Posted on 04/18/2011 2:03:49 PM PDT by Sub-Driver
Time: Your Icemaker Is Killing the Earth By Lachlan Markay Created 04/18/2011 - 4:37pm
By Lachlan Markay | April 18, 2011 | 16:37
This just in, courtesy of Time Magazine: Mother Gaia is dying and your ice maker is the perp. Continue churning out ice with your automated cube-maker, and you'll be contributing to the plight of the 50 million refugees the United Nations insists anthropogenic global warming has caused will cause by 2020.
Time took a study by the National Institute of Standards and Technology showing significant energy use by ice makers and ran with it. Want to save the Earth?" the article asked. "Easy, just buy a couple of ice trays." The article goes on to educate "laypeople" (the actual phrase used) on the havoc their refrigerators are wreaking on the planet (h/t Moonbattery).
According to the just-released findings, the average ice maker in the average fridge increases energy consumption by 12% to 20%a whole lot of juice for an appliance that is in operation 24 hours a day from the moment you first plug it in till the moment you replace it a decade or more later. The reason that number was so unexpected was that the large majority of refrigerators are refrigerator-freezer combinations anywaywhich means they're freezing water and making ice no matter what. So why should the simple business of automating the process be so energetically expensive?
The answer, it turns out, is the tiny motor inside the freezing system that's used to release the bits of ice from the mold and dump them into a tray. A motor that is designed to operate in so cold a setting needs an internal heater to keep it from freezing up, and heating elements require a lot of powerin this case, roughly three fourths of the total additional energy the ice maker uses.
Certainly, on the list of big things that are responsible for global warming, the icemaker ranks a good ways behind the coal-fired power plant, but averting climate catastrophe is often a game played in increments and inches, and every kilowatt hour helps. NIST is thus urging refrigerator manufacturers to look closely at the design of their icemakers, insisting that there are "substantial opportunities for efficiency improvements merely by optimizing the operations of the heaters."
Bitchelle is going to show us how to grow our own ice in her garden
I’ve done my part to save the earth....I gave up ironing!!!
I wonder what Michelle has been using to warm her garden considering that there have been several frosts since she allegedly planted it. Harvest time should be here in a couple more weeks.
Brain Freeze
Every time I read these "sky is falling" screeds, I wonder if the author has stopped using whatever ails us before he posted the article. For instance, I would be more likely to believe Gore's view on global warming if he stopped creating so much CO2 flying around the world and electrifying his homes. I would really believe him if he intentionally stop exhaling CO2 to reduce "man-made greenhouse gases".
That reminds me...it’s time to make some iced tea. Good thing my automatic ice maker’s bin holds plenty of cubes. I like my iced tea nice and cooooooold.
The ice maker can’t keep up in the winter and today it’s in the 90s. Maybe we should install a couple more.
2020? Why it seems like just last week the UN web-site said 2010.
For no reasons having to do with this tripe, we got rid of our ice makers more than 15 years ago. My wife worked at the dispatch office of an appliance repair company, and ice makers were the number one problem call. Pretty much more than the next two or three reasons combined.
And the company loved it, because they were a high profit margin fix. Right then and there I decided I was OK with trays!
Aw crap . . . my ice maker has been broken for 2 years . . . looks like I’m gonna have to get it fixed now. . . .
I think most of this crap is just sum jerk setting around thinking up sh!t up just to see how many dumb a$$’s will go along with it
They will have to pry my ice maker from my cold dead hands!
But I need the ice to counteract all the awful effects of global warming.
Note to self: make extra ice this Friday (Earth Day).
Okay, for starters, Lachlan NEVER GETS ANY ICE EVER AGAIN. He can go first. See how it works out.
I’ve read this too. Can you cite to the specific web-site?
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