Got A Refrigerator In Your Garage? You're Wasting Money!

We had a home inspector at our weekly Realtor meeting recently, talking about the various points of home inspections and how home owners can save money.

His excellent analogy of the "spare refrigerator in the garage, holding 4 beers" being the devil was a big point.

The garage is the WORST place to have another refrigerator, due to these reasons:

• most garages are not the cleanest rooms in the house.
• rarely are these refrigerators full, meaning they work harder to cool less
• the garage is not heated and cooled, like your house is.

So, you are really asking a lot from an appliance being put in a less-than-optimal operating environment.

Consider: how much do you really have stored in that fridge in the garage? If you really don't have much, the cost to run that fridge could be as high  as $35 per month in my area - that's a whopping $420 a year to cool those four beers - so if you do have a fridge in the garage, and you're really not using it, you're wasting money.

 

Carol Zingone is a full service Broker Associate proudly affiliated with Prudential Network Realty in Atlantic Beach, FL.  I help buyers and sellers locally, regionally, and internationally.  With hundreds of happy buyers and sellers over the course of my career, I'm thrilled to help first time buyers, military buyers, seniors, investors, 1031 exchange properties, short sales and REO's.  I have spent hours honing my expertise, including the designations of Certified Distressed Property Expert (CDPE), Graduate Realtor Institute (GRI), Loss Mitigation Certification (LMC) , Short Sales, Foreclosures, REO's, (SFR), and Senior Real Estate Specialist (SRES).  Recently honored as the Realtor of the Year for the Northeast Florida Association of Realtors for 2009, I pride myself on providing excellent expertise to all buyers and sellers. Search the MLS via www.carolzingone.com  for Jacksonville and area listings!