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About 10 years ago my parents gave us a Sears horizontal freezer they'd had in their garage, and had no further use for. It's now around 55 years old and still

About 10 years ago my parents gave us a Sears horizontal freezer they'd had in their garage, and had no further use for. It's now around 55 years old and still running with all the original parts. I don't know what the thing would cost in current dollars if built today to the same standards. I don't even know if you could build it today to those standards, or that it would make sense for anyone to pay for a freezer that will last a half-century. But I would like to think so.

chrismorgan 7y ago
Have you compared its power efficiency with equivalent recent hardware? Watts turn into dollars quickly—even as little as 1 W more all the time is 8.76 kW over the course of a year, which, picking an arbitrary electricity price of 20¢/kW, is $1.75 a year.
- crankylinuxuser 7y ago
  What is the cost of decommissioning soon-to-die hardware like this? Right now companies arent required cradle to grave handling, so quick disposal is prioritized. There is no such thing as away, so watch what we put there.
  - Paperweight 7y ago
    That's a really good point. Companies being required to buy back their products when they die should align the incentives to solve the problem, which is essentially one of unhandled economic externalities. Has anything changed in Europe since these kinds of laws have been put in place? In Canada, we have a fixed environmental disposal fee slapped on certain classes of electronic products. I wonder if that fee actually makes the problem worse because it makes high-durability manufacturers subsidize their planned-obsolescence competition!
  - cr0sh 7y ago
    One big concern would be freon recovery, for old refrigerator, freezer, and HVAC systems.
- beart 7y ago
  $1.75/year doesn't sound like watts turning into dollars quickly to me, when a freezer costs several hundred to replace.
  - rrss 7y ago
    That's per year per watt, though. A fridge made prior to 1990 probably uses 1000-1500 kWh/year, and one made more recently probably uses 300-500 kWh/year. There's $70+ per year.
    - userbinator 7y ago
      ...and a 1930s GE Monitor Top uses less than 250kWh/year, with ones from the 40s and 50s also in that range. Frigidaire truthfully advertised its "Meter-Miser" compressor (which is 1/8HP, or ~93W) as using less power than a 100W lightbulb. Having done most of the restoration of one, I can confirm that power usage. If it ran 24/7 that would still be ~800kWh/year, but it doesn't run continuously so actual consumption is far less --- at a more typical 50% duty cycle it would be closer to 400. Once I get it completely back together and reinsulated I can check. Energy consumption shot up in the 60s and 70s with things like automatic defrost heaters and thinner insulation (because power was cheap and it made for more interior room), and then decreased again gradually after that due to environmental regulations. But the ones before that are a lot more efficient than most people think.

chrismorgan 7y ago

Have you compared its power efficiency with equivalent recent hardware? Watts turn into dollars quickly—even as little as 1 W more all the time is 8.76 kW over the course of a year, which, picking an arbitrary electricity price of 20¢/kW, is $1.75 a year.

crankylinuxuser 7y ago
What is the cost of decommissioning soon-to-die hardware like this? Right now companies arent required cradle to grave handling, so quick disposal is prioritized. There is no such thing as away, so watch what we put there.
- Paperweight 7y ago
  That's a really good point. Companies being required to buy back their products when they die should align the incentives to solve the problem, which is essentially one of unhandled economic externalities. Has anything changed in Europe since these kinds of laws have been put in place? In Canada, we have a fixed environmental disposal fee slapped on certain classes of electronic products. I wonder if that fee actually makes the problem worse because it makes high-durability manufacturers subsidize their planned-obsolescence competition!
- cr0sh 7y ago
  One big concern would be freon recovery, for old refrigerator, freezer, and HVAC systems.
beart 7y ago
$1.75/year doesn't sound like watts turning into dollars quickly to me, when a freezer costs several hundred to replace.
- rrss 7y ago
  That's per year per watt, though. A fridge made prior to 1990 probably uses 1000-1500 kWh/year, and one made more recently probably uses 300-500 kWh/year. There's $70+ per year.
  - userbinator 7y ago
    ...and a 1930s GE Monitor Top uses less than 250kWh/year, with ones from the 40s and 50s also in that range. Frigidaire truthfully advertised its "Meter-Miser" compressor (which is 1/8HP, or ~93W) as using less power than a 100W lightbulb. Having done most of the restoration of one, I can confirm that power usage. If it ran 24/7 that would still be ~800kWh/year, but it doesn't run continuously so actual consumption is far less --- at a more typical 50% duty cycle it would be closer to 400. Once I get it completely back together and reinsulated I can check. Energy consumption shot up in the 60s and 70s with things like automatic defrost heaters and thinner insulation (because power was cheap and it made for more interior room), and then decreased again gradually after that due to environmental regulations. But the ones before that are a lot more efficient than most people think.