# My Refridgerator & Kill-A-Watt meter



## OntarioMan (Feb 11, 2007)

My refridgerator - maybe 13 cubic feet with freezer - I'd classify it as a standard/medium sized refridgerator - maybe 8 years old

- 594 hours = 37.1 kwh
- approx 547 kwh per year
- at $0.103 per kwh = $56.34 per year, or $4.70 per month

A newer similar, "semi efficient" yet affordable refridgerator would use approx. 410 kwh per year, resulting in a yearly savings of approx. $14 - obviously not worth the investment in a new unit.

I'm going to clean the coils of the refridgerator and do another kill-a-watt run.

.


----------



## mightybooboo (Feb 10, 2004)

Cool,just plugged mine in and in a week will post my results too.


----------



## wy_white_wolf (Oct 14, 2004)

Not that bad, as long as your on the grid. Shows how cheap it to be on the grid.

How about a little exercise showing what it would take to generate and supply that extra 137KW a year off the grid.

Thats 137/365 = @375w a day

375/4 = @94 watt (the average size of solar panel we would need to generate that)

At the going rate of $5 a watt thats $470 just for the solar panel to generate it. We haven't even started to add in for batteries and larger inverter or conversion and storage losses. It would easily add up to over $1500 just to supply for that extra 137KW. 

New frig looks alot cheaper. $2000 for a sundancer really looks cheap as it will use way less than that 410KW a year.

I haven't plugged my kill-a-watt meter into the frig yet. But did find out my bread maker uses an average of 400 watts per loaf.


----------



## OntarioMan (Feb 11, 2007)

Not "entirely" accurate. It is presently winter here in Ontario, and I keep my house much colder in the winter than I do in the summer - so I expect to use more than 547 kwh per year. I'll make another run in July/Aug. to compare values.



OntarioMan said:


> My refridgerator - maybe 13 cubic feet with freezer - I'd classify it as a standard/medium sized refridgerator - maybe 8 years old
> 
> - 594 hours = 37.1 kwh
> - approx 547 kwh per year
> ...


----------



## Jim-mi (May 15, 2002)

I expect you'll see constant utility rate increases . . .to change the equation.......

Yes . .to the upfront pricey SunDanzer being a better bargin in the long haul.
My SunDanzer, I'm using as a freezer, I could run on a couple PV pannels, a golf car battery and a small charge controler. . . . . . .No inverter needed.

The killer on conventional refridges is the damable defrost cycle.
All this because "Mrs. Jones" is to damn lazy to go thru that horrible experience of manually defrosting a fridge......shame.


Defeat your defrost cycle.......IF you can.........and then use the Killawatt.........
The difference would really get your attention.


----------



## Blu3duk (Jun 2, 2002)

When i bought the fridge a few years ago, after gitting hitched to my wife, we went for the crosly with no freezer unit in it or on it.... the reason was they all have the defrost cycle, and you can not keep anything in them for any length of time [about 14 days is the average defrost cycle] and i could see no way to defeat the cycle [i am sure there is a way, after where there is a WILL....or William] but it was not done for much other reasoning than that, and it is a fairly decent fridge as long as the kids dont go play "turn up the knob and see how long it takes dad to figure out why the milk is freezing again".... that unit can freeze the balls off a brass monkey i think..... though i aint shot a cannon in awhile.

William


----------



## mightybooboo (Feb 10, 2004)

OK,mine worked out to 474 kw/hrs per year.Uses 1.3 kw/hr per day.

At .15 per kw/hr my cost is 71 per year or 5.93 per month.Thats 19.5 cents per day!

Thats quite a bargain I'd say.

Its a 1997,18 cubic foot with top door freezer.Frigidaire FRT18nrcw2.
Refer section at 37.2 degrees...Freezer section at 8 degrees.

Wow,a newer one at 410 kw/hrs would save me 9.60 over a year.Guess mines a keeper too!

Now to test the chest freezer.My lamp in that room has an 11 watt bulb,that rocks!


----------

