> In my experience appliances are a lot more efficient and cheaper than they used to be.
turbokinetic agrees modern refrigerators are more energy efficient but at the expense of longevity and not worth it
> I am saying that this compressor, and its application, show clear engineering choices made, which sacrificed its life span in the name of some modicum of energy savings.
>turbokinetic agrees modern refrigerators are more energy efficient but at the expense of longevity and not worth it
Without numbers to back up that claim, that's just their opinion, as is mine. I my experience the energy savings have been significant enough for that to not be a big concern.
There may be an environmental argument here of course, but that's a separate argument than what consumers feel in their pocketbook.
If our goal is to minimize cost (ignoring the environmental side of things), longevity must be taken into account. If energy savings at the expense of longevity truly makes refrigerators cheaper in the longterm then that's awesome, but I worry planned obsolescence is ruining the appliance market and increasing consumer expense.
I think we're in agreement, however, I don't think an analysis has been made either way to be able to make this claim. The old appliances you see could just be due to survivor bias, while the broken ones were unceremoniously disposed of. Perhaps the old appliances were simpler and cheaper to repair, but perhaps new appliances need less repairs in the first place. Without an actual analysis this is just speculation.
A related example would be laptops and cell phones, which have become more complicated, less upgradable, and harder to repair over time (soldered parts, glue etc.). However, cell phones are now commonly waterproof, which has eliminated a major reason for replacement. Laptops basically have no moving parts other than the keyboard and screen hinge now, and stay useful much longer due to chips being really fast in the last decade.
Well, in the case of my refrigerator, I didn't do a 1:1 replacement. I got a much larger capacity one, about 30% more space, while not using any more energy (It actually uses less, but not really noticeable in my energy bill.)
My energy company gave be a multi-hundred dollar rebate to upgrade to an HE washer, so it was objectively better for my wallet to upgrade. Now I'm using less water, gas, and electricity when doing laundry. About a few hundred a year less on top of the rebate I got upfront.
The tankless water heater has no pilot light, so there's some savings there, but the real benefit was having unlimited hot water. Tankless water heaters are rated to last longer than tanks, allegedly, but I haven't had one long enough to know either way.
Incandescent to LED was a no-brainer, each pair of LED lights was about $30 at costco and use 14% of the energy. They have already more than paid for themselves, not including the money saved by needing to run the AC less.
turbokinetic agrees modern refrigerators are more energy efficient but at the expense of longevity and not worth it
> I am saying that this compressor, and its application, show clear engineering choices made, which sacrificed its life span in the name of some modicum of energy savings.