"Martin" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 25 Jan 2007 14:59:26 +0100, Tim C. wrote:

Following up to K :

"Rupert (W.Yorkshire)" writes


If you believe saving energy is important then I can assure you that
brand
new white goods (Fridges/freezers/washers etc) are considerably more
efficient than 10 year old models.

If you're starting from a position of needing a new fridge, yes.

How do the calculations go when it's a choice of
a) using the old one another 5-10 years, compared with
b) manufacture a new one 5-10 years earlier than otherwise, and dispose
of the old one 5-10 years earlier



From New Scientist Print Edition 12 May 1990

"To a householder, the power used to cool food may seem modest: after all,
even a large fridge-freezer costs only about 12 pence a day to run. But
there are more than 30 million fridges, freezers and fridge-freezers in
British homes, which between them consume more than GBP 1 billion worth of
electricity in a year. The average demand on the national grid, measured
at
consumers' meters, is at least 2000 megawatts, the equivalent of the
continuous output of two large power stations. If these two power stations
generate electricity from coal, Britain's fridges and freezers are
responsible for emitting about 15 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year
into the atmosphere...."

and...

"...Going one better, Britain could replace its existing stock of 30
million fridges, freezers and fridge-freezers with state-of-the-art
appliances and run the lot on just 200 megawatts. This means that we would
not need about 1800 megawatts of power and that we could therefore avoid
building about GBP 5 billion worth of power stations and infrastructure."


What the cost of disposal of the old fridges would be is anybody's guess.

What about the comparative cost of buying supermarket vegetables, some of
which
have almost circled the earth and been frozen and stored against storing
your
own home grown vegetables in a deep freeze?
--

Martin


Surely we need to make a comparison of the environmental cost and not a
financial cost. The two things should not be mixed up.