We have two refrigerators - the regular one in the kitchen, and an extra one in the garage. This came about by happenstance, since we owned a refrigerator when we bought our house and the previous owner left us a refrigerator when we moved in. The refrigerator we inherited from the previous owner was an older model, and we moved it into the garage, where it housed extra frozen meals, drinks, large bags of flour and rice, etc. A couple of months ago, the old refrigerator began malfunctioning. It still worked, but somewhat unreliably, and we decided it was time for it to go.
I checked the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power website for information on how to dispose of our refrigerator and discovered that they provide free pick up for working refrigerators as an incentive to reduce energy consumption. The pick up even comes with a $35 rebate and 6 free compact fluorescent light bulbs.
Marc and I decided that we use our second refrigerator enough to warrant buying a new one. In fact, without our second refrigerator, I wouldn't be able to do Dream Dinners. LA DWP also offers a $65 rebate if you replace your old refrigerator with an Energy Star rated refrigerator. A basic Energy Star refrigerator turned out to be about $100 more expensive than a basic non-Energy Star refrigerator, but we figured that would be offset by the $100 total rebate from DWP and should result in savings on our electric bill.
It's been about 5 weeks since I sent in the rebate form and we haven't heard anything yet, but the DWP website indicates it takes 6 to 8 weeks to process a rebate. I'm optimistic things will go smoothly because we didn't have any trouble a few years ago when we installed new low-flush toilets in our house and received a $100 rebate per toilet. If you plan to install any new appliances, check with your power company to see if there are any incentives (for instance, LA DWP also offers rebates for high efficiency washing machines).
Note: If you're interested in the toilet rebate program, act quickly. The DWP website indicates the rebate program is being terminated at the end of the year.
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