Showing posts with label usage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label usage. Show all posts

How Much Power Does a Refrigerator Use

Today's post is going to be on a question that I get asked almost on a daily basis.

How much Electricity or Energy does my refrigerator use?  


Well I'm going to try to help give you a general idea on that.

I tested a couple refrigerators I had at the shop today and this is what I found.  Most refrigerators that are over ten years old are running about 200 watts of electricity when the compressor and fans are running.
Most newer refrigerators within the last five years or so are running anywhere from about 125 - 140 watts of electricity.

Now the compressor and the fans are going to cycle on and off throughout the day.  On average the refrigerator will run roughly 50% of the time.  So using the numbers above, an older refrigerator is like leaving a 100 watt light on in your house 24 hours a day.  Newer refrigerators are like leave a 60 - 70 watt light on 24 hours a day.

Newer refrigerators are definitely more energy efficient that older ones.  Other factors that will affect these numbers are of course going to be the lights in the refrigerator.  They use power when you open the doors.  Another thing that will affect energy usage is the defrost cycles of the machines.  On newer refrigerators the defrost cycles are run only when they are needed instead of every 8 hours or so.  This will result in some energy savings over the course of a year.  Most defrost heaters will draw about 300 watts of power when they are on.

Thanks for taking the time to read this post today.  The video below shows me doing some tests on the refrigerators that I was talking about in this post.  If you could hit the "LIKE" button on the video, this helps me out.  If you have any questions about this or anything else for that matter, leave them in the comment section on this blog or in the comment section on the video.  Thanks again for taking the time and have a good day!