🛒 Our Favorite Power Stations for Home Back Up ➡ Use Code: THESOLARLAB50 for $50 Off ➡ EcoFlow Delta Pro 3: shopsolarkits.com/products/ec... ➡ EcoFlow Delta Pro Ultra: shopsolarkits.com/collections... ➡ EcoFlow Delta 3 Plus: shopsolarkits.com/products/ec... ➡ Anker F3800: shopsolarkits.com/collections... ➡ Anker F2600: shopsolarkits.com/products/an... ➡ Anker C800X: shopsolarkits.com/products/an... 🛒 We Recommend Shopping at Signature Solar: • Current Promotions: signaturesolar.com/promotions... • Use Code: THESOLARLAB50 for $50 Off 🔔 Subscribe to our TH-cam Channel: @TheSolarLab 0:00 - Intro 0:39 - How a Fridge Works 1:42 - Testing 5:38 - Summary Ever wondered how much power your fridge actually uses? We put popular calculators and online sources to the test, only to discover they’re often inaccurate! Watch as we dive into real-world testing to reveal what your fridge truly consumes-so you can better size a portable power station or solar system for your home’s real power needs and emergency backup. ⚡ FOLLOW US: / thesolarlab / thesolarlab 👨🏼💻 The Solar Lab: www.thesolarlab.com We maintain an affiliate relationship with some of the products reviewed, which means we get a small percentage of a sale if you click our links, at no cost to our viewers.
My fridge is 115 volts @4.7 amps. When the compressor is running it uses between 170 watts to 159 watts. My Fridge killed my Ecoflow Delta Mini in about 6 hours. At certain times when the compressor is not running, it uses about 350 watts for about 20 minutes. It only does that one time that I noticed.
I have been doing extensive electrical tests on US 18 to 20 cu.ft. kitchen refrigerators for backup power reasons since 1997. I was especially concerned about running the frig from a power inverter, as the frig designers assume infinite 120 volt input power would always be available. Before the early 1990's, frost-free refrigerators would pull 600+ watts when running. Newer 1990's+ refrigerators pull 110 to 125 watts when running. Newer Inverter type refrigerators pull a fraction of 1990's refrigerators but, all of my testing has been with the 1990's style, which use an induction motor for the compressor and fans but, some units use DC motors for the fans, reducing the power consumption by about 10 watts. For defrost, a heating element is turned on until a temperature sensor in the freezer evaporator compartment reaches a certain temperature (42 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit). These heating elements were typically 600 or 720 watts but, newer refrigerators are using 250 to 350 watt heaters. At room temperature (around 76 degrees F), the compressor runs about 50% of the time (this is due to no more than 1.5 inch of insulation being used). For average use, the defrost cycle runs about 3 times per day for 5 to 20 minutes each cycle, which is gauged according to compressor run time and door openings. On average, the frig consumes about 1.5 kWh per day. The biggest problem with the refrigerator from an electrical standpoint is the starting surge current, for a guaranteed clean start, you need a power source capable of 2,500 watts for at least 5 seconds. With the 20X surge power needed, manufactures of the Inverter refrigerators have taken note and most have a "Soft Start". The stamped power rating on the frig assumes the defroster heating element is turned on and compressor turned off. Accessories, such as an ice maker, will add to the consumption but, these typically draw the bulk of their power when a mechanical devices is activated, such as a motor, solenoid valve, or heating element. The defrost circuit design errs on the side of excessive defrosting is better than icing up. It assumes the house air temperature is about 82 and humidity is about 80%. The defrost cycle can easily be activated by interrupting power to the frig for a 0 to 15 minute duration. So, when switching to backup power, always wait at least 20 minutes before applying power to the frig. Please note that the power consumption as shown on the front panel of your solar generator may not be that accurate. To get an accurate reading, use one of those plug-in power meters, such as the Kill-A-Watt meter.
@WilliamMurphy-b6v You are very welcome, it is information I learned the hard way from storm caused power outages. Hopefully the information will be helpful to many.
I looked up the LG shown in the clip, they don't seems to provide a energy label or something. Also isn't sold in the EU, where they have to provide it. Comparable EU models come in at a little under 1 kWh per day. That gives them a E rating the second lowest they are still allowed to sell. All the A ones (about 0.3 kWh, same test), have a sleeker high design, still providing about 260 / 130 l (~70/40 gallons) of space. Seems they found a way to better deal with removing frost, so they no longer need to run the defrost elements as often. and probably much better insulation. (Some models can keep temperature with closed doors for up to 21h). Simply shows, that having to declare energy consumption to the customer in a standardized test, motivates to improve and innovate better products.
However, way before the 1990s, back in the 1930s, fridges pulled sub-100 watts. In my kitchen I have a 1935-38 GE CK-3 Monitor Top fridge. It pulls around 60W on average, sometimes as low as 30W, sometimes as high as 100W. Manual defrost with no heating element. The Monitor Top was made to run on circuits designed to support a few light bulbs, because that's what was common at the time. It can easily run on even a small backup generator. In the 1950s fridges started pulling more and more power as houses had bigger and better electrical systems.
@theodorgiosan2570 That GE CK series Monitor Top was revolutionary in its day as the first affordable frig for the average family. It was also very reliable and power efficient. Those early refrigerators were essentially an Ice Box with a refrigeration unit added. They were manual defrost, were convection cooled so, used no fans. The wall insulation was usually 3 to 4 inches thick. The refrigeration was very low on cooling power and would take about 24 hours to reach operating temperature if the frig interior was started at room temperature. You are right about the spartan retrofitted wiring in those old houses. I have lived in 3 houses built from 1870 to 1900 with the first generation (knob and tube) wiring. I discovered it was common for the entire upstairs to be on one or two 15 amp circuits, with the house electrical service being 30 to 60 amps. Of course when this wiring was installed, the assumed load was one 100 watt incandescent light bulb per room.
There’s a power hungry feature in every modern fridge you forgot about. Every fridge has auto defrost which is essentially heating elements inside the compartment designed to keep ice from forming. I found the wiring for the defrost circuit in my fridge and added a switch so I can disable the defrost during a power outage so my battery backup can keep things running longer.
They ran the fridges for 24 hours. Here is what I found for the defrost cycle: "The automatic defrost cycle of refrigerators occurs approximately every 8 to 10 hours." So that is taken into account. Nothing wrong with your idea though.
My power hungry feature is the ice machine, it goes from 50 watts running to 400 watts for the ice maker when completing the ice making process. So if running on a battery, turn off the ice maker.
I just lived through Helene in North Augusta SC. I had 1 2000 W/H ecoflow max, with 400 watt worth of solar panels, i ran 1 full sized residential brand new fridge, plus 5 freezers 1-19 Cf, 2-10 cf, and 2-5 CF (approx sizes). My ecoflow ran all 6 together and we ran them 3 hours on 4 hours off approx for 4 days, with solar recharging 3 out of the 4 days. At the end of the 4th day the Ecoflow was at approx 25% battery and we acquired a 8500 watt peak Generator. Which reduced the stress tremendously. We immediately upon realizing the 1 ecoflow was not going to work LONG TERM i purchased 2 extra batteries for the eco flow. But the primary system worked fine and performed exactly as expected
@@kevinm7523 I have the ecoflow max 2. With the 2kw/hr battery. To test it, I Ran an plug in induction cooktop and cooked a single, heaping plate of pasta for 5 nights without recharging it. Boiling water to cook the pasta etc. It still has a little power left. I was impressed. If the power was out, I'd have boiled water in a kettle and cooked the pasta in a thermos instead , shaking it so the pasta didn't stick. less energy needed to cook -- just open the thermos over a sink, facing away from you or anyone else.
You’ve got a great set up, though I think you could have gotten away with a much smaller quieter more fuel efficient generator. I was surprised those 400w solar panels kept pace extending the run on the battery nicely! I’d use solar myself except the HOA police would object, probably out of jealousy.
There is a 4th state, that's "startup" where high current, power draw occurs for 1-2 seconds as each cooling cycle begins. The peak Watts during startup could be a constraint that determines the minimum size of inverter that's usable with a power generator.
The power consumption is generally not that much of an issue. However, some fridges, mostly slightly older ones, have a very high start current, just for a moment, but it can be enough to trip a smaller inverter. So, before buying a fridge for off-grid, check on the start current in relation to the power supply being used.
Yes, I guess it depends on how old it is. I have a fridge from 2006 it's newer style with double doors on top and freezer on bottom and when it's running it uses 90 to 100 w. BUT maybe 900w for a fraction of a second during startup.
Bought a 420cc inverter gasoline generator rated for 7kw continuous. If we just run lights, computers, refrigerator/freezer, tv, gas furnaces, occasional coffee pot/microwave, it runs about 16 hours on 6 gallons of gas. Connected it to the panel with a 30 amp 240v breaker and interlock kit to prevent back feeding the grid. The generator and cost of an electrician to install an inlet on the house to feed the entire panel was about $1600. Less than a 3000wh batteries and can run the whole house. I keep enough gas around to run the house for 3-4 days and rotate it out every 6 months. (Dump it in a car)
Farm runs on only solar. Tried using "dorm" fridges. Cabin would get to 90 degrees during the day. They have no fan and just ran all the time trying to cool. Just knew we could not run a regular fridge as it would use too much power. Put a watt meter on a full size fridge and was shocked to see it used less than the tiny ones. Cabin is now heated and cooled. 55 in winter and 80 during summer. Four years on and the full size fridge is working just fine. About 800 watts a day as we are not there during the week, just weekends. So glad I checked the power usage,
Good to know information. I have an Ecoflow Delta 2. We have frequent power outages where we live and I've used it numerous times. I've tested it on everything around the house and it works great but I haven't tested it on the refrigerator. For the fridge I keep blocks of ice in the freezer. When there is a power outage I move some blocks to the fridge section.
Just to keep your viewers from clicking elsewhere, you should learn to differentiate watts (unit of power) from watt-hours (unit of energy consumed). Even when you showed onscreen a meter reading for daily consumption of 1327Wh, you said the consumption was 1327 watts (cringe!). . . the same mis-describing energy consumption in watts was made throughout the video. If the teacher gets it consistently wrong, the students have no hope.
I bought a surplus U.S. Army 10K generator and installed it in our shed with sound deadening materials. The last power outage our house was fully powered, and the neighbors had no idea I was running a generator as the sound was minimal to nonexistent. The only downside is I have to manually start it when the power goes out.
That equation is for us Floridians that have a very old fridge sitting on their front porch, in 90+ degree heat, with 3 cases of warm beer that they just put in the fridge that have been sitting in the bed of their truck for 12 hours.
A no bullshit informative, helpful video. You win the internet today! Plus, helps solar/off grid understanding too. Duty Cycle is how the industry describes the percentage of time something is on vs. off
I have an old unit that draws 7.2 amps at 115V. I have the first generation EcoFlow Delta Max 2000 that will run it for approximately 15 hours before depleting the battery of 2016 watts. The inverter size 2400W also makes a huge difference as the idle consumption is quite large. I also have the Delta 2 with the 1800W inverter and it runs the same fridge for 13 to 14 hours. So a smaller inverter large enough to handle the current surge makes a huge difference in efficiency. The EG4 3KW inverter was the worse as far as efficiency. Using the EG4LL battery it powered the same unit for 37 hours with the Fridge using 2.4KW and the rest went to the inverter. Great video by the way.
It was enlightening to record the KwH consumption of my fridge and freezer using a power meter logger such as P3 brand. The freezer was a commercial model with large compressor and costing 60 dollars per month! The residential fridge-freezer cost only 17 dollars per month. The commercial freezer is now only for emergency backup. You are correct, my measurements show that in general, the larger the inverter, the bigger the no-load battery consumption. Great comment.
Tested my newish basic Maytag. When the compressor is in the On cycle (25 to 35 % of time) it draws 75 watts, regardless of room temp. The higher 400 watt draw is for the once per 24 hour defrost cycle, lasts about 15 minutes.
I have power meter on our fridge (with freezer) and it uses 27-28kWh a month, consistently. When running, it takes 50W with 170W peaks about every 4 hours.
Totaly agree. Did a 24hr gird down test last week including rhe fridge. Folks forget it's the compressor and quality of the insulation and temperature differential and how often you open the doors that dictates rhe power use.. Good video.
I long ago discovered that you can run a fridge on a relatively small solar power setup. I once had a friend who ran a fridge in his vehicle full time off batteries and solar power.
@@WilliamMurphy-b6v I have a 250Wh battery with 300w sustained and 600w surge output and it trips on a standard G.E. apartment fridge. side note compressor uses 135w and defrost cycle uses 400w. Recently got a 1kWh battery with 1800/3000 output and it works fine.
@Bob-gt1mq Thanks for the follow-on comments and facts. What is your opinion about what happens with the smaller unit? Clearly, if you have the ability to use the equivalent of an energy fire hose, you are better off. But, what are we overlooking in the less capable unit?
Even worse cheap inverters are high frequency. So even if you have a 3kW high frequency inverter it may not start the fridge. FURTHER if it does manage to start the fridge the motor will run REALLY hot because the power is dirty. Every manufacturer gloats about "pure sine wave" however the only inverters that actually make reasonable power are low frequency inverters. Victron or Outback are my 2 favorites for utility grade inverters. You can tell a good inverter from a bad one simply by looking at the weight. A good inverter is 60+ lbs. You can also tell by the price tag as a low frequency inverter takes actual materials to make and will cost ~1k. Also a real utility grade inverter will let you run "crazy" loads like wire feed welders. In fact you can use a wire feed welder while the fridge is running inside without issues.
The part of your refrigerator's that draws the highest amount t of power is the defrost heater. Most refrigerators only run the defrost cycles 2 to 3 times a day for roughly 15 minutes at a time.
In high humidity areas like the southeast, that's common. In the desert southwest where I live, it may never need to defrost until the summer months when our monsoon season occurs.
my defrost cycles based on compressor run time and is about 1 per day. Heating element is only on for 3-6 minutes based on the ice load in the coils at the time. So it only adds about 50-100 watts per day to the load.
NO... The highest draw is when the engine driving the compressor starts, a fridge uses around 1500w for a few seconds when starting and you have to account for that when running on inverter or generator.
@@a64738 in the grand scheme of things while the load is high being 1500w, the usage is low because you would actually be using 0.417 watts per second. i understand that peak load matters, just clarifying that it would only matter at sizing the inverter
I appreciate this. People don't seem to notice the "maximum" in front of the amperage rating. The maximum figure important information to have for peak load calculations, circuit sizing, inverter sizing, etc. but it's the wrong information for typical power usage as you demonstrated.
My fridge is rated to only use 100 kwh/year. The compressor does run quite often but it is one of those new kinds of linear compressors that uses very little power and runs slowly most of the time. It is apparently better for the motors if they don't have to kick on and off and instead it figures out a steady state to run at.
Also..what is in the fridge helps keep it cool. I have lots of liquids..and anyone knows liquid holds temp a long time. An almost empty fridge cycles more often than a full one.. etc.
I have my kitchen refrigerator and my garage freezer on solar power 24/7 and I monitor it. Don’t forget about the defrost cycle. Mine defrost draws 300 Watts
It’s a one year-old GE café French door and it draws about .5-.8 kw per day normally runs at 90 watts when not in defrost mode and compressor running Then when the compressor shuts off 1 - 2 watts The new refrigerators have built in a lot of energy, saving technology
Bullseye. The defrost evaporation tray heating element pulls notable amps. This is relevant if you use a heavy duty UPS to save your food while linemen repair after a massive storm. The sticker ratings neglect the evaporator.
@james10739 I tested a fridge and a chest freezer, watching the amp draw, live, over an 8 period, noting which system or systems are running. Small sample, yes. Results, though? The Energy Star stats were correct if you only look at current draw withOUT the evap. Same thing is true of HVAC efficiency ratings; defrost cost neglected, or addressed with vague "can be lower efficiency if defrost cycle trigger".
when we go off grid next April we will be ditching the Dometic fridge and putting a apartment size fridge in it's place.. and your video is proving my point for doing it..
The only reason you have a Dometic is to use propane for power. Otherwise they wouldn't cost $3 to $4 thousand new. If you aren't off grid, it's a super expensive appliance and an unnecessary expense. Since you're going off grid, I'm going to tell you that it's the SMARTEST thing to keep around. You won't always have electricity available and propane is cheaper than gasoline. I've been living off grid for nearly a decade now and I cannot impress upon you just how important it is to have options for power.
@@punkagrrlzero I live off grid also and wouldn't trade my traditional side by side refrigerator. On the very worst days I get 500 watts off my 2.7kWh array. On the very best of days I get 13kWh. I would rather burn my propane in my Honda EU3000 generator than to have a propane fridge. My fridge uses 1.1kWh per day. I charge at 2kW with my generator for maximum efficiency and use roughly 1/4 gallon of propane per hour. When I am forced to run my generator (kinda rare) I typically run it for 2 hours or roughly 1/2 gallon of propane. In the worst months I might run my generator for 40 hours or 10 gallons of propane. I'm not saying punkagrrlzero is wrong I'm just saying I have a totally different opinion on it and likely different hardware. I have an Outback FXR inverter, 10kWh of batteries, Victron 250/100 Charge Controller, 2.7kW solar array, and a EU3000 generator running on propane.
@@punkagrrlzeroyes. About five years ago my hugely expensive solar fridge went out which really ticked me off as it was only a few years old. What I did was buy five of those portable camping fridges….they each run off a 100w panel. I have them grouped so that for instance, left overs are in one, condiments, etc in another. I really liked I didn’t have to dig around to find something in a big fridge. They are still working fine and I have the added comfort of knowing if one breaks, I have four more. I keep them plugged in to AC as they are only 50w each, but have all the solar hooked up just in case.
This video is great for me for hurricanes in Florida, i m tired of losing my fridge. Most of the time i am out of power for 3 days but with the last 2 hurricanes some people were out of power for 7 days. Ecoflow other battery companies could make a killing in Florida if they market their products right.
@@bobs182 you need to know the voltage of your fridge to get you the watts. Amps = watts divided by volts. Then, knowing the watt hour of your fridge, it will help you figure out what size EcoFlow unit you'd need. Note that you need the solar panel output to match the allowed input for the EcoFlow unit as well.
If you’re trying to make calculations for a power outage, then you might want to consider the house might be 85° Fahrenheit. If you’re using a small backup power device like that, I’m guessing it’s not powering the air conditioning. Basically redo the test, but without air-conditioning. I suspect energy use will be considerably higher
I hooked up my Bluetti AC180 to my fridge during the last storm that came through, and it was using 7% per hour of the ( 1152wh rating of the AC180) while it was being powered by the power station. it would surge to 1400 watts for a split second when the compressor came on and then down close to 100 watts for the few times an hour when it came on.
How long were you able to power your refrigerator before having to recharge your power unit? I am also in the market for an inverter, one that can power my refrigerator during a power outage and was wondering if the Bluetti AC180 would be suffice.
@MrTwinturb0 well I used it to power my 20 cu ft home fridge. I ran it for 5 hrs ( used 35%) and checked it every hour and it consistently used 7% I would say 12-14 hrs would be no problem. Then just recharge it with solar when the sun comes back up. Or get a lifepo4 battery separate from it and recharge it from that if it's cloudy out.
My Fridg was bought in 1999 But I clean the coils once every few years and thats the key to lowering your energy cost. Dusty dirty coils Do not dump as much heat lowering how good a fridge can cool. Cleaning the coils is a must. You you notice it running a lot to get cold or it can't even get cold the coils under it are dirty. Back in the 1950s when they were built to last 100 years the coils were on the back, you just swept them off with a broom. I honestly think they used less energy during its life span. These new models that cost 2k waste a lot of energy and only last 2 to 3 years. My moms 1950s fridge cost 200 bucks and if we still had it would still work.
This is super cool, I figured surge watts when the compressor kicked on would be in excess of 500 watts, even if only for 5 to 10 seconds. When buying my generator, I did a little research on claimed energy usage by fridges and they said anywhere from 600-800 watts on compressor startup, and 300-400 running. Really nice to see it's only a fraction of that. You could run a fridge for meaningful amounts of time even with the 500ish watt hour devices then, especially if you don't mind unplugging it for a couple hours at a time and not having it stay at peak levels of cold, which I think is safe.
Depends on where you live. If you are in the Southeast during the very humid summer and early fall months, the fridge will have to run much harder to maintain the desired temperature. Plus, as someone noted above, the house is going to be much warmer. During one hurricane that knocked out our power, the house temperature was around 90 degrees by the second day without power.
I have argued this with people for years. Most modern clothes washing machines are pretty efficient as well. Water heaters, stoves, ovens, AC units they are power hungry.
Our heat-pump water heater with an 80 gallon tank burns around 2 kWh/day (2 people, with recirculator turned off). With the recirculator on a 60-seconds-on/30-minute-off cycle 12 hours a day, it eats 4 kWh/day. I don't even try to run a regular oven from a power station, but we have run our toaster oven, microwave, and induction tea-kettle (not at the same time obviously) from a 2000W/2000Wh power station. -Matt
@@junkerzn7312 Thanks for sharing. I have been considering a recirc and was curious what it would cost me. Using your numbers, with my energy prices, its $20 per month. At least is somewhere to start. Cheers.
One of my online friends gave me advice on buying a new PC. He told me not to get too high of a power supply because they draw their max rated power nonstop. We both called each other idiots and stopped talking lol. Glad I didn't listen to his dumb advice.
@@noahw5887 Idle PCs sip energy. Even if you buy the most power-hungry components like Intel i9 14900KS and a Nvidia 4090, they'll use less than 400 watts in normal use. On heavy loads like gaming, it will jump much higher, though.
Could you run the same test if the surrounding temp is not normal room temp? In a power outage we lose A/C, so our house will warm up here in FL. How much of an impact will that make?
I believe, the maximum wattage that refrigerators show, is the maximum wattage when in defrost mode. Most if not all refrigerators have a defrost mode that will run at least once a day for 15 or 20 minutes. Even though this happens, refrigerators use very little wattage to run throughout the day as you mentioned
My time for some ranting. Watt (and kilowatt) are momentary values, called power at any moment that you measure. The energy consumption is what you pay for, and is expressed as kilowatthours, i.e the product of the power and time, For that your meter integrates the power over the entire hour (or longer, for that matter). That takes into account of any ON and OFF times. So please don’t skip the “hour” when you talk about the daily or monthly consumption - it is kilowatt-hours, not kilowatts. And for the final notation hints: In fully spelled out units, everything is supposed to be expressed with a leading uppercase, if the unit is from somebody’s name, like from Mr Watt, but in lower case if it is not a person’s name, such as foot or hour. That means kilowatt-hour is abbreviated kWh. Kilo also is in lower case, as upper case K means kelvin for sir Kelvin. Now, that helped my steaming!!!😊
He showed that the fridges used about 1.3 kwh in the last 24 hour tests. Not sure how much better he can do? Are you upset that he got the units slightly wrong at the beginning?
I agree with what you have said but... HAHA. In a hot climate when power is out the inside temp of your house goes quite a bit higher, especially about 36-48 hours after a hurricane. This will drive up the continuous consumption of the refrigerator freezer over the next few days. Yes, power outages are long when a hurricane wipes out power for nearly 500K people. I have a LiFePO4 UPS for my fish tank but not for my fridge. Usually I would have been here but I thought we'd get a 15' storm surge so I evacuated. Even though my neighbor ran my generator for my fridge for a few hours a day it still melted and I lost nearly everything. I think the UPS would have made a difference as it would have maintained. I may invest in another for that purpose. Good video.
I live in a typical non-city home in Michigan. During a power outage I need to run far more than just my refrigerator/freezer. I need to run my 240 volt well pump or I have no water. I need to run my furnace (in the winter when outages due to storms are most common) and the whole house furnace fan. I need to run the sump pump in the basement or my finished basement will flood. It is nice to also run the gas water heater, at least a couple of lights, the television, and the wifi for internet access. My gasoline powered 3500 watt Honda generator has just enough output to do all of the above. I'm not at all sure that the solar powered generator that you show would be adequate. Btw, quite a few days in winter here the sun barely shines at all. But gasoline works great even when the sun does not shine (or wind is not blowing if one has a wind turbine).
When the power goes out in the summer, your AC is off and the fridge will run a lot more, especially here in FL after a hurricane. Great info though. Thanks for the test.
Yes, I have 2 small window A/C units in my barn for just such a purpose. A small window A/C unit is worth its weight in gold in Florida when suffering through a several day power outage when the weather is hot and humid.
Hi, nice vlog! Your absolutely correct, but consider the “defrost cycle”. I’m my fridge, which is a 2004 JennAir, it uses 600w three times a day for the defrost at 15 minutes. This adds up! I use a Emporia smart switch (plugs into the wall) to monitor it. Last month, it used 181kwh of energy. I have a Delta 3 plus on order with the alternator kit. I already had 4 EF 400w ground mount rigid panels, looking to get 4 more, but probably not EF rigid. Their nice panels but I want to add bifacial.
You r right. Defrost cycle on my fridge draws 500 watts. Normal running power is 115 watts. Don’t know how often it runs defrost. Have been running fridge for a few months with a delta pro max. I have been surprised at how much power the thing used
@ Hi, mine cycles for 15m three times in 24h - draws 500w for 15m each session, so 1500w per day. That makes a difference! Thank you for your comment. Central Florida here - 🌴✌️
3 x 15 mins is 0.75 hours x 600w is 450Wh. If your appliance used 181kWh over nominal 30 days that means the refrigeration component consumed 5.6kWh/day. You made an error (typo, 18.1kWh?) or you have one really big appliance or you might want to consider closing the doors.
@@retrozmachine1189 Hi and thanks for your insight. It’s 181kwh per month total usage which is about $26.5 per month during the hot months. It’s in a unconditioned space, hence the higher usage. I also have a sense whole house monitor but it fails reading individual devices reliably, hence the emporia monitor which works great. My rate is .145 cents per kWh so 181*$.145=$26.25 per month. It’s lower of course during the cooler months. I hope this clarifies things. I have by the way replaced the control board three times since 2004. Sense helped me track this down, but the Emporia nailed it for me. Will I replace the side by side JennAir in the future, yes when the sealed unit fails. Other than the defrost board, I did change all the internal lights to LED light, for the modern white light look versus the orange light. Hope this helps!
This is interesting as I just got a Jackery 240 for use with a car fridge and tested it. Without the fridge being cold I plugged it in and it used about 25% of the battery in 2 hours so good to keep it cool when stopped and not running off the car for a short time. Also took about 90 min to recharge via mains power back to 100%.
Those numbers are about what I get with my fridge, which I've powered with a power station during outages (one was several days long). But there are two additional losses that have to be taken into account... inverter idle losses (around 10W) and inverter efficiency (around 85%). Power stations are not known to have very efficient inverters. We'll include the battery round-trip in that inverter efficiency number as well. My fridge clocks in at roughly 1200Wh/day off a kill-a-watt, but going through the power station adds another (10W x 24h = 240Wh) vampire idle and (1200Wh x 0.15 roughly = 180Wh) in battery and inverter losses. So 1200Wh + 240Wh + 180Wh = 1620Wh/day of consumption on the DC side. I also have a Dometic portable fridge. That one can run from 12/24VDC and burns only 288 Wh/day. It will run a tad over 2 days from a 12.8V @ 50Ah battery. -Matt
Do you live in a warmer climate? During his test, he had the air conditioner running, but if there’s a power outage that that’s not likely going to be the case. I wonder what the energy consumption difference would be if the interior of the house was 90°F versus 70°F. If you had a power outage during the winter and you live in a cold climate, it might save power because the central heating will be down
@@calvinwalker4654 It is certainly true that a fridge will eat more energy when the room is hotter. A small dorm fridge would fare significantly worse for sure. A regular home fridge would probably only be affected modestly though. I would guestimate another 300 Wh or so. That would be a non-issue for a generator and just mean that the power station might have to be recharged from the generator a little more often than before. Perhaps in the morning and then just top it off in the evening after sunset to cover overnight. It is also important to note that hot weather generally equates to lots of sunshine, so covering the situation with a solar system would probably not require any special considerations either. And keep in mind that these consumptions of energy tend to be fixed. 2 kWh/day for the fridge. 2 kWh/day for a heat-pump water heater. A small window A/C might be 5 kWh/day (running 12 hours a day), 1 kWh/day for the well pump, 2 kWh/day for toaster-oven + microwave + tea-kettle/coffee-maker, etc. People who take solar and storage seriously usually scale out of these relatively small usages fairly quickly. Even a small system with only 2000W worth of solar panels can generate 10 kWh/day of energy in summer, and 5 in winter. And that's a tiny system. -Matt
Not only are they crap quality inverters they can actually damage the fridge. Don't believe me? Feel the compressor on your fridge while running on "real" power. Now run it for a full cycle on your power station.... You'll thank me later. FYI... If you want a real utility grade inverter you have to look for names like Victron or Outback or any other "low frequency" inverters. This is one of those things that you can truly tell the quality by the weight of the unit. A quality utility grade inverter will be 60+ lbs for the inverter alone. Whats the difference in inverters? Well I can run my coffee maker + fridge + microwave all at the same time and my inverter won't even blink. The power is actually BETTER than what I would get from a utility. The compressor will run at normal temperatures.
@@junkerzn7312 Your numbers are very accurate. But I would not call 2kW array small. That would be 7 typical residential panels. If people invest in 6-8 panels, they should definitely gridtie that. If it is gridtied, it's a bit of effort to change the wires to charging a power station. Next, each size power station has charge rate limits. I don't think any can take 2,000W. So you'll have to work around that with different expense and compromise.
A lot depends on the seasonal. temperatures where you live in cold climates the heat rejected by the fridge or freezer is much less and contributes low level background heating.
THANK YOU for the informative video! Folks are overthinking things and trying to come up with fancy equations, when all they needed to to was hook up a watt meter (the draw down on a battery unit also works). In fairness, cheap watt meters are relatively recent, but they've been out for a few years now.
Update to my comment about Helene: Sold the Ryobi 6500 gas generator & bought a Predator 5000 dual fuel generator so I can use an EcoFlow Delta 2 Max (that I bought w/ your code) to run the fridge in peace and quiet for any future blackout. This video was a huge help in figuring out a better solution than massive amounts of gasoline for a single fridge.
I live in South Louisiana and I’m busy gathering components for a solar generator to back up my gasoline generator. My goal is to run the fridge and freezer completely on battery/solar and use the generator for larger appliances like the microwave and a window AC unit. This is the kind of content I need to help me plan.
There is no super cooling mode that your fridge runs at when first starting up. The compressor runs at a constant low voltage for a duty cycle. The total wattage listed would be the power if everything in the fridge was running at the same time (lights, compressor, ice maker, defroster, touch screen, fans, sensors, ... ). The power supply would be sized to handle all those items running at once. Thr defroster is a high power resistive heater and consumes lots of power when it runs.
Thank you for the video. Great information, Very temperature dependent usage. In the heat of summer, when it is 115 F in the garage, i have to add a fan blowing through the coils. Uses ~ 1 kw-hr per day. Assuming that the almost 2 kw-hr/ day refrigerator ls accurate. Plus the 0.5 - 1 kw-hr per day consumption by just the inverter being on. Total is pretty close to 4 kw-hr per day in the summer.
I added a residential refrigerator to my motorhome. It was a counter depth Whirlpool side by side. After cool down when the compressor was running, it drew 0.8A current. There was a surge on compressor startup for less than one second. While the RV was sitting with no door openings of the refrigerator, it ran for about 10 minutes per hour. I powered it from a 1000W Xantrex pure sine inverter and the RV batteries. It worked great even with dry camping. I was shocked at the tiny current draw. This reinforces the video above as my experience paralleled his experiment.
Nice video showing how much power they pull.. The rating on the label is max power.. During normal cooling operation it will not reach that power level regardless of how cool the fridge is already.. What really uses power is the defrost cycle because it uses heating elements to defrost the freezer.. It will use a good bit more energy for the heaters and it needs to cool things back down again.. Some fridge controls will allow you to force a defrost cycle.. So maybe you can see what it pulls during a cycle..
@@FewerOptions-mx7qt it's there to heat up and remove ice from the evaporator.. Not heat up the whole fridge/freezer.. Usually runs once or so every 24 hours.. Hopefully newer fridge units are a little smarter..
@stevenlilly lol that is what I said. I don't even know where the evap is on a newer unit their no longer in freezer or its hidden better but if I was going to make one maybe a way is to reverse it where its like a heat pump for defrost cycle but you would have to figure a way not to heat up whole freezer
In cold climates the excess heat generated by the refrigerator is benefiting the space heating so there is very little wasted energy... The reverse being true in hot climate naturally.
I've noticed on my Off-Gid setup my Magic Chef 10.1 Cubic fridge is actually fairly low demand with regard to power needs. Also, if you stuff your fridge the cooled items helps keep the momentum. Another way is to place a few gallons of water to take up the needed space.
I have an LG 27 cu ft, side-by-side. Sticker says 3.3A. I also have a Leviton load center with smart breakers and have measurements for every circuit. My big fridge consumes between 500 Wh and 1 kWh per day, depending on how much it is opened up and people just stand and stare. In the heart of summer, when people are using the ice maker and water dispenser more, along with opening the freezer more for popsicles, etc. it raises to as high as 2 kWh per day. It idles with a 68 W draw, no compressor.
You are 100% right when the door is open and the light is on, on older fridges that still have the regular bulb, that bulb is using more power than the compressor running. I used to lose power weekly at my house and there were lots of lightning strikes. So I put my fridge on a workstation/server backup power with the little screen on the front that shows you everything and I was surprised. I was extremely surprised that the damn light bulb used more power than the compressor when running. The startup search was pretty big though I'm guessing around 900 w for maybe an eighth of a second.
Incoming power can vary from 110 to 125 Volts rms AC. A surge or dip can be higher or lower. Depending on the appliance/fridge, some will consume more "power" at a higher incoming voltage if they have a fixed current, or will drop the current to maintain the same power. I'm sure you know that nearly anything with an electrical rating will list a total power consumption far higher than average for things like startup current, and max/worst case scenario. Thanks for the testing, very informative.
Yeah the power rating is for the defrost mode which is a heater wire to melt the ice off the condenser which uses the extra power that you didn’t see .. it only works occasionally to keep the ice away ..
Great test! I live in Alaska and solar is very popular here. I drove 200 miles out of town and every store had massive solar panels. Wind is a close second and geothermal is taking hold. Winter time the freezer uses practically nothing lol (it’s outside)
The thing that most surprises me about my relatively recent fridge is how quickly the inside temperature rises during a power outage. It’s a pain to get to the chord so I’ll generally wait an hour or two before plugging it into a power station. Without opening the doors it will typically rise to about 50°. Thankfully it cools down quickly
Greatly depends on the compressor type. My LG fridge uses an inverter heat pump and the draw varies primarily on the indoor temperature. The lower the temperature, the less energy consumed. With 75 degree average indoor temp the LG typical uses 40 Wh/h with a duty cycle of 80% on. @ 65 degree indoors that drops to 30 Wh/h. There is typically a defrost cycle of 200Wh across two hours every day but sometimes skips a day. In the past three weeks, the daily consumption of the LG has varied from a low 0.76 kWh to a high 1.12 kWh with an average of 0.92 kWh. The highest usage days are typically when new groceries are placed in the LG.
We replaced a failed fridge like OP's white one 3+ years ago with the exact same LG that OP has in their lab and it too has the inverter heat pump. You can use LG's Thinq app to track its (and any other smart LG appliance's) energy usage. Ours averages about 1.5 cumulative kw per day with the defrost cycle being the biggest draw between 2 and 3 am at 167WH. Oh and not sure why OP's fridge has their display always on but ours is set to blank after 5 seconds.
The most efficient refrigerator is a top freezer with no fancy gadgets like ice,water,defroster, just a cooling system and a lightbulb. Will use far less than the fridge shown.
A frost free refrigerator or freezer does not pull the most power when The compressor is running to cool the appliance. They will pull the most power in defrost mode.When the heating element is on and it is melting the ice off the coils.
I got similar results as you when I measured my full size refrigerator with an energy watt meter. I live where power is extremely reliable and haven’t purchased a power station but I am wired for a full panel generator backup.
My many concern is the frig's start up surge. The frig's total draw over time is a secondary concern, especially if I can get an unit with both thru put charging and external battery units.
It's important to remember your inverter battery is using power to keep the inverter on. Which is why when you turn it on it has a estimated time until it runs out even with nothing plugged in.
