In this article, we will see how you can reduce your refrigerator power consumption by implementing some handy tips.
Tips to reduce refrigerator power consumption:
1. Organize Your Refrigerator: One of the major errors most of us do is either overstuff our refrigerator or leave it completely empty.
When you overstuff the refrigerