
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, July 1, 1993                   TAG: 9307010185
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Kansas City Star
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

MEET THE COOLEST WINNER OF THEM ALL

The year is past and the battle is won. That kitchen cornerstone, the refrigerator, has a new standard.

A refrigerator that uses less energy, is friendly to the environment and won't cost a dime more than less efficient models is on its way to the marketplace, courtesy of Whirlpool and 24 utilities reluctant to build more power plants.

The utilities that last year hatched the Super Efficiency Refrigerator Project ended their contest Tuesday by saying Whirlpool had beat out Frigidaire. Whirlpool will get $30 million for its model, which slashes energy consumption and does not use a refrigerant containing chlorofluorocarbons or CFCs, which deplete the Earth's protective ozone layer.

Whirlpool will use the money to subsidize the new model so it will cost no more than similarly sized and equipped models that use more electricity. It will be sold early next year in some areas under the company's Whirlpool and KitchenAid brand names and under Sears, Roebuck & Co.'s Kenmore brand.

One store quoted a current, comparable KitchenAid at $1,550.

Refrigerator makers, including Whirlpool and Frigidaire, said many of the innovations spawned by the contest, such as improved insulation and better compressors, soon will start showing up in other models as well.

Whirlpool initially will produce a 22-cubic-foot, side-by-side model with automatic defrost and a beverage dispenser in the door. The company plans to sell 250,000 of them by 1997.

Most of the improvements are hidden. A more efficient compressor is used, and a pipe used to drain defrost water is bent to prevent warm air from moving back up into the unit, said Whirlpool spokeswoman Carol Sizer.

The result of the improvements - big and small - is a refrigerator that beats by at least 25 percent the federal government's standards for refrigerator energy efficiency this year. Whirlpool will not say by exactly how much.

A 25 percent energy savings on a 22-cubic-foot model would save the average customer about $20 a year. But savings increase dramatically when you make comparisons with older and more inefficient models. In the 20 years before the contest, energy efficiency for refrigerators has increased 50 percent.

The contest also was an acknowledgement that energy efficiency is a tough sell if it is not subsidized.

"Our research doesn't show that consumers are willing to spend extra for energy efficiency," said Whirlpool's Sizer.

by CNB