Yesterday I went to Sears to check out the refrigerators I had been researching all week. I had narrowed my choices down substantially by picking 1. Energy Star 2. Top Freezer 3. Icemaker 4. 18 cubic feet and 5. White. Sears narrowed my choices down substantially further by offering something that fit all of those criteria and selling it for only $500 with free delivery. Nobody else could come close. Lowes had a Whirlpool, which I would have rather gotten, but it was a hundred dollars more and they would have charged for delivery.
Category: Uncategorized
799 Refrigerators
I have been thinking about replacing my old brown refrigerator for a long time. But, because it works fine (even the icemaker), I haven’t been in a hurry. I read something about refrigerators using more electricity than anything else in the kitchen and I knew that the era of brown refrigerators couldn’t have been that interested in efficiency. I found a website run by Energy Star that can calculate what your old refrigerator really costs you compared to a current Energy Star model. Mine is so old that I didn’t think they would have my model, and they didn’t (at first), so I entered the cubic feet and guessed at the year as being before 1980. It said I could save $250 a year. That didn’t seem possible. Later when I entered the model of my refrigerator without hypens, I found some similar sounding refrigerators made by GE from 1980 to 1984 and guessed I could save more like $100 per year. Still, not bad. (Follow up: I wound up saving almost a third of my electricity, at least $200 a year).
Water Use Down by One Third
With the bathroom renovations complete I was able to eliminate leaky faucets and toilets. Also the new toilets are low flow (2 gallons compared to probably 5) and the new showerhead is also lower flow (I used to have a great showerhead, so good that when I had to stop using the one shower due to leaks, I moved the showerhead to the other bathroom; I forgot to ask for it back during the makeover).
Anyway, my water consumption dropped from a 3-year average of 1650 gallons per month to only 1050 gallons per month on my last statement. I wasn’t sure if that would hold up over time, but I got my new statement today and it was 1150 gallons, so the savings seem to be holding up. However, that only amounts to about $5 per month in savings.
FOPAB Q4 Update
I think my e-mail system blocked this when I sent it to John on September 23 and I didn’t make it in to FOPAB. But here is what I wrote:
After many years of telling Susan “I wish you could be here” when we went on family vacations, she finally got to go. She found a house sitter to take care of all her animals, plus my Katie while we were gone. Austin (who doesn’t get along with Susan’s cats) stayed with a friend who pampers him beyond belief (scrambled eggs and cheese for breakfast and her two sons take him for walks almost all day long). The trip was a lot of fun and it was great spending time with everyone in the house, at the beach, and by the pool. Susan and I went to Busch Gardens and enjoyed the roller coasters there despite our first try being rained out. Susan even said she’d be willing to vacation with us again!
Digital Camera for Mom
Mom asked for advice on digital cameras. Consumer Reports had just published an article on them, so I used it as a starting place and checked some stuff on Amazon. Because she likes her Canon SD100, she is leaning towards the SD800IS, which I guess is what I would choose too.