• Replacing roofs is an excellent opportunity to improve energy efficiency
• Using light coloured shingles, surface coating and gravel can further add to your energy savings
• ENERGY STAR® cool or reflective roof products reduce the amount of heat transferred into a home
• Strategically planning and timing your projects together will help you achieve maximum savings
• Roof replacement time is the best time to consider a renewable energy system

An important part of any housing providers’ energy efficiency program is ensuring that major appliances are as efficient as possible. One way of achieving that outcome is to switch to ENERGY STAR® appliances.

One of the biggest consumers of energy in the home is the fridge. Although energy savings are attained at the unit level when an old unit is replaced by an ENERGY STAR® unit, the story does not end there.

Unless a fridge is taken off the market and out of use through a decommissioning process, the energy saved in one place is used in another. That means that from a community standpoint, and when it comes to reducing the effects of Global Warming, the goal has not been accomplished.

There are also other important considerations to take into account. Reducing waste streams headed for landfill is an important outcome as is reducing the amount of hazardous waste entering the atmosphere. Of these materials, one of the most dangerous in terms of environmental hazards is Fluorocarbon refrigerants.

Fluorocarbon refrigerant contained in air conditioners and refrigerators can be extremely harmful to the environment. 1kg of refrigerant emissions (R410a) has the same greenhouse impact as two tonnes of carbon dioxide, which is comparable to the equivalent of running your car for six months.

A technician that holds a Refrigerant Handling License has the training and skills to minimize the emissions of these refrigerants to the atmosphere. It is an offence for anyone else to handle fluorocarbon refrigerants.

According to the OPA, a proper decommissioning process ensures that more than 95 per cent of materials from all old, inefficient fridges, freezers or air conditioners are recycled.

In many jurisdictions decommissioning is mandatory in any incentive program. SHSC supports the decommissioning of appliances in all replacement programs.

What follows is a step by step description of the decommissioning process.

Step One

Cords are cut and thermostats are broken to disable appliances. At the processing plant, refrigerators are placed onto one of five lines of rollers. As many as 300 refrigerators can be loaded at one time. The bar code of the fridge is scanned, recording that the unit has been received and decommissioned.

Step Two

All loose plastic and aluminum is removed and separated. Plastic is later baled or crushed and recycled. Aluminum and copper are salvaged from each air conditioning unit. Specialized hoses are then attached to extract the propellants — commonly known as CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) which can be harmful to the environment. The process for freezers varies slightly. Their mercury switches are removed. (More propellants are housed in the insulating foam than in the refrigerator lines; both sources are disposed of in an environmentally responsible manner.)

Step Three

A hole is drilled in the back of each refrigerator’s compressor. The refrigerators are placed onto a “Tipper Table” so that all of the compressor oil can be collected and properly disposed of. At this point, units with polyurethane foam insulation have their compressors removed; the units insulated with fiberglass are left with the compressors inside to be baled later. Air conditioners have their covers and PCB capacitors removed and disposed of properly before they are sent on for baling.

Step Four

The units arrive at the baling machine, which crushes the remaining metal, i.e., the “shell” of the refrigerators, freezers and air conditioners.
Refrigerators are crushed four at a time into “blocks”. Refrigerators and freezers with foam insulation are baled and taken to a steel mill, where they are destroyed. Units insulated with fiberglass are baled and sent to a shredder. The material is reused.

Outcomes

Reusing, recycling, and disposing of the various components of the retrieved units means less landfill. Each refrigerator has about four kilograms of foam insulation. About 10 to 15 per cent of the weight of the foam insulation is comprised of CFC-based blowing agents. The destruction of these CFCs prevents 1.8 – 2.8 tonnes of carbon dioxide from being emitted into the atmosphere. Most of the steel produced through the decommissioning process is used to make reinforcing bars for bridges (rebar) and other useful materials.