Penquis CAP replacing fridges for free

ORRINGTON – Chuck Graffam has always given, never taken. After working 19 years in mechanical services for a heating, ventilation and air-conditioning company, Graffam knows the meaning of a hard day’s work.

So it’s hard for him to believe that in a month his dark brown refrigerator, purchased in 1982, will be replaced for free with a new, energy-efficient one. Graffam’s bright blue eyes tear up as he sits at the kitchen table with his wife, Joan, in their modest, two-story home in Orrington.

“It’s strange to take,” said Graffam. “But this can at least save us some money that we don’t have.”

Thanks to the refrigerator replacement program offered by Penquis Community Action Program, the Graffams will save about $20 a month on their electric bill. They are one of about 3,000 families in Maine that will receive new refrigerators this year.

Refrigerators are the second largest energy consumers in homes, according to Randy Bridges, the weatherization program manager at Penquis CAP. Over the last four years, the agency has worked to provide new refrigerators for about 600 families in Penobscot and Piscataquis counties alone. Throughout the state, 11 CAP agencies participate in the program.

“There is a lot of interest in this right now with the fuel cost so high, and it’s only increasing,” said Bridges. “There are a lot of opportunities out there to save electricity and oil; things that average homeowners don’t realize.”

To be eligible to receive a new refrigerator, a household must already receive fuel assistance. They must be able to show proof that they own the refrigerator, and that it is at least 10 years old.

If a client meets those requirements, then Penquis CAP can test their refrigerator’s electrical consumption. If it uses an excessive amount of electricity – 750 kilowatt hours per year or more – the refrigerator can be replaced with a new one.

New refrigerators run at about 400 kilowatt hours per year, and cost between $450 and $700. The most common brand Penquis uses in replacements is Frigidaire. This year the agency is budgeted to replace 250 refrigerators within Penobscot and Piscataquis counties. So far, they have tested about 30.

Tom Brown, senior energy auditor at Penquis CAP, conducts the refrigerator testing, a process that takes about two hours. At the Graffams’ home, he pulled what he called their “old clunker” from an alcove in the kitchen and attached a meter to it, which measured how many kilowatt hours per year the refrigerator used.

“You can pretty much tell that if the refrigerator is a copper, gold or avocado color then it’s going to suck up energy,” said Brown. “Those were some of the colors that were popular in the ’70s.”

Brown recently went to a woman’s home to evaluate her refrigerator and discovered that it dated back to 1950. It was still running, but it was using an excessive amount of energy. This is not an uncommon situation, Brown said.

While waiting for the refrigerator test results at the Graffams’, Brown took an electrical energy audit of their home. Because the program is federally funded by the Public Utilities Commission, Brown is required to do this audit on top of testing the refrigerator. He concluded that the dryer and oven were the only other major energy consumers in the Graffams’ home.

“When I come to someone’s home, I try to look for the big savings,” Brown said, as he finished the paperwork for the Graffams’ house evaluation. “I’m only limited by time and money.”

The decision of whether a family will receive a new refrigerator is based on information gathered during the testing, such as how well the gaskets are functioning and if it is running at the proper temperature.

Clearly, the most important factor is how much energy it is consuming. At the end of two hours Brown discovered that the Graffams’ refrigerator eats up about 1,800 kilowatt hours per year. Replacing it will result in a total savings of more than 1,000 kilowatt hours, and about $150 dollars off their electric bill this year.

To the Graffams, this will make a big difference. With Chuck Graffam out of work since April because of a knee injury and Joan battling cancer with radiation treatments for over a year now, times have been tough. But the good news Brown provided seemed to brighten their spirits.

“This is a very good thing,” Joan Graffam said, smiling at her husband. “I’m hoping our luck is changing.”

Brown and Bridges see the positive effects of the program, such as in the Graffams’ case, all the time. Their hope is that in the near future it will become available to a broader range of families, since right now it is primarily offered to the low-income sector.

“Sometimes, with all the scams out there, people are reluctant,” Bridges said. “It seems too good to be true. But it’s really a great energy saving program.”