Who pays for the ‘beer fridge’? Evidence from Canada

The energy intensity of refrigerators varies widely across vintages. Recent improvements in the energy efficiency of refrigerators have the potential to decrease residential energy use, and in some locations this could have a significant impact on a typical household's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Among the impediments to the realization of the energy use and environmental benefits from the technological energy-efficiency gains in Canada is the fact that a large proportion of households continue to use their old refrigerators as ‘beer fridges’ after the purchase of a new refrigerator. In this paper, we use information from the Survey of Household Energy Use (SHEU-2003) to examine this phenomenon. The empirical results are discussed in the context of existing Canadian programs that target purchases of new refrigerators and the disposal of old ones.