Rising power bills prompts 20,000 NSW residents to give up their beer fridges

Rapidly rising power bills are causing residents to rethink the need for the old beer fridge. Old fridges are big energy users, consuming up to three times the energy of new fridges. On average, a second fridge adds $210 per year to power bills.

The award winning Fridge Buyback program provides a rebate for residents to get rid of their old energy-guzzling second fridges (conditions apply) The program is supported locally by council and has recently reached 20,000 collections “Higher power prices kicked in from 1 July. We are hearing from a lot of residents who are really stunned at their latest power bills and are looking for ways to cut their electricity use.” said David Roach, Program Manager of Fridge Buyback. Fridge Buyback, the only service of its kind in Australia, offers residents a $35 rebate and free removal by professional removalists (conditions apply). It has recently been awarded the Best Eco-Friendly Product in the 2010 Australian Business Awards In addition to saving residents money on their power bills, greenhouse gas emissions are reduced by an average 1 tonne CO2 per year, refrigerant gases are properly removed and the metals in the fridge are recycled. Fridge Buyback is an energy efficiency program that is highly valued by the community and involves 45 NSW local councils. It is supported by the NSW Government’s Climate Change Fund as part of its Home Saver Rebates To date, Fridge Buyback has:

  • Collected 20,000 fridges
  • Saved residents more than $4.2 million dollars per year on their power bills
  • Will avoid more than an 120,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions over the next few years
  • Recycled more than 1,800 tonnes of steel and copper in the fridges
  • Recovered and safely destroyed more than 1600 kg of CFC refrigerants

Fridge Buyback is targeting the big old energy-guzzling fridges in people’s garages, laundries and workshops. To participate in the program, fridges must be working second fridges that have been in regular use, are 250 litres or more in size and at least 10 years old. For more information about Fridge Buyback please contact 1800 708 401 or visit the Fridge Buyback website. Click here to see a short video about the program.

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