Fridge Electric Use

[plr]

My refrigerator is a high efficiency fridge. That being said I am trying to determine its average energy use.

The notes in side the fridge doesn’t list it’s electric use. It does list info about amps and bolts and when I multiply the amp x volts I get 600 watts.
When I use a killawat machine I saw the fridge max watts was 180 watts but usually it registers 100 watts

Can someone advise the best way to take an appliance average electrical consumption?

 

[gnubie]

You have akillawatt meter so you have the answer in your hand. These meters usually give you an average power use figure already. If your meter only gives you an accumulated figure, set it monitoring your fridge for 24 hours, then divide the watts consumed by 24 to get the average watt hour rating.

As far as calculating the average from the appliances specs plate you can't really do that for a lot of appliances as the information on the plate is usually the peak consumption / amperage and with things like fridges actual consumption will vary on ambient temperature, how often the door is opened etc. Many countries have energy efficiency ratings for appliances to let consumers know what they are buying. Check the manufacturer's web site. They might provide this information there.

If this hasn't answered your question, let us know.

 

[svetz]

You might like: How do I figure out how much Power I need?

 

[PHoganDive]

Also be aware that fridges can use quite a bit more electricity when they go through their 'frost-free' cycle. They normally turn on a heater to melt any frost that may have formed on the evaporator coils/fins. That heater can use quite a bit more juice than the fridge does otherwise...so even if it's only on for 15-20 minutes, your electric system has to be able to supply it.

 

[azgrogg]

I have gone through this exercise to get an idea of how much power do I need in case the lights go out. I used a kilowatt meter from P3. I plugged it in my stuff and recorded the data over time. It will give you a total key usage and an elapse timer. That gives you a general idea. For refrigerators and freezers you can see the rating on the tag. My fridge is 115v @7.2 amps. 800+ watts. I did see those numbers on my meter when I opened the fridge and got everything to kick on. On average, I consume less than 100 watts an hour with peaks of 800 watts.

I have estimated my needs would be about 5kwh per day. That gives me a little headroom and I can conserve if needed. I am planning on building a solar generator setup for emergency use 8n the near future.

 

[morth]

My 17 cubic foot top freezer fridge uses 100-110 watts when running the compressor and 300 when in defrost mode and about 450 on compressor startup. It seems to go through the defrost cycle at least 2 times a day for 20 minutes each. My kilowatt meter says the fridge uses 1.2 kWh a day. Remember that the kilowatt meter doesn't include inverter and other wiring losses . The Valence battery software showed that it took 1.4kWh to actually run the fridge for 16 hours, at which point the battery was at 3% remaining. I probably could have gotten a bit more time, but I didn't want to run the battery down any further. In my situation, I could just add another battery in parallel and know I can run for at least 24 hours and not completely discharge the battery.