Thank you for this video, useful info to estimate actual energy usage. For those who may be unclear, a kW and kWh are related but not the same. 1kW is 1,000 watts of power. If you use 1kW for an hour, for convenience we call this unit of energy 1 kW hour or kWh and this is the unit of energy we buy from the grid. For example, the following all use 1kWh: 100W for 10 hours 500W for 2 hours 1kW for 1 hour 2kW for 30 mins. 6kW for 10 mins
According to my electric meter my fridge and large box freezer used 70w /h of power measured over 24 hour hours. Meaning it used 70*24 hours of power =1,890 w every 24 hours. But you must also remember that a fridge or freezer uses around 1500w for a few seconds when starting.
I’d say that’s about right. We went through two power outages here in SWFL, most recently with hurricane Milton. We were out about 48 hours total. My 2000w ANKER 767 powered all my 120v outlets 4-6 hrs daytime and 6-8 hrs nighttime. Biggest items were two full size refrigerators. Ambient temp was around 82F day 75F night, no a/c. I recharged using a Champion 2000w dual fuel generator (propane) that used about 1 18# tank for the two days, and I don’t think I ran it as efficiently as possible. Being concerned about the battery drain overnight one night, I ran the Champion full time and it didn’t empty the tank after 12hrs+. I bought the 767 expansion battery so I think I’ll need to recharge only once or twice a day. I’m not sure, but I think I’ll get upwards of 6 recharges out of one 18# propane tank. I think the reason there’s so much doubt about tests, consumption, watts, amps, volts and whatever is because no two so called “identical” tests ever produce the same exact result. I tried to keep track of my battery usage and kept getting surprised both on the upside and downside … is why my estimates above are hourly ranges. Unless you’re going 100% off-grid, you don’t really need much more than 2000-4000 wh battery supported by a small 2000w dual fuel generator, and that, I think is over kill!
I ran my 2019 Frigidaire 380 watt (3.3 amp * 115 volt according to the sticker) fridge with a fully-charged 1,280Wh battery and a Renogy 2,000 watt inverter for about 11 hours before it shut down. The icemaker and water dispenser were being used as well as regular opening/closing with 3 people in the house. The house temperature was about 75 degrees. The freezer thermostat is set for 0 degrees and the fridge is set for 40 degrees. The Bluetti AC180 with 1,152Wh says it'll run a fridge (120 watt according to their claim) for about 7 hours. Compared to my numbers, that seems like a conservative estimate (surprisingly for a manufacturer figure). Based on my numbers for my fridge, I would expect more like 9 hours. I'm not sure why these numbers vary so much from the test presented here. Even accounting for inverter inefficiency and battery useable wattage being lower than the claimed wattage, I don't see why my testing and the Bluetti claim would be about half what the solar labs numbers are. Regardless, I've upped my battery capacity to 5,120Wh and have enough solar that I'm getting 4+kWh on sunny days so I should be able to go indefinitely as long as the days are sunny.
That isn't that good. My fridge uses 1100 watts per day. I use an Outback FXR series low frequency inverter that is truly utility grade power. The high frequency inverters struggle really hard with motors and tend to make them heat up and run inefficient.
No one has mentioned anything about the inrush current on startup to size the inverter. For example 1.4 kW to run for a day 200 W while running 1.2 kilo wants to start.
A boiler does the same thing. It doesn't keep heating up your water 24/7 but just heats the water until the temperature you've set has been reached, then turns off but keeps measuring the water temperature. If it gets somewhat colder, the heater comes back on until the set temperature is reached again, then turns back off. Like if you set your water to 60°C, the boiler will heat it up till 60°C, then turn off. It will turn back on when the water drops to 50°C or so, keeping the water between your set temperature and a somewhat smaller temperature. A fridge does the same but it cools instead of heating up.
The rated wattage on the sticker indicates the power surge that the fridge will draw while the compressor motor starts and includes the extra features running at the same time as compressor motor start. Any generator to power the fridge should be well beyond this amount for safe running during power outages.
My own test showed similar results, I realized that the "rating" on the sticker has to include all possible uses. Heck the ice dispenser takes 200w but it is only for a few seconds.
Sometimes smaller fridges use way more power. I had a mini fridge with a freezer compartment and that thing uses more power than my my full size fridge. The mini fridge never stopped running. The full size fridge ran maybe 10 minutes every hour.
Storms are the primary cause of power outages in my neck of the woods. Depending on the severity of the storm, power might be out for a few hours or up to a week. Winter storms are the most severe because heavy snow and ice can bring miles of power lines crashing down over large areas and repair becomes a lengthy process.
Also remember, the rating plate is the maximum the unit is safe to draw, not that it will draw. The energy consumption it actually requires for operation is sometimes as much as 25% of the rating plate numbers, meaning it will continue to operate within safety standards even at the max listing. Auto defrost is for a very short period of time, and while being higher consumption than any other time of the day, is still not much in the grand scheme of things. Best investment is a couple of those power monitor thingys you can move from appliance to appliance when you want to check their efficiency. That and a couple of bottles of Worry Not once in a while!
My fridge (50 W) and freezer (110 W) did took 2/3 my electric consumption. Freezer did run all of time due broken thermostat. After repairing they take 1/3. Cheapest adjustable thermostat come to power cord. Original migth be very expensive if it`s available.
@@tagladyify animals might get it into it, unless you are in a condo 20 stories off the ground, critters aren't brave enough to climb to a balcony that high :-)
Use a plug in wattmeter to check as you did. What you need to mention is the initial surge to start that motor running- which can be 1kw for a fraction of a second. You need to size the inverter to cope with that, and the battery capacity to cope with the base load.
My kitchen fridge draws about 100 watts when running too but I’ve seen to spike to 5-600 watts and I think there’s the defroster cycle kicking on. That could be where those higher number are coming from on the spec sheet. It’s annoying because I don’t think you can turn the defroster off and that just kills a Power station’s run time 😭
If the label says max A, then I would assume that is the Inrush current, which is a short interval & the run current is much lower and intermittent as was pointed out in the video. I haven't tried this but isn't there a yellow sticker on the appliance when you buy it that states the cost of annual operation and the price of the energy. Just take the Annual energy used and divide by 365 for your daily KWH usage& if you want it in Watts, just multiply it by 1000. Annual KWH/3650) X1000=Daily Watt hours.
i got 24/7 stats of my fridge with a power meter tool since july, it average 1.3kwh like you, what you need to be aware of the surge/spike when the compressor start, i see spike up to 16A. i can send you graph/csv file if you wish, let me know
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Mine draws up to 400w/day. Up to. In the summer. Right now, it kicks on for 10mins every one and a half hours.
I have a heavy duty powered wheelchair and am totally dependent on it about seven years ago. My dad bought me two 330 W battery banks and we did some math and he bought me a kill a watt device to directly measure what happened when I plugged my chair into the charger and verify that our math was all correct and it was and I suggest for 35 bucks or so you go buy one they’re awesome. There’s a lot of things you can do with it. On this subject, at least peripherally people lose electricity and immediately start throwing their food out almost immediately as if the frozen food in their freezer won’t take three or four days to thaw out once the power is totally gone if they don’t open the door , that’s bugged me for 35 years because like you said fridges don’t ask me run all the time or even most of the time. Good video thanks a lot. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kill_A_Watt
There are a couple of things to point out with your article. The load on a refrigerator or airconditioner will depend on the ambiante temperature and humidity. The higher the temperature or humidity the lower the efficiency and therefore the higher the power draw. In your examples you were working at about a 10% duty cycle if you increase the duty cycle you will use more energy. The fact is that the amount of energy you use depends on the situation.
A while ago I got a a delta 2 and extra battery with the idea of running the PC and stereo off it. I did the numbers wrong and it turns out on the weekend I use more power in a day than the batteries held. So batteries are now use to run the fridge freezer charging up for a couple of hours over night on cheap rate. This is not a humongous US fridge so it uses about a quarter to a third of the stored power for that so I plugged a small kettle and my coffee maker into it as well. Moral of the story, I'm using much more energy entertaining myself than preserving food and making hot drinks.
Your numbers got me curious. Checking the label on my 2010 Maytag said 10 amps. I'll need to check how much it's actively using, but maybe it's time to actually replace it with something more efficient.
Good to know. I checked mine with a watt meter. It is 20 yrs old and it came in at 1681 watts per day. My big chest freezer came in at 1,053 watts per day without opening it. I think you may pick up high wattage when they kick into defrost cycles but that is for a short period of time.
This is a wonderful video, however please consider: In steady-state (maintaining) mode, a huge side by side fridge with variable speed compressor uses very little power. Mine uses 61 watts all day long. But every 2 weeks it goes into defrost mode which uses 1,150 watts for about 30 minutes. My experience is, if you restore power during an outage, it will postpone the defrost but there are no guarantees. Be aware of this, and also there are some small low-cost refrigerators that use a PTC thermistor to start the compressor. With these, compressor running power is low but when the compressor starts, the current goes up to 10 amps for 3 to 5 seconds. Because of that, your inverter must be sized a lot bigger than the steady state power of the fridge.
A long time ago I measured the power use of my fridge. 1 kWh per day for the fridge/freezer. 2 kWh per day for the full size freezer (stand up freezer same size as a fridge). Measured with a kill-a-watt over several days. Of course it is going to depend on the temp in the house and the size of the fridge or freezer. But where I live it is seldom very hot or cold. I live in a mild climate. People should probably measure their own fridges to find out (you can use a kill-a-watt).
I have a hybrid solar system on my house, I also monitor my energy in realtime (all loads) . I have a modern refrigerator, Samsung, I barely see it running. The energy pigs are , hot water heater, HVAC and my stove. Oh don’t forget microwave and dishwasher. Those use about 1 kw when on.
For those of us who have dogs & cats your 'fridge uses about 25% more energy to do the same work if the heat exchanger is coated with pet hair. Using a Kill-a-Watt multiple times to measure since 2003 I'm confident in these numbers.
This is interesting to me because I recently tried to power my standard, newer LG fridge off my Jackery explorer 1000 v1. It starts, draws a couple hundred watts, then something goes “zzzzzzap” and it turns off. I had Jackery accept that something was faulty with my unit and they’ll let me send it back. But I recently tried running other things on it, including a carpet cleaner that pulls just above the rated max output, like 1,056W, and that runs for a couple minutes without issue. So I’m trying to figure out if the fridge is doing something weird that might be overloading the power station somehow?
A week ago I disconnected my full size 20-year old fridge and moved everything to a small minibar. My daily power usage instantly dropped from 5 kWh/day to just 2 kWh/day. So the old fridge obviously uses more than 3 kWh/day.
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0:00 - Intro
0:39 - How a Fridge Works
1:42 - Testing
5:38 - Summary
Ever wondered how much power your fridge actually uses? We put popular calculators and online sources to the test, only to discover they’re often inaccurate! Watch as we dive into real-world testing to reveal what your fridge truly consumes-so you can better size a portable power station or solar system for your home’s real power needs and emergency backup.
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My fridge is 115 volts @4.7 amps. When the compressor is running it uses between 170 watts to 159 watts. My Fridge killed my Ecoflow Delta Mini in about 6 hours. At certain times when the compressor is not running, it uses about 350 watts for about 20 minutes. It only does that one time that I noticed.
I have been doing extensive electrical tests on US 18 to 20 cu.ft. kitchen refrigerators for backup power reasons since 1997. I was especially concerned about running the frig from a power inverter, as the frig designers assume infinite 120 volt input power would always be available. Before the early 1990's, frost-free refrigerators would pull 600+ watts when running. Newer 1990's+ refrigerators pull 110 to 125 watts when running. Newer Inverter type refrigerators pull a fraction of 1990's refrigerators but, all of my testing has been with the 1990's style, which use an induction motor for the compressor and fans but, some units use DC motors for the fans, reducing the power consumption by about 10 watts. For defrost, a heating element is turned on until a temperature sensor in the freezer evaporator compartment reaches a certain temperature (42 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit). These heating elements were typically 600 or 720 watts but, newer refrigerators are using 250 to 350 watt heaters. At room temperature (around 76 degrees F), the compressor runs about 50% of the time (this is due to no more than 1.5 inch of insulation being used). For average use, the defrost cycle runs about 3 times per day for 5 to 20 minutes each cycle, which is gauged according to compressor run time and door openings. On average, the frig consumes about 1.5 kWh per day. The biggest problem with the refrigerator from an electrical standpoint is the starting surge current, for a guaranteed clean start, you need a power source capable of 2,500 watts for at least 5 seconds. With the 20X surge power needed, manufactures of the Inverter refrigerators have taken note and most have a "Soft Start".
