They are everyday items in many households: magnets on the refrigerator. We will not only tell you if they consume electricity, but also what you should avoid.
Do magnets on the refrigerator increase electricity consumption? No, according to our colleagues at GameStar-Tech, Bosch and LG, as established refrigerator manufacturers, assign this to the realm of myths. The only danger arises from a sheer colony of refrigerator magnets. Then, due to the increased weight of the door, the lifespan of the hinge may be shortened. The fields of the magnets have no influence on operation.
So, while you can safely attach at least a few magnets to the refrigerator door, there are other aspects that truly increase consumption.
How can you save electricity when using the refrigerator?
At this point, we repeat what Bosch recommends for saving electricity:
Position and Cleaning
- The refrigerator should be placed with a little distance from the wall to allow sufficient air to flow past the cooling elements. If you can access the back, you should periodically clear the ventilation grills of dust.
- Additionally, the room should be dry and well-ventilated. Moreover, no large heat sources should unnecessarily heat the refrigerator. The oven should not be placed directly next to it, nor should the sun shine directly on the refrigerator for hours.
There are some basic rules for energy-efficient use of the refrigerator:
- The less frequently and shorter the door is open, the better.
- The emptier the refrigerator is, the worse, as cooling air is less efficient than cooling solid objects. If you do not want/can/must have so many groceries at home, place a block of Styrofoam or another dry, inorganic material inside. This saves electricity in the long run.
- Only place food in the refrigerator that is not warmer than the room temperature.
- If your device does not offer automatic defrosting, you should regularly defrost the device yourself.
- You can place frozen food in the refrigerator overnight. This not only allows for gentle thawing but also supplies cold to the refrigerator. This saves electricity for cooling.
The optimal temperatures
To save electricity, you should set appropriate values. Because the lower the temperature setting (or the higher the selected level), the more energy the refrigerator consumes. E.ON points out that a change of 1 degree Celsius corresponds to a roughly six percent higher or lower power requirement. They recommend:
- Refrigerator: 7 degrees Celsius
- Freezer: -18 degrees Celsius
Where should things go in the refrigerator?
LG recommends the following distribution of food in the refrigerator. Because it is not equally cold throughout, it is coldest at the bottom and warmest at the top.
- Vegetables and fruits are stored at the bottom (vegetable compartment),
- meat, fish, and sausages should also be as low as possible,
- in the middle place milk, yogurt, and cream,
- and at the top, butter, jam, and cheese await consumption.
This article has already appeared in similar form on our sister site GameStar.de.
And when you find items in the package during your next order at Amazon – it doesn’t have to be a refrigerator – that you neither ordered nor paid for, we answer the obvious question: “Can I keep this?” in the following article with the help of lawyer Christian Solmecke: What to do when Amazon sends you extra items along with the ones you ordered? We asked a lawyer
