Here’s my “take” on it.

To say , as one story did, that a refrigerator, even at the outside estimate of 500 kWh/year, uses 25% of a home’s energy is ridiculous on its face.

500 kWh/year is 60 kWh/month. How many homes use 240kWh/month? Maybe a small apartment with no AC?

It certainly pays to have an energy-efficient refrigerator (maintained internally at 35-38 degrees F for the cold compartment and 0-to negative 1 degree F for freezer). But the three largest consumers of energy are furnaces, air conditioners, and water heaters. Those three pieces of equipment together consume about 3/4 of all the energy in your home. (I’m not distinguishing between gas and electric here, but these devices are increasingly all electric.)

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