The first week after we moved into the house, we came home to a warm refrigerator. It was so warm, in fact, that it melted the plastic housing around the two 60W bulbs. Needless to say, we weren't happy as the fridge is only just over a year old. We were very busy, so we called the repair man. He came out and found out that one of the door switches went bad. He fiddled with it, reassembled it, and it worked again. He gave me the part number to order the switch and we left it at that. I never ordered the switch...
About a week later, it happened again. At that point, I just pulled out the bulbs and that was that. It was a bit of a pain trying to see stuff in the back, but overall it wasn't horrible living without a light in the refrigerator. I was kind of surprised. The only problem was at night, we had to turn on the light in the room to see stuff in the fridge, and even then it wasn't easy to see things in the back.
So, I decided to put lights back in. It just so happens that I had picked up two LED nightlights from the store about a week earlier. They are the exact size of a normal nightlight with the small screw in base. Thankfully, I got two converter bases with the purchase of
another set of 40W CFLs.
So, as it sits now, the LED lights are always on. I'm not sure how much electricity they draw, but its not even enough to register on my kill-a-watt. They aren't the best at lighting the fridge, but at night its no problem to see what you are doing. Best of all, they put off next to no heat at all. They'll work until I can get a new switch.
Here are some pics.
Here is the melted cover that used to be over the two 60W bulbs.
LED nightlight and converter base.
Daytime fridge view. You can see the scorch marks and melting again from the 60W bulbs. BTW, it felt odd leaving the doors open long enough to take a few pictures.
Night time fridge view. The shadow would be my cousin's daughter running around while I took the picture.
