The Move to Minus 15 degrees C (for freezers)
The Move to Minus 15 Degrees C campaign is well underway, asking households, shops, restaurants and hotels to join up, to help stop climate change, and also save money too. Bath’s community shop The Galleries is just one of those on board.
Cold appliances run all day, so tiny tweaks matter. Standard advice has always been to set the fridge above 4 degrees C and the freezer to minus 18 degrees C. This is because too warm temperatures spoil food, but too cold wastes energy.
It’s good to left leftovers cool before chilling in the fridge, as putting them in hot forces compressors to work harder. It’s also good to clean door seals now and then, as grime can stop them closing properly. And try if you can to put milk in the actual fridge if you have room, as opening and shutting doors just keeps warming it up.
Why Minus -15 Degrees C?
Ground-breaking research has found that by raising the temperature at which frozen food is stored and transported from -18°C to -15°C we can change the world by:
- Saving 17.7 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide per year (the same as annual emissions of 3.8 million cars)
- Creating energy savings of around 25 terawatt-hours
- Cutting costs in supply changes by 5 to 7%.
The minus 15 degrees advice was given almost 100 years ago, but things have changed since then. For a start, modern freezers have better technology. Morrisons supermarket have already got on board, by turning up the temperature of many of its freezers.
One supermarket on board (unsurprisingly) is Iceland, which the campaign says is three times more carbon-intensive than ALDI and LIDL, due to nearly all foods being frozen.
But of course all big supermarkets could do better. 70% of England’s sold apples are now imported, and of course these (and pears) are frozen in central distribution houses, until transported to stores. What temperature are they being stored at? It would also save them money.
