How Many Watts Does A Refrigerator Use?

Many of us wonder how much power a refrigerator actually uses. After all, it is plugged in and required to keep our food cold, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for 365 days a year. 

That is a lot of usage and quite frankly, the most used appliance in your entire household. 

In this article we aim to break down a refrigerators power usage and how you can potentially lower it by following some actionable steps.

How many watts does a refrigerator use? 

This really all depends on which refrigerator you own, different brands/models have varying degrees of power usage.

For example, a brand new 27 cu. ft. French Door Refrigerator that uses 637 kWh a year, will consume more than a portable refrigerator you use in your RV. 

Also, it depends on when you bought your fridge. 

For example, an older refrigerator from say 1990's could have a power rating of 747 watts. Whereas a newer more modern fridge with an Energy Start Certification might have a 380 watts power rating.

What affects a refrigerator power use?

There are two main components in a refrigerator that affect energy consumption: 

1. Compressor
2. Fan

Compressor 

The compressor inside a fridge is the most power hungry component a fridge has and can consume between 200 - 500+ watts whilst running. That's right, you read correctly, "whilst" it's running. Compressors do not run 24 hours a day. If they did, consumption would be incredibly high. Instead, they cycle on and off to keep the food inside cool while consuming as little energy as possible. 

Fan

Most refrigerators have two fans, one is located under the refrigerator to cool the compressor and force air through the exterior coils. The second fan is found inside and directs air around the coils inside the refrigerator. 

How much does it cost to power a refrigerator?

This is another great question and once again all comes down to how much electricity your refrigerator consumes. Alongside this, electricity prices vary state to state.

So, in other words, identical refrigerators found in two different states with varying electricity prices, could actually cost more to own than the other.

Let's take a look at the cost of electricity state by state: 

As you can see the cost of electricity varies greatly state by state, with the average coming to 14.47 ¢/kWh and 8.8% increase over last year. 

Let's take a look at how much a refrigerator would cost to own state by state: 

The above table assumes your refrigerator consumes 600 kWh per year. This is inline with some of the latest fridge models released by LG. 

If you want to work out your own consumption costs simply multiple your states electricity cost by your refrigerators kWh consumption. 

Example: 

You live in Texas (12.80 ¢/kWh) and your refrigerator consumes 800 kWh per year. 

0,1280 * 800 = $102 a year. 

How to reduce refrigerator power consumption?

1. Invest in a double door refrigerator. Every-time you open a fridge it loses it warms up as the cool air escapes. When this happens the compressor needs to pump refrigerant through the coils once again to get it to your desired temperature. A double door fridge ensures that no freezer cooled air escapes every time you open the main fridge door. 

2. Check your fridges gasket (it is the rubber lining on the door frame). If this is broken, cold air will continuously escape, meaning your fridge needs to work overtime in order to keep the temperature cool. 

3. Keep your refrigerator in a well ventilated area, at least 11 inches away from the wall. The warmer the fridge gets, the harder it needs to work. 

4. Clean your compressor/coils once a month. I am sure you have checked behind your fridge before and seen how much dust accumulates? Vacuum this all off, a clean coil will cool easily.

Final thoughts

We hope this article shed some light on how much power a fridge consumes. It should be mentioned that if you own a portable fridge you could actually power it with one of our solar generators. 

Your best bet would be with our AC200P and AC300.