning our nation from oil. The
> author stated that the argument that more efficient electric motors
> would raise the cost of home appliances was counter-illustrated by an
> improvement made to refrigerator motors in the 1970s. Refrigerators, he
> went on to say (hope I remember this accurately) cost less now in real
> dollars than they did then, not to mention adjusted dollars, and that
> the savings in electricity from that improvement was equal to the
> annual output of the hoover dam.
> 
> Just thought you'd like to know!
> 
> Jim
> 
You probably got it right..  A breakthrough in refridgerator  compressor
technology in the early 70s that started to see production in late 70s and
on to current mods is still hailed as one of the biggest breakthroughs in
appliance technology.  Further changes in the late 80s made it even better.
An article I saw recently gave figures showing the same fridge using a value
of 100 in early 1970s used 70 to 80 in the late 70s and into the 80s with
the newest high power user fridges still in the 65 ranking against the early
70s fridge.  That is definitely a power saving issue. A sears store in 78
had a display in the store with a meter connected to a 2 year old model and
a meter connected to their newest model of the same size fridge.  Almost
unbelievable difference in the meters.  That kenmore is still sitting in my
kitchen in use.  Longest lived appliance I have ever purchased.

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jimt
Planned insanity is best.
Remember that sanity is optional.
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