Yellow EnergyGuide stickers, how accurate should they be?

What is the PF?

I don't know who put the stickers on and does the test, but around here one of the consumer magazines tested heatpumps and refrigerators, 3 out of 4 heat pumps were no where near as efficient as they should according to their energy classification maybe not so surprising they all came from the same chinese manufacturer with a different badge. for refrigerators about half the brands were not as energy efficient as they should be

they also tested washing machines alot of them only heated the water to well below what they were set for, which of course makes it a lot easier to claim it is energy efficient

the suction and discharge pressure on the compressor is going up and down with the refrigerant cycle and temperature

-Lasse

Looks pretty close to 1 on the scope (voltage and current in phase) and the smart meter corroborates it pretty well. This digital power consumption display is just about the only smart meter advantage I can see right now ;-)

Not sure where the limit is but I think it wouldn't have gotten the energy-star rating with a lousy PF, so I guess they sprung for the proper capacitor.

Whoops, now we may be getting to the ground of this. So they can test in self-certify fashion, no accredited lab required?

The compressor looks exactly like the one on the previous freezer that died, standard Chinese edition I guess. Except that it is noisier. Who knows, maybe that's the price to pay for better power factor. The old freezer made no audible noise at all except for a faint thermostat click.

We also got a new washer. That thing is amazing, has a variable frequency motor drive and all that. In the US washer have both a hot and cold intake. I never understood why many European ones don't. Although the one I had in an apartment in Scotland did. That cuts the total wash cycle time by a lot and saves money because you do not have to heat the water electrically.

The 53 year old fridge next to it doesn't do that. But it also doesn't make those table fountain gurgle noises. Of course we better not talk about power factor for that one. I guess in 1958 hardly anyone new what PF is, or cared :-)

White/14977102

Could be undercharged, bad compressor, bad expander ... What did you expect from Walmart?

File a complaint:

Well, they only sold it, Subeam (or MC-something, whoever owns that trademark now) made it. So far stuff from Walmart was fairly good. I am typing this in front of a 27" monitor I bought there. Not a single bad pixel.

Ok, I didn't want to go quite that far but unless folks here say "that's normal" I am going to contact the mfg about it.

I have no idea how it is done, but some where along the way someone cheated maybe they have a golden unit they ship for testing?

I've often wondered that too, especially with hot water bein rather cheap here since it is district heating from a local waste incineration plant, a local power plant and a local cement factory

They have started to show up but afaik they are pricy

guess it could be the difference between using a Thermostatic expansion valve a capillary tube.

-Lasse

Why don't you get a Kill-O-Watt or PowerAngel and measure it for a month. Of course you can't open it during the test. ;-)

It's too bad those EnergyGuide stickers aren't printed on thiner paper.... :)

-mpm

How do you know? I have a Walmart monitor that has two bad pixels.

John

How thick are the walls? Probably a lack of insulation. It's a price/performance thing. What do you expect for Wallmart.

Cheers

Walls are 1-1/2" or so, just like the old one. It does keep the cold in pretty well. In a test it took a whole hour to get from -3F to -1F.

Tried it with white screen, green screen, blue, red. No bad pixels. But again, Walmart is only the merchant and not the manufacturer or brand.

I probably got one manufactured on a Friday.

John

I was looking around for that monitor and didn't find it. Then I realized I had given it away (along with computer, keyboard, mouse, etc) to a needy schoolkid neighbor. It is serving a good purpose, dead pixels and all!

John

Oh, I see the better ones are ~4" thick. This would greatly affect efficency.

Cheers

That was in the really old days. Our 1958 Bosch fridge has walls that thick but none of the younger ones ever did. Also, if it was any bigger I couldn't get at my TV distribution rack anymore :-)

They seem to have the thermostats on the nervous side these days. The temp stays within a range of +/-1F. That may be the reason for the frequent cycling. No idea why it has to be this precise, maybe some new law. Of course, they do not have any alarms that the temps where too high because of a power outage. Now that would have been too practical I guess.

...and if the walls were thicker you wouldn't be able to put as much beer in it.

From what I've been told, the frequent cycling helps the efficiency. They really want it running 100%.

Into the freezer? I can already hear it. *FOOMP* ... POP ... *BANG* :-)

If they'd put VF drives in there they could. Frequent cycling is not so good for the compressor.