Out with old refrigerators and freezers, in with new, more efficient units -- and the campus is saving an estimated $12,000 a year in electricity costs.

This is the payoff so far from a Davis Campus program to rid labs and break rooms of freestanding refrigerators and freezers made before 1990. The program began in March, and, as of September, 70 of these appliances had been replaced and 39 had been taken out of service.

They represent nearly 27 percent of the campus's estimated 400 freestanding refrigerators and freezers manufactured before 1990.

"The program is clearly successful," reads a September memo from the Office of Resource Management and Planning.

Program expanded

The program was supposed to end Dec. 31, but Interim Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Barbara Horwitz has extended it until June 30, 2009, and expanded its reach to include 200 refrigerators and freezers made before 1995.

To encourage departments to get on board, the university offers the following incentives from central campus funds: up to $400 per unit toward the purchase of replacement refrigerators and freezers, and flat payments of $200 for each unit that is taken out of service without replacement. The university also pays for all disposal costs.

Expenses for the first 109 units came to $46,200. With electricity savings of $12,000 a year, the campus will get its money back in less than four years.

And, by using less electricity (an estimated 138,000 kilowatt-hours per year), the campus is reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 110,000 pounds a year, just for the first 109 refrigerators and freezers.

Horwitz launched the program with a $200,000 allocation, and does not plan to add more. With expenses so far of less than $50,000, that leaves more than $150,000 to cover the extension and expansion.

Of the first 109 refrigerators and freezers to be replaced or disposed of, the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences accounted for the most: 25. The School of Veterinary Medicine had the next highest total: 19.

Other participants: College of Biological Sciences, 15; Facilities Management (ORMP), 13; School of Medicine, 9; College of Engineering, 7; Student Affairs (vice chancellor's office), 5; Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies, 3; Office of Administration, 3; Mathematical and Physical Sciences, 2; and Social Sciences, 1. Shared refrigerators and freezers accounted for the balance.

On the Net

UC Davis Refrigerator-Freezer Replacement Program: www.ormp.ucdavis.edu/fridge-freezer

"Range of savings in rebate program" (Dateline article, March 14, 2008): dateline.ucdavis.edu/dl_detail.lasso?id=10145