Refrigerator energy efficiency standards and derivative programs such as product rebates,early replacement incentives, and the ENERGY STAR label are credited with dramaticallyincreasing the efficiency of new refrigerators over the past few decades. This improvement hascontributed to a reduction in total energy consumption of US domestic refrigerators relative tothe peak in the mid-1980s. However, per household, US refrigerators still consume more energythan in any other country, and nearly three times as much as when refrigerators first achieved'saturation' in the US. This paper distinguishes two conceptual frameworks in whichrefrigerators circulate: one focused on technical—product-level—efficiency improvements, theother on averting global climate change through large absolute reductions in energyconsumption. This paper argues that success in the first realm does not guarantee success in thesecond.Technical insights gained in the course of eighty years of refrigerator design have notmanaged to offset the increased overall energy demand due to growth in the number ofhouseholds. What makes absolute reductions difficult is the compatibility of energy efficiencystandards and programs with continuing growth in refrigerator size, in the number ofrefrigerators per household, and in their average level of energy-consuming features. Togetherthese three non-demographic trends make up about 75% of the nearly five-fold increase in totalrefrigerator energy consumption since the late 1950s. Without recognizing and reversing thegrowth in this portion, reducing GHG emissions from refrigerators in line with IPCC goals willnot be possible.
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