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Glossary of Appliance Terms
The 'E' page

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EER – energy efficiency ratio; primarily used in air conditioning, stated simply as btu/watt. The higher the number, the more efficient the unit.

Energy saver switch – One of the best sales tools ever invented, these appear mainly on refrigerators and air conditioners. Salesmen love them, because they appear to be a tool to save tons of money. In the case of refrigerators, this switch turns a tiny condensate heater on/off. One of the problems with this switch is the condensation damage that results when the refrigerator’s owner forgets to turn the switch to the ‘non energy saver’ position (actually turning the heater on). This allows mildew and rust to form on door gaskets and cabinet surfaces, which end up costing more than the approx $3/year the heater costs to operate. In high humidity environments, this switch should be ignored after you make sure it’s turned to its ‘off’ position (which turns the heater on. You should feel warmth between a refrigerator’s doors when set properly.) Even in climates whose humidity varies greatly between winter and summer, I recommend this switch be ignored. Unless you’re a highly organized person and you’re willing to include a note to change this twice/year on your calendar, this is just one less useless thing to try to remember in this busy world.

When they appear on air conditioners, most cycle the fan off when the thermostat no longer ‘calls for’ cooling. While this does save short term energy while the unit’s cycled off, it can make for an uncomfortable room with widely varying temperatures. Again, my advice is: ignore it.

ERC, EOC – ‘Electronic Range Control’ or ‘Electronic Oven Control’; these two acronyms refer to the same thing. Many modern ranges and ovens use microprocessors to control oven operation – and some newer ones even control electric surface units. I had high hopes for these years ago when they were first introduced. I expected them to provide highly accurate oven control with very low temperature ‘differential’, but they’ve been a disappointment in that area. As it turns out, a quality ‘hydraulic’ thermostat can do as well as, or in many cases better than, electronic control - a surprise. But they’re cheaper to manufacture than ‘old fashioned’ hydraulics, so I predict you’ll see the latter become pretty much extinct in the very near future.

Euro-burner – Solid cast iron electric range surface units. These have fallen out of favor in recent years, and we really don’t miss them that much <grin>. They had the benefit of providing a sealed cooktop surface, but were somewhat slow to heat up and cool down, and never really got a strong foothold in the US.

Evaporator – The ‘low (pressure) side’, cold portion of a refrigeration system, usually in the form of a coil, in which the refrigerant is boiled, or evaporated, from a liquid into a gas, absorbing ‘latent’ heat in the process, and providing refrigeration.

Evaporator fan motor – drives a small fan that forces air through the evaporator coil, where the air acts loses heat to the coil surfaces.

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