The stamped power rating on the frig assumes the defroster heating element is turned on and compressor turned off. Accessories, such as an ice maker, will add to the consumption but, these typically draw the bulk of their power when a mechanical devices is activated, such as a motor, solenoid valve, or heating element.
The defrost circuit design errs on the side of excessive defrosting is better than icing up. It assumes the house air temperature is about 82 and humidity is about 80%. The defrost cycle can easily be activated by interrupting power to the frig for a 0 to 15 minute duration. So, when switching to backup power, always wait at least 20 minutes before applying power to the frig.
Please note that the power consumption as shown on the front panel of your solar generator may not be that accurate. To get an accurate reading, use one of those plug-in power meters, such as the Kill-A-Watt meter.
@billharris6886 Thanks for all your studies and for sharing.
@WilliamMurphy-b6v You are very welcome, it is information I learned the hard way from storm caused power outages. Hopefully the information will be helpful to many.
I looked up the LG shown in the clip, they don't seems to provide a energy label or something. Also isn't sold in the EU, where they have to provide it. Comparable EU models come in at a little under 1 kWh per day. That gives them a E rating the second lowest they are still allowed to sell.
All the A ones (about 0.3 kWh, same test), have a sleeker high design, still providing about 260 / 130 l (~70/40 gallons) of space. Seems they found a way to better deal with removing frost, so they no longer need to run the defrost elements as often. and probably much better insulation. (Some models can keep temperature with closed doors for up to 21h).
Simply shows, that having to declare energy consumption to the customer in a standardized test, motivates to improve and innovate better products.
However, way before the 1990s, back in the 1930s, fridges pulled sub-100 watts. In my kitchen I have a 1935-38 GE CK-3 Monitor Top fridge. It pulls around 60W on average, sometimes as low as 30W, sometimes as high as 100W. Manual defrost with no heating element. The Monitor Top was made to run on circuits designed to support a few light bulbs, because that's what was common at the time. It can easily run on even a small backup generator. In the 1950s fridges started pulling more and more power as houses had bigger and better electrical systems.
@theodorgiosan2570 That GE CK series Monitor Top was revolutionary in its day as the first affordable frig for the average family. It was also very reliable and power efficient. Those early refrigerators were essentially an Ice Box with a refrigeration unit added. They were manual defrost, were convection cooled so, used no fans. The wall insulation was usually 3 to 4 inches thick. The refrigeration was very low on cooling power and would take about 24 hours to reach operating temperature if the frig interior was started at room temperature.
You are right about the spartan retrofitted wiring in those old houses. I have lived in 3 houses built from 1870 to 1900 with the first generation (knob and tube) wiring. I discovered it was common for the entire upstairs to be on one or two 15 amp circuits, with the house electrical service being 30 to 60 amps. Of course when this wiring was installed, the assumed load was one 100 watt incandescent light bulb per room.
There’s a power hungry feature in every modern fridge you forgot about. Every fridge has auto defrost which is essentially heating elements inside the compartment designed to keep ice from forming. I found the wiring for the defrost circuit in my fridge and added a switch so I can disable the defrost during a power outage so my battery backup can keep things running longer.
@@jondrew55 You win! I was thinking about doing the exact same thing! Thank you!
@ make sure you splice into the right wires!
yup! defrost cycle everyday don't forget!
They ran the fridges for 24 hours. Here is what I found for the defrost cycle: "The automatic defrost cycle of refrigerators occurs approximately every 8 to 10 hours." So that is taken into account. Nothing wrong with your idea though.
My power hungry feature is the ice machine, it goes from 50 watts running to 400 watts for the ice maker when completing the ice making process. So if running on a battery, turn off the ice maker.
I just lived through Helene in North Augusta SC. I had 1 2000 W/H ecoflow max, with 400 watt worth of solar panels, i ran 1 full sized residential brand new fridge, plus 5 freezers 1-19 Cf, 2-10 cf, and 2-5 CF (approx sizes). My ecoflow ran all 6 together and we ran them 3 hours on 4 hours off approx for 4 days, with solar recharging 3 out of the 4 days. At the end of the 4th day the Ecoflow was at approx 25% battery and we acquired a 8500 watt peak Generator. Which reduced the stress tremendously. We immediately upon realizing the 1 ecoflow was not going to work LONG TERM i purchased 2 extra batteries for the eco flow. But the primary system worked fine and performed exactly as expected
@@kevinm7523 I have the ecoflow max 2. With the 2kw/hr battery. To test it, I Ran an plug in induction cooktop and cooked a single, heaping plate of pasta for 5 nights without recharging it. Boiling water to cook the pasta etc. It still has a little power left. I was impressed.
If the power was out, I'd have boiled water in a kettle and cooked the pasta in a thermos instead , shaking it so the pasta didn't stick.
less energy needed to cook -- just open the thermos over a sink, facing away from you or anyone else.
Why do you have so many freezers? This for a business?
@@SiXiam I'm betting he's a successful hunter.
You’ve got a great set up, though I think you could have gotten away with a much smaller quieter more fuel efficient generator. I was surprised those 400w solar panels kept pace extending the run on the battery nicely! I’d use solar myself except the HOA police would object, probably out of jealousy.
Guys it is not W/h it is W x h because you use Watt for a time not divided by a time😵💫
There are 3 different power states my frig is in:
1. Idle ~ 2W
2. Cooling ~ 163W
3. Defrost ~ 431W
Per day I use an average of 1.2 KwH
Mine is an older model and goes up to 1000 watts on defrost.
Each time compressor starts it will have a surge in wattage than drop to a lower amperage.
DING DING DING!!! This guy has it. Mine is ~1.1kWh per day. I live off-grid so I have to know the usage of everything that I plug into a socket.
@@dersteer Same here!
There is a 4th state, that's "startup" where high current, power draw occurs for 1-2 seconds as each cooling cycle begins. The peak Watts during startup could be a constraint that determines the minimum size of inverter that's usable with a power generator.
The power consumption is generally not that much of an issue. However, some fridges, mostly slightly older ones, have a very high start current, just for a moment, but it can be enough to trip a smaller inverter. So, before buying a fridge for off-grid, check on the start current in relation to the power supply being used.
In general you have to account for around 1500w usage for a few seconds when starting...
Yes, I guess it depends on how old it is. I have a fridge from 2006 it's newer style with double doors on top and freezer on bottom and when it's running it uses 90 to 100 w. BUT maybe 900w for a fraction of a second during startup.
Bought a 420cc inverter gasoline generator rated for 7kw continuous. If we just run lights, computers, refrigerator/freezer, tv, gas furnaces, occasional coffee pot/microwave, it runs about 16 hours on 6 gallons of gas. Connected it to the panel with a 30 amp 240v breaker and interlock kit to prevent back feeding the grid. The generator and cost of an electrician to install an inlet on the house to feed the entire panel was about $1600. Less than a 3000wh batteries and can run the whole house. I keep enough gas around to run the house for 3-4 days and rotate it out every 6 months. (Dump it in a car)
Farm runs on only solar. Tried using "dorm" fridges. Cabin would get to 90 degrees during the day. They have no fan and just ran all the time trying to cool. Just knew we could not run a regular fridge as it would use too much power. Put a watt meter on a full size fridge and was shocked to see it used less than the tiny ones. Cabin is now heated and cooled. 55 in winter and 80 during summer. Four years on and the full size fridge is working just fine. About 800 watts a day as we are not there during the week, just weekends. So glad I checked the power usage,
Good to know information. I have an Ecoflow Delta 2. We have frequent power outages where we live and I've used it numerous times. I've tested it on everything around the house and it works great but I haven't tested it on the refrigerator. For the fridge I keep blocks of ice in the freezer. When there is a power outage I move some blocks to the fridge section.
Just to keep your viewers from clicking elsewhere, you should learn to differentiate watts (unit of power) from watt-hours (unit of energy consumed). Even when you showed onscreen a meter reading for daily consumption of 1327Wh, you said the consumption was 1327 watts (cringe!). . . the same mis-describing energy consumption in watts was made throughout the video. If the teacher gets it consistently wrong, the students have no hope.
Kinda pedantic
Except he's not wrong. Watts and Watt hours are two entirely different measurements, yet easily confused.
@@niffrigeven though they sound similar, they are different. He shouldn’t be getting these terms mixed up
@@rtsrts2317thats a great statement with no backing like the guy that responded
Agree. So many people get it wrong in the comments too. Cringe
I bought a surplus U.S. Army 10K generator and installed it in our shed with sound deadening materials. The last power outage our house was fully powered, and the neighbors had no idea I was running a generator as the sound was minimal to nonexistent. The only downside is I have to manually start it when the power goes out.
That equation is for us Floridians that have a very old fridge sitting on their front porch, in 90+ degree heat, with 3 cases of warm beer that they just put in the fridge that have been sitting in the bed of their truck for 12 hours.
I guess those beers sit next to the alligator stew that you'll have at dinner 😆
@@itisabird or next to the alligators that will have them for stew…
I have a 5 KW generator and it connects to the whole house. My fridge hardly even causes the generator to hesitate. I don't worry about defrost.
A no bullshit informative, helpful video. You win the internet today! Plus, helps solar/off grid understanding too. Duty Cycle is how the industry describes the percentage of time something is on vs. off
I have an old unit that draws 7.2 amps at 115V. I have the first generation EcoFlow Delta Max 2000 that will run it for approximately 15 hours before depleting the battery of 2016 watts. The inverter size 2400W also makes a huge difference as the idle consumption is quite large. I also have the Delta 2 with the 1800W inverter and it runs the same fridge for 13 to 14 hours. So a smaller inverter large enough to handle the current surge makes a huge difference in efficiency. The EG4 3KW inverter was the worse as far as efficiency. Using the EG4LL battery it powered the same unit for 37 hours with the Fridge using 2.4KW and the rest went to the inverter. Great video by the way.
It was enlightening to record the KwH consumption of my fridge and freezer using a power meter logger such as P3 brand. The freezer was a commercial model with large compressor and costing 60 dollars per month! The residential fridge-freezer cost only 17 dollars per month. The commercial freezer is now only for emergency backup. You are correct, my measurements show that in general, the larger the inverter, the bigger the no-load battery consumption. Great comment.
Great advice
Buy a new fridge
You have to have $2619 today to equal that 1950 $200 buying value.
Tested my newish basic Maytag. When the compressor is in the On cycle (25 to 35 % of time) it draws 75 watts, regardless of room temp. The higher 400 watt draw is for the once per 24 hour defrost cycle, lasts about 15 minutes.
I have power meter on our fridge (with freezer) and it uses 27-28kWh a month, consistently.
When running, it takes 50W with 170W peaks about every 4 hours.
Totaly agree. Did a 24hr gird down test last week including rhe fridge.
Folks forget it's the compressor and quality of the insulation and temperature differential and how often you open the doors that dictates rhe power use..
Good video.
I long ago discovered that you can run a fridge on a relatively small solar power setup. I once had a friend who ran a fridge in his vehicle full time off batteries and solar power.
Inrush exceeds output limits for smaller inverters FYI. Need like 1kw output or more.
Start up would use perhaps double average running draw. While it has to be considered, my guess is that you are way off on what it draws momentarily.
@@WilliamMurphy-b6v I have a 250Wh battery with 300w sustained and 600w surge output and it trips on a standard G.E. apartment fridge. side note compressor uses 135w and defrost cycle uses 400w. Recently got a 1kWh battery with 1800/3000 output and it works fine.
@Bob-gt1mq Thanks for the follow-on comments and facts. What is your opinion about what happens with the smaller unit? Clearly, if you have the ability to use the equivalent of an energy fire hose, you are better off. But, what are we overlooking in the less capable unit?
I measured my power draw and was 87W running ( manual defrost) and 1kw peak at start up so you are correct. Size inverter to cope with peak.
