Paulsiu
Member
Is it worth hiring a repair man to fix a 15 year old fridge or should one just buy a new one.
Paul
Paul
Is it worth hiring a repair man to fix a 15 year old fridge or should one just buy a new one.
Paul
Large appliances tend to end up going to recyclers. You aren't allowed to just landfill refrigeration gear without removing the refrigerant as best I understand. The inefficient device is going to end up disposed of anyway, it's just a matter of when.The one thing when people talk about getting rid of things just because they are no longer energy efficient as new ones, that they are missing, is where and what happens to the old ones when they are discarded? To the landfills. If people are really concerned about the environment they have to consider the gases which is emitted from those places.
Consider how much natural gas that thing wasted compared to even the 80% efficiency units of the 1990's. It probably wasn't even hitting 60% efficiency, so each year it was using at least 33% more gas than required for ~13 years. A ccf of nat. gas is equivalent to about 12 lbs/co2.I am like you, everything is so old before it is discarded. It can't be fixed anymore or parts can't be found, like on my 55 year old furnace I had replaced about 4 years ago.
Totally different issue than replacing something because it is inefficient AND runs poorly (problems the OP is facing with this one.) I agree that unless a water heater is in a death spiral there is little incentive to replacing it. As for the fridge I'm actually wondering how much it might take to repair it, assuming it is repairable.To replace things just because the given age is 6 years on a water heater is insane, it is leaks, or can't be fixed, okay.
also realize that landfills gives off toxins and their is only so much space.
No, not really. They bottle them up pretty tight anymore. Your priorities are reversed on this one. You will waste far more resources to keep some piece of junk. Take that ancient furnace for example. I'll bet it wasted at least 100 ccF of nat. gas a year, perhaps several times that. You could probably recycle the metal in it with the energy it wasted in just a year or two.
This reminds me of the folks screaming about the mercury in CFL's...when each one reduces the mercury emissions from coal fired electricity more than the mercury within the bulb. That's without even considering other toxins from electricity generation, let alone the CO2.
I'm not a fan of landfills and think we could do a lot better at reducing waste volume. However, refrigerators, old furnaces, dead water heaters, and toilets are not the sources of the "toxins" you are worried about it. Plus landfills are designed and operated to actually hold the toxins.
Don't forget the energy it took to make the appliance you're buying new.
This is awkward, but...
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