Even worse cheap inverters are high frequency. So even if you have a 3kW high frequency inverter it may not start the fridge. FURTHER if it does manage to start the fridge the motor will run REALLY hot because the power is dirty. Every manufacturer gloats about "pure sine wave" however the only inverters that actually make reasonable power are low frequency inverters. Victron or Outback are my 2 favorites for utility grade inverters. You can tell a good inverter from a bad one simply by looking at the weight. A good inverter is 60+ lbs. You can also tell by the price tag as a low frequency inverter takes actual materials to make and will cost ~1k.
Also a real utility grade inverter will let you run "crazy" loads like wire feed welders. In fact you can use a wire feed welder while the fridge is running inside without issues.
The part of your refrigerator's that draws the highest amount t of power is the defrost heater. Most refrigerators only run the defrost cycles 2 to 3 times a day for roughly 15 minutes at a time.
In high humidity areas like the southeast, that's common. In the desert southwest where I live, it may never need to defrost until the summer months when our monsoon season occurs.
my defrost cycles based on compressor run time and is about 1 per day. Heating element is only on for 3-6 minutes based on the ice load in the coils at the time. So it only adds about 50-100 watts per day to the load.
NO... The highest draw is when the engine driving the compressor starts, a fridge uses around 1500w for a few seconds when starting and you have to account for that when running on inverter or generator.
@@a64738
in the grand scheme of things while the load is high being 1500w, the usage is low because you would actually be using 0.417 watts per second. i understand that peak load matters, just clarifying that it would only matter at sizing the inverter
I appreciate this. People don't seem to notice the "maximum" in front of the amperage rating. The maximum figure important information to have for peak load calculations, circuit sizing, inverter sizing, etc. but it's the wrong information for typical power usage as you demonstrated.
Also the maximum is not the real maximum because a fridge uses around 1500w for a few seconds when starting.
It would be like saying your car has 250 hp, so it uses 250 hp all the time. :)
My fridge is rated to only use 100 kwh/year. The compressor does run quite often but it is one of those new kinds of linear compressors that uses very little power and runs slowly most of the time. It is apparently better for the motors if they don't have to kick on and off and instead it figures out a steady state to run at.
Also..what is in the fridge helps keep it cool.
I have lots of liquids..and anyone knows liquid holds temp a long time.
An almost empty fridge cycles more often than a full one.. etc.
Best way to keep your refrigerator operating efficiently is to keep the evaporator coils clean.
@@n9wox And keep the doors CLOSED. 😀👍
I have my kitchen refrigerator and my garage freezer on solar power 24/7 and I monitor it. Don’t forget about the defrost cycle. Mine defrost draws 300 Watts
It’s a one year-old GE café French door and it draws about .5-.8 kw per day normally runs at 90 watts when not in defrost mode and compressor running
Then when the compressor shuts off 1 - 2 watts
The new refrigerators have built in a lot of energy, saving technology
Bullseye. The defrost evaporation tray heating element pulls notable amps. This is relevant if you use a heavy duty UPS to save your food while linemen repair after a massive storm. The sticker ratings neglect the evaporator.
Ya the power rating is likely for the defrost cycle
@james10739 I tested a fridge and a chest freezer, watching the amp draw, live, over an 8 period, noting which system or systems are running. Small sample, yes. Results, though? The Energy Star stats were correct if you only look at current draw withOUT the evap. Same thing is true of HVAC efficiency ratings; defrost cost neglected, or addressed with vague "can be lower efficiency if defrost cycle trigger".
when we go off grid next April we will be ditching the Dometic fridge and putting a apartment size fridge in it's place.. and your video is proving my point for doing it..
The only reason you have a Dometic is to use propane for power. Otherwise they wouldn't cost $3 to $4 thousand new. If you aren't off grid, it's a super expensive appliance and an unnecessary expense. Since you're going off grid, I'm going to tell you that it's the SMARTEST thing to keep around. You won't always have electricity available and propane is cheaper than gasoline. I've been living off grid for nearly a decade now and I cannot impress upon you just how important it is to have options for power.
@@punkagrrlzero I live off grid also and wouldn't trade my traditional side by side refrigerator. On the very worst days I get 500 watts off my 2.7kWh array. On the very best of days I get 13kWh. I would rather burn my propane in my Honda EU3000 generator than to have a propane fridge.
My fridge uses 1.1kWh per day. I charge at 2kW with my generator for maximum efficiency and use roughly 1/4 gallon of propane per hour. When I am forced to run my generator (kinda rare) I typically run it for 2 hours or roughly 1/2 gallon of propane. In the worst months I might run my generator for 40 hours or 10 gallons of propane.
I'm not saying punkagrrlzero is wrong I'm just saying I have a totally different opinion on it and likely different hardware. I have an Outback FXR inverter, 10kWh of batteries, Victron 250/100 Charge Controller, 2.7kW solar array, and a EU3000 generator running on propane.
@@punkagrrlzeroyes. About five years ago my hugely expensive solar fridge went out which really ticked me off as it was only a few years old.
What I did was buy five of those portable camping fridges….they each run off a 100w panel. I have them grouped so that for instance, left overs are in one, condiments, etc in another. I really liked I didn’t have to dig around to find something in a big fridge.
They are still working fine and I have the added comfort of knowing if one breaks, I have four more.
I keep them plugged in to AC as they are only 50w each, but have all the solar hooked up just in case.
This video is great for me for hurricanes in Florida, i m tired of losing my fridge. Most of the time i am out of power for 3 days but with the last 2 hurricanes some people were out of power for 7 days. Ecoflow other battery companies could make a killing in Florida if they market their products right.
What size EcoFlow should I get to run my 4 amp fridge off 2 solar panels for a week after a hurricane?
@@bobs182 you need to know the voltage of your fridge to get you the watts. Amps = watts divided by volts. Then, knowing the watt hour of your fridge, it will help you figure out what size EcoFlow unit you'd need. Note that you need the solar panel output to match the allowed input for the EcoFlow unit as well.
If you’re trying to make calculations for a power outage, then you might want to consider the house might be 85° Fahrenheit. If you’re using a small backup power device like that, I’m guessing it’s not powering the air conditioning.
Basically redo the test, but without air-conditioning. I suspect energy use will be considerably higher
I hooked up my Bluetti AC180 to my fridge during the last storm that came through, and it was using 7% per hour of the ( 1152wh rating of the AC180) while it was being powered by the power station. it would surge to 1400 watts for a split second when the compressor came on and then down close to 100 watts for the few times an hour when it came on.
How long were you able to power your refrigerator before having to recharge your power unit? I am also in the market for an inverter, one that can power my refrigerator during a power outage and was wondering if the Bluetti AC180 would be suffice.
@MrTwinturb0 well I used it to power my 20 cu ft home fridge. I ran it for 5 hrs ( used 35%) and checked it every hour and it consistently used 7% I would say 12-14 hrs would be no problem. Then just recharge it with solar when the sun comes back up. Or get a lifepo4 battery separate from it and recharge it from that if it's cloudy out.
My Fridg was bought in 1999
But I clean the coils once every few years and thats the key to lowering your energy cost. Dusty dirty coils
Do not dump as much heat lowering how good a fridge can cool. Cleaning the coils is a must.
You you notice it running a lot to get cold or it can't even get cold the coils under it are dirty.
Back in the 1950s when they were built to last 100 years the coils were on the back, you just swept them off with a broom.
I honestly think they used less energy during its life span.
These new models that cost 2k waste a lot of energy and only last 2 to 3 years.
My moms 1950s fridge cost 200 bucks and if we still had it would still work.
This is super cool, I figured surge watts when the compressor kicked on would be in excess of 500 watts, even if only for 5 to 10 seconds. When buying my generator, I did a little research on claimed energy usage by fridges and they said anywhere from 600-800 watts on compressor startup, and 300-400 running. Really nice to see it's only a fraction of that. You could run a fridge for meaningful amounts of time even with the 500ish watt hour devices then, especially if you don't mind unplugging it for a couple hours at a time and not having it stay at peak levels of cold, which I think is safe.
Depends on where you live. If you are in the Southeast during the very humid summer and early fall months, the fridge will have to run much harder to maintain the desired temperature. Plus, as someone noted above, the house is going to be much warmer. During one hurricane that knocked out our power, the house temperature was around 90 degrees by the second day without power.
I have argued this with people for years. Most modern clothes washing machines are pretty efficient as well. Water heaters, stoves, ovens, AC units they are power hungry.
Our heat-pump water heater with an 80 gallon tank burns around 2 kWh/day (2 people, with recirculator turned off). With the recirculator on a 60-seconds-on/30-minute-off cycle 12 hours a day, it eats 4 kWh/day.
I don't even try to run a regular oven from a power station, but we have run our toaster oven, microwave, and induction tea-kettle (not at the same time obviously) from a 2000W/2000Wh power station.
-Matt
@@junkerzn7312 Thanks for sharing. I have been considering a recirc and was curious what it would cost me. Using your numbers, with my energy prices, its $20 per month. At least is somewhere to start. Cheers.
Yup, the AC is the biggest energy suck of all modern appliances hands down.
One of my online friends gave me advice on buying a new PC. He told me not to get too high of a power supply because they draw their max rated power nonstop. We both called each other idiots and stopped talking lol. Glad I didn't listen to his dumb advice.
@@noahw5887 Idle PCs sip energy. Even if you buy the most power-hungry components like Intel i9 14900KS and a Nvidia 4090, they'll use less than 400 watts in normal use. On heavy loads like gaming, it will jump much higher, though.
Could you run the same test if the surrounding temp is not normal room temp? In a power outage we lose A/C, so our house will warm up here in FL. How much of an impact will that make?
I believe, the maximum wattage that refrigerators show, is the maximum wattage when in defrost mode. Most if not all refrigerators have a defrost mode that will run at least once a day for 15 or 20 minutes. Even though this happens, refrigerators use very little wattage to run throughout the day as you mentioned
My time for some ranting. Watt (and kilowatt) are momentary values, called power at any moment that you measure. The energy consumption is what you pay for, and is expressed as kilowatthours, i.e the product of the power and time, For that your meter integrates the power over the entire hour (or longer, for that matter). That takes into account of any ON and OFF times. So please don’t skip the “hour” when you talk about the daily or monthly consumption - it is kilowatt-hours, not kilowatts. And for the final notation hints: In fully spelled out units, everything is supposed to be expressed with a leading uppercase, if the unit is from somebody’s name, like from Mr Watt, but in lower case if it is not a person’s name, such as foot or hour. That means kilowatt-hour is abbreviated kWh. Kilo also is in lower case, as upper case K means kelvin for sir Kelvin. Now, that helped my steaming!!!😊
He showed that the fridges used about 1.3 kwh in the last 24 hour tests. Not sure how much better he can do? Are you upset that he got the units slightly wrong at the beginning?
Even more efficient if you clean under and behind your fridge regularly.
I agree with what you have said but... HAHA. In a hot climate when power is out the inside temp of your house goes quite a bit higher, especially about 36-48 hours after a hurricane. This will drive up the continuous consumption of the refrigerator freezer over the next few days. Yes, power outages are long when a hurricane wipes out power for nearly 500K people. I have a LiFePO4 UPS for my fish tank but not for my fridge. Usually I would have been here but I thought we'd get a 15' storm surge so I evacuated. Even though my neighbor ran my generator for my fridge for a few hours a day it still melted and I lost nearly everything. I think the UPS would have made a difference as it would have maintained. I may invest in another for that purpose. Good video.
I live in a typical non-city home in Michigan. During a power outage I need to run far more than just my refrigerator/freezer. I need to run my 240 volt well pump or I have no water. I need to run my furnace (in the winter when outages due to storms are most common) and the whole house furnace fan. I need to run the sump pump in the basement or my finished basement will flood. It is nice to also run the gas water heater, at least a couple of lights, the television, and the wifi for internet access. My gasoline powered 3500 watt Honda generator has just enough output to do all of the above. I'm not at all sure that the solar powered generator that you show would be adequate. Btw, quite a few days in winter here the sun barely shines at all. But gasoline works great even when the sun does not shine (or wind is not blowing if one has a wind turbine).
When the power goes out in the summer, your AC is off and the fridge will run a lot more, especially here in FL after a hurricane. Great info though. Thanks for the test.
Yes, I have 2 small window A/C units in my barn for just such a purpose. A small window A/C unit is worth its weight in gold in Florida when suffering through a several day power outage when the weather is hot and humid.
Hi, nice vlog! Your absolutely correct, but consider the “defrost cycle”. I’m my fridge, which is a 2004 JennAir, it uses 600w three times a day for the defrost at 15 minutes. This adds up! I use a Emporia smart switch (plugs into the wall) to monitor it. Last month, it used 181kwh of energy. I have a Delta 3 plus on order with the alternator kit. I already had 4 EF 400w ground mount rigid panels, looking to get 4 more, but probably not EF rigid. Their nice panels but I want to add bifacial.
You r right. Defrost cycle on my fridge draws 500 watts. Normal running power is 115 watts. Don’t know how often it runs defrost. Have been running fridge for a few months with a delta pro max. I have been surprised at how much power the thing used
@ Hi, mine cycles for 15m three times in 24h - draws 500w for 15m each session, so 1500w per day. That makes a difference! Thank you for your comment. Central Florida here - 🌴✌️
@@JenkinsUSA 3 x 15 mins is 0.75 hours x 500w is 375Wh / day for the heater cycle.
3 x 15 mins is 0.75 hours x 600w is 450Wh. If your appliance used 181kWh over nominal 30 days that means the refrigeration component consumed 5.6kWh/day. You made an error (typo, 18.1kWh?) or you have one really big appliance or you might want to consider closing the doors.
@@retrozmachine1189 Hi and thanks for your insight. It’s 181kwh per month total usage which is about $26.5 per month during the hot months. It’s in a unconditioned space, hence the higher usage. I also have a sense whole house monitor but it fails reading individual devices reliably, hence the emporia monitor which works great. My rate is .145 cents per kWh so 181*$.145=$26.25 per month. It’s lower of course during the cooler months. I hope this clarifies things. I have by the way replaced the control board three times since 2004. Sense helped me track this down, but the Emporia nailed it for me. Will I replace the side by side JennAir in the future, yes when the sealed unit fails. Other than the defrost board, I did change all the internal lights to LED light, for the modern white light look versus the orange light. Hope this helps!
This is interesting as I just got a Jackery 240 for use with a car fridge and tested it. Without the fridge being cold I plugged it in and it used about 25% of the battery in 2 hours so good to keep it cool when stopped and not running off the car for a short time. Also took about 90 min to recharge via mains power back to 100%.
Those numbers are about what I get with my fridge, which I've powered with a power station during outages (one was several days long). But there are two additional losses that have to be taken into account... inverter idle losses (around 10W) and inverter efficiency (around 85%). Power stations are not known to have very efficient inverters. We'll include the battery round-trip in that inverter efficiency number as well.
My fridge clocks in at roughly 1200Wh/day off a kill-a-watt, but going through the power station adds another (10W x 24h = 240Wh) vampire idle and (1200Wh x 0.15 roughly = 180Wh) in battery and inverter losses. So 1200Wh + 240Wh + 180Wh = 1620Wh/day of consumption on the DC side.
I also have a Dometic portable fridge. That one can run from 12/24VDC and burns only 288 Wh/day. It will run a tad over 2 days from a 12.8V @ 50Ah battery.
-Matt
Do you live in a warmer climate? During his test, he had the air conditioner running, but if there’s a power outage that that’s not likely going to be the case. I wonder what the energy consumption difference would be if the interior of the house was 90°F versus 70°F. If you had a power outage during the winter and you live in a cold climate, it might save power because the central heating will be down
@@calvinwalker4654 It is certainly true that a fridge will eat more energy when the room is hotter. A small dorm fridge would fare significantly worse for sure. A regular home fridge would probably only be affected modestly though. I would guestimate another 300 Wh or so.
That would be a non-issue for a generator and just mean that the power station might have to be recharged from the generator a little more often than before. Perhaps in the morning and then just top it off in the evening after sunset to cover overnight.
It is also important to note that hot weather generally equates to lots of sunshine, so covering the situation with a solar system would probably not require any special considerations either.
And keep in mind that these consumptions of energy tend to be fixed. 2 kWh/day for the fridge. 2 kWh/day for a heat-pump water heater. A small window A/C might be 5 kWh/day (running 12 hours a day), 1 kWh/day for the well pump, 2 kWh/day for toaster-oven + microwave + tea-kettle/coffee-maker, etc.
People who take solar and storage seriously usually scale out of these relatively small usages fairly quickly. Even a small system with only 2000W worth of solar panels can generate 10 kWh/day of energy in summer, and 5 in winter. And that's a tiny system.
-Matt
Very good info. 2kWh/day looks like good practical estimate.
Not only are they crap quality inverters they can actually damage the fridge. Don't believe me? Feel the compressor on your fridge while running on "real" power. Now run it for a full cycle on your power station.... You'll thank me later.
FYI... If you want a real utility grade inverter you have to look for names like Victron or Outback or any other "low frequency" inverters. This is one of those things that you can truly tell the quality by the weight of the unit. A quality utility grade inverter will be 60+ lbs for the inverter alone.
Whats the difference in inverters? Well I can run my coffee maker + fridge + microwave all at the same time and my inverter won't even blink. The power is actually BETTER than what I would get from a utility. The compressor will run at normal temperatures.
@@junkerzn7312 Your numbers are very accurate. But I would not call 2kW array small. That would be 7 typical residential panels. If people invest in 6-8 panels, they should definitely gridtie that. If it is gridtied, it's a bit of effort to change the wires to charging a power station. Next, each size power station has charge rate limits. I don't think any can take 2,000W. So you'll have to work around that with different expense and compromise.
A lot depends on the seasonal. temperatures where you live in cold climates the heat rejected by the fridge or freezer is much less and contributes low level background heating.
THANK YOU for the informative video! Folks are overthinking things and trying to come up with fancy equations, when all they needed to to was hook up a watt meter (the draw down on a battery unit also works). In fairness, cheap watt meters are relatively recent, but they've been out for a few years now.
Update to my comment about Helene: Sold the Ryobi 6500 gas generator & bought a Predator 5000 dual fuel generator so I can use an EcoFlow Delta 2 Max (that I bought w/ your code) to run the fridge in peace and quiet for any future blackout. This video was a huge help in figuring out a better solution than massive amounts of gasoline for a single fridge.
So happy to hear that you found our video helpful & that you were able to figure out a better solution! We appreciate your support ⚡️
I live in South Louisiana and I’m busy gathering components for a solar generator to back up my gasoline generator. My goal is to run the fridge and freezer completely on battery/solar and use the generator for larger appliances like the microwave and a window AC unit. This is the kind of content I need to help me plan.
There is no super cooling mode that your fridge runs at when first starting up. The compressor runs at a constant low voltage for a duty cycle. The total wattage listed would be the power if everything in the fridge was running at the same time (lights, compressor, ice maker, defroster, touch screen, fans, sensors, ... ). The power supply would be sized to handle all those items running at once. Thr defroster is a high power resistive heater and consumes lots of power when it runs.
You are forgetting the largest load... A fridge uses around 1500w for a few seconds when the electric engine starts running the compressor.
Thank you for the video. Great information,
Very temperature dependent usage. In the heat of summer, when it is 115 F in the garage, i have to add a fan blowing through the coils. Uses ~ 1 kw-hr per day.
Assuming that the almost 2 kw-hr/ day refrigerator ls accurate.
Plus the 0.5 - 1 kw-hr per day consumption by just the inverter being on.
Total is pretty close to 4 kw-hr per day in the summer.
I added a residential refrigerator to my motorhome. It was a counter depth Whirlpool side by side. After cool down when the compressor was running, it drew 0.8A current. There was a surge on compressor startup for less than one second. While the RV was sitting with no door openings of the refrigerator, it ran for about 10 minutes per hour. I powered it from a 1000W Xantrex pure sine inverter and the RV batteries. It worked great even with dry camping. I was shocked at the tiny current draw. This reinforces the video above as my experience paralleled his experiment.
Nice video showing how much power they pull.. The rating on the label is max power.. During normal cooling operation it will not reach that power level regardless of how cool the fridge is already.. What really uses power is the defrost cycle because it uses heating elements to defrost the freezer.. It will use a good bit more energy for the heaters and it needs to cool things back down again.. Some fridge controls will allow you to force a defrost cycle.. So maybe you can see what it pulls during a cycle..
I think the defrost cycle come on once every hour it heat up the cooling fins not the whole freezer
@@FewerOptions-mx7qt it's there to heat up and remove ice from the evaporator.. Not heat up the whole fridge/freezer.. Usually runs once or so every 24 hours.. Hopefully newer fridge units are a little smarter..
@stevenlilly lol that is what I said. I don't even know where the evap is on a newer unit their no longer in freezer or its hidden better but if I was going to make one maybe a way is to reverse it where its like a heat pump for defrost cycle but you would have to figure a way not to heat up whole freezer
In cold climates the excess heat generated by the refrigerator is benefiting the space heating so there is very little wasted energy... The reverse being true in hot climate naturally.
I've noticed on my Off-Gid setup my Magic Chef 10.1 Cubic fridge is actually fairly low demand with regard to power needs. Also, if you stuff your fridge the cooled items helps keep the momentum. Another way is to place a few gallons of water to take up the needed space.
They help maintain the cold.
I have an LG 27 cu ft, side-by-side. Sticker says 3.3A. I also have a Leviton load center with smart breakers and have measurements for every circuit. My big fridge consumes between 500 Wh and 1 kWh per day, depending on how much it is opened up and people just stand and stare. In the heart of summer, when people are using the ice maker and water dispenser more, along with opening the freezer more for popsicles, etc. it raises to as high as 2 kWh per day. It idles with a 68 W draw, no compressor.
You are 100% right when the door is open and the light is on, on older fridges that still have the regular bulb, that bulb is using more power than the compressor running.
I used to lose power weekly at my house and there were lots of lightning strikes. So I put my fridge on a workstation/server backup power with the little screen on the front that shows you everything and I was surprised. I was extremely surprised that the damn light bulb used more power than the compressor when running. The startup search was pretty big though I'm guessing around 900 w for maybe an eighth of a second.
Incoming power can vary from 110 to 125 Volts rms AC. A surge or dip can be higher or lower. Depending on the appliance/fridge, some will consume more "power" at a higher incoming voltage if they have a fixed current, or will drop the current to maintain the same power.
I'm sure you know that nearly anything with an electrical rating will list a total power consumption far higher than average for things like startup current, and max/worst case scenario.
Thanks for the testing, very informative.
Yeah the power rating is for the defrost mode which is a heater wire to melt the ice off the condenser which uses the extra power that you didn’t see .. it only works occasionally to keep the ice away ..
Great test!
I live in Alaska and solar is very popular here.
I drove 200 miles out of town and every store had massive solar panels. Wind is a close second and geothermal is taking hold.
Winter time the freezer uses practically nothing lol (it’s outside)
Alaska gets JUST as much sunlight as EVERY OTHER place on the PLANET!!!
The thing that most surprises me about my relatively recent fridge is how quickly the inside temperature rises during a power outage. It’s a pain to get to the chord so I’ll generally wait an hour or two before plugging it into a power station. Without opening the doors it will typically rise to about 50°. Thankfully it cools down quickly
Greatly depends on the compressor type. My LG fridge uses an inverter heat pump and the draw varies primarily on the indoor temperature. The lower the temperature, the less energy consumed. With 75 degree average indoor temp the LG typical uses 40 Wh/h with a duty cycle of 80% on. @ 65 degree indoors that drops to 30 Wh/h. There is typically a defrost cycle of 200Wh across two hours every day but sometimes skips a day. In the past three weeks, the daily consumption of the LG has varied from a low 0.76 kWh to a high 1.12 kWh with an average of 0.92 kWh. The highest usage days are typically when new groceries are placed in the LG.
We replaced a failed fridge like OP's white one 3+ years ago with the exact same LG that OP has in their lab and it too has the inverter heat pump. You can use LG's Thinq app to track its (and any other smart LG appliance's) energy usage. Ours averages about 1.5 cumulative kw per day with the defrost cycle being the biggest draw between 2 and 3 am at 167WH. Oh and not sure why OP's fridge has their display always on but ours is set to blank after 5 seconds.
If you divide hour by hour, what does that equal to?
Answer:
NOTHING
The most efficient refrigerator is a top freezer with no fancy gadgets like ice,water,defroster, just a cooling system and a lightbulb. Will use far less than the fridge shown.
A frost free refrigerator or freezer does not pull the most power when The compressor is running to cool the appliance. They will pull the most power in defrost mode.When the heating element is on and it is melting the ice off the coils.
I got similar results as you when I measured my full size refrigerator with an energy watt meter. I live where power is extremely reliable and haven’t purchased a power station but I am wired for a full panel generator backup.
My many concern is the frig's start up surge. The frig's total draw over time is a secondary concern, especially if I can get an unit with both thru put charging and external battery units.
On a really hot day here in South Africa, our fridge plus a little bar fridge uses 1.7 units, but average out at, you guessed it 1.3
It's important to remember your inverter battery is using power to keep the inverter on. Which is why when you turn it on it has a estimated time until it runs out even with nothing plugged in.
Thank you for this video, useful info to estimate actual energy usage.
For those who may be unclear, a kW and kWh are related but not the same. 1kW is 1,000 watts of power.
If you use 1kW for an hour, for convenience we call this unit of energy 1 kW hour or kWh and this is the unit of energy we buy from the grid.
For example, the following all use 1kWh:
100W for 10 hours
500W for 2 hours
1kW for 1 hour
2kW for 30 mins.
6kW for 10 mins
According to my electric meter my fridge and large box freezer used 70w /h of power measured over 24 hour hours. Meaning it used 70*24 hours of power =1,890 w every 24 hours. But you must also remember that a fridge or freezer uses around 1500w for a few seconds when starting.
I’d say that’s about right. We went through two power outages here in SWFL, most recently with hurricane Milton. We were out about 48 hours total. My 2000w ANKER 767 powered all my 120v outlets 4-6 hrs daytime and 6-8 hrs nighttime. Biggest items were two full size refrigerators. Ambient temp was around 82F day 75F night, no a/c. I recharged using a Champion 2000w dual fuel generator (propane) that used about 1 18# tank for the two days, and I don’t think I ran it as efficiently as possible. Being concerned about the battery drain overnight one night, I ran the Champion full time and it didn’t empty the tank after 12hrs+. I bought the 767 expansion battery so I think I’ll need to recharge only once or twice a day. I’m not sure, but I think I’ll get upwards of 6 recharges out of one 18# propane tank. I think the reason there’s so much doubt about tests, consumption, watts, amps, volts and whatever is because no two so called “identical” tests ever produce the same exact result. I tried to keep track of my battery usage and kept getting surprised both on the upside and downside … is why my estimates above are hourly ranges. Unless you’re going 100% off-grid, you don’t really need much more than 2000-4000 wh battery supported by a small 2000w dual fuel generator, and that, I think is over kill!
Finally, somebody put the "Fridge Power Monster" myth to the test. GJ!
I ran my 2019 Frigidaire 380 watt (3.3 amp * 115 volt according to the sticker) fridge with a fully-charged 1,280Wh battery and a Renogy 2,000 watt inverter for about 11 hours before it shut down. The icemaker and water dispenser were being used as well as regular opening/closing with 3 people in the house. The house temperature was about 75 degrees. The freezer thermostat is set for 0 degrees and the fridge is set for 40 degrees.
The Bluetti AC180 with 1,152Wh says it'll run a fridge (120 watt according to their claim) for about 7 hours. Compared to my numbers, that seems like a conservative estimate (surprisingly for a manufacturer figure). Based on my numbers for my fridge, I would expect more like 9 hours.
I'm not sure why these numbers vary so much from the test presented here. Even accounting for inverter inefficiency and battery useable wattage being lower than the claimed wattage, I don't see why my testing and the Bluetti claim would be about half what the solar labs numbers are. Regardless, I've upped my battery capacity to 5,120Wh and have enough solar that I'm getting 4+kWh on sunny days so I should be able to go indefinitely as long as the days are sunny.
That isn't that good. My fridge uses 1100 watts per day. I use an Outback FXR series low frequency inverter that is truly utility grade power. The high frequency inverters struggle really hard with motors and tend to make them heat up and run inefficient.
No one has mentioned anything about the inrush current on startup to size the inverter. For example 1.4 kW to run for a day 200 W while running 1.2 kilo wants to start.
A boiler does the same thing. It doesn't keep heating up your water 24/7 but just heats the water until the temperature you've set has been reached, then turns off but keeps measuring the water temperature. If it gets somewhat colder, the heater comes back on until the set temperature is reached again, then turns back off. Like if you set your water to 60°C, the boiler will heat it up till 60°C, then turn off. It will turn back on when the water drops to 50°C or so, keeping the water between your set temperature and a somewhat smaller temperature. A fridge does the same but it cools instead of heating up.
The rated wattage on the sticker indicates the power surge that the fridge will draw while the compressor motor starts and includes the extra features running at the same time as compressor motor start. Any generator to power the fridge should be well beyond this amount for safe running during power outages.
My own test showed similar results, I realized that the "rating" on the sticker has to include all possible uses. Heck the ice dispenser takes 200w but it is only for a few seconds.
Sometimes smaller fridges use way more power. I had a mini fridge with a freezer compartment and that thing uses more power than my my full size fridge.
The mini fridge never stopped running. The full size fridge ran maybe 10 minutes every hour.
Storms are the primary cause of power outages in my neck of the woods. Depending on the severity of the storm, power might be out for a few hours or up to a week. Winter storms are the most severe because heavy snow and ice can bring miles of power lines crashing down over large areas and repair becomes a lengthy process.
Also remember, the rating plate is the maximum the unit is safe to draw, not that it will draw. The energy consumption it actually requires for operation is sometimes as much as 25% of the rating plate numbers, meaning it will continue to operate within safety standards even at the max listing. Auto defrost is for a very short period of time, and while being higher consumption than any other time of the day, is still not much in the grand scheme of things. Best investment is a couple of those power monitor thingys you can move from appliance to appliance when you want to check their efficiency. That and a couple of bottles of Worry Not once in a while!
My fridge (50 W) and freezer (110 W) did took 2/3 my electric consumption. Freezer did run all of time due broken thermostat. After repairing they take 1/3. Cheapest adjustable thermostat come to power cord. Original migth be very expensive if it`s available.
If it’s cold out you only need a sturdy container to keep your food in outside on a deck or in your garage. A cooler or a sturdy storage tote.
@@tagladyify animals might get it into it, unless you are in a condo 20 stories off the ground, critters aren't brave enough to climb to a balcony that high :-)
@@jrplus416 I’ve never had a problem putting my cooler on my deck and I have all kinds of wildlife. May be a problem with bears, but not much else.
Use a plug in wattmeter to check as you did. What you need to mention is the initial surge to start that motor running- which can be 1kw for a fraction of a second. You need to size the inverter to cope with that, and the battery capacity to cope with the base load.
My kitchen fridge draws about 100 watts when running too but I’ve seen to spike to 5-600 watts and I think there’s the defroster cycle kicking on. That could be where those higher number are coming from on the spec sheet. It’s annoying because I don’t think you can turn the defroster off and that just kills a Power station’s run time 😭
If the label says max A, then I would assume that is the Inrush current, which is a short interval & the run current is much lower and intermittent as was pointed out in the video. I haven't tried this but isn't there a yellow sticker on the appliance when you buy it that states the cost of annual operation and the price of the energy. Just take the Annual energy used and divide by 365 for your daily KWH usage& if you want it in Watts, just multiply it by 1000. Annual KWH/3650) X1000=Daily Watt hours.
i got 24/7 stats of my fridge with a power meter tool since july, it average 1.3kwh like you, what you need to be aware of the surge/spike when the compressor start, i see spike up to 16A. i can send you graph/csv file if you wish, let me know
Mine draws up to 400w/day.
Up to. In the summer.
Right now, it kicks on for 10mins every one and a half hours.
I have a heavy duty powered wheelchair and am totally dependent on it about seven years ago. My dad bought me two 330 W battery banks and we did some math and he bought me a kill a watt device to directly measure what happened when I plugged my chair into the charger and verify that our math was all correct and it was and I suggest for 35 bucks or so you go buy one they’re awesome. There’s a lot of things you can do with it. On this subject, at least peripherally people lose electricity and immediately start throwing their food out almost immediately as if the frozen food in their freezer won’t take three or four days to thaw out once the power is totally gone if they don’t open the door , that’s bugged me for 35 years because like you said fridges don’t ask me run all the time or even most of the time. Good video thanks a lot. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kill_A_Watt
There are a couple of things to point out with your article.
The load on a refrigerator or airconditioner will depend on the ambiante temperature and humidity. The higher the temperature or humidity the lower the efficiency and therefore the higher the power draw.
In your examples you were working at about a 10% duty cycle if you increase the duty cycle you will use more energy.
The fact is that the amount of energy you use depends on the situation.
I was wondering what the surge was when the compressor kicked on( Max Amp draw).
A while ago I got a a delta 2 and extra battery with the idea of running the PC and stereo off it. I did the numbers wrong and it turns out on the weekend I use more power in a day than the batteries held. So batteries are now use to run the fridge freezer charging up for a couple of hours over night on cheap rate. This is not a humongous US fridge so it uses about a quarter to a third of the stored power for that so I plugged a small kettle and my coffee maker into it as well.
Moral of the story, I'm using much more energy entertaining myself than preserving food and making hot drinks.
Haha, yeah, I figured out the same thing. My 70" tv takes 20 watts when turned off, 165 when on, which is more than the fridge. 😅
If you shut off the power to the freezer, what amount would be then use?
My 100L fridge (Small freezer) on my 1536Wh power station can run for about 2 days. Uses 25% per 12 hours or so.
Your numbers got me curious. Checking the label on my 2010 Maytag said 10 amps. I'll need to check how much it's actively using, but maybe it's time to actually replace it with something more efficient.
My 12 year old French door fridge with a bad door gasket uses about 1.5-2 kWh per day. This according to my Emporia Vue energy monitor
Good to know. I checked mine with a watt meter. It is 20 yrs old and it came in at 1681 watts per day. My big chest freezer came in at 1,053 watts per day without opening it. I think you may pick up high wattage when they kick into defrost cycles but that is for a short period of time.
This is a wonderful video, however please consider: In steady-state (maintaining) mode, a huge side by side fridge with variable speed compressor uses very little power. Mine uses 61 watts all day long. But every 2 weeks it goes into defrost mode which uses 1,150 watts for about 30 minutes. My experience is, if you restore power during an outage, it will postpone the defrost but there are no guarantees. Be aware of this, and also there are some small low-cost refrigerators that use a PTC thermistor to start the compressor. With these, compressor running power is low but when the compressor starts, the current goes up to 10 amps for 3 to 5 seconds. Because of that, your inverter must be sized a lot bigger than the steady state power of the fridge.
Got a propane fridge for my off-grid cabin.
A long time ago I measured the power use of my fridge. 1 kWh per day for the fridge/freezer. 2 kWh per day for the full size freezer (stand up freezer same size as a fridge). Measured with a kill-a-watt over several days. Of course it is going to depend on the temp in the house and the size of the fridge or freezer. But where I live it is seldom very hot or cold. I live in a mild climate. People should probably measure their own fridges to find out (you can use a kill-a-watt).
I have a hybrid solar system on my house, I also monitor my energy in realtime (all loads) . I have a modern refrigerator, Samsung, I barely see it running. The energy pigs are , hot water heater, HVAC and my stove. Oh don’t forget microwave and dishwasher. Those use about 1 kw when on.
For those of us who have dogs & cats your 'fridge uses about 25% more energy to do the same work if the heat exchanger is coated with pet hair.
Using a Kill-a-Watt multiple times to measure since 2003 I'm confident in these numbers.
This is interesting to me because I recently tried to power my standard, newer LG fridge off my Jackery explorer 1000 v1. It starts, draws a couple hundred watts, then something goes “zzzzzzap” and it turns off. I had Jackery accept that something was faulty with my unit and they’ll let me send it back. But I recently tried running other things on it, including a carpet cleaner that pulls just above the rated max output, like 1,056W, and that runs for a couple minutes without issue. So I’m trying to figure out if the fridge is doing something weird that might be overloading the power station somehow?
A week ago I disconnected my full size 20-year old fridge and moved everything to a small minibar. My daily power usage instantly dropped from 5 kWh/day to just 2 kWh/day. So the old fridge obviously uses more than 3 kWh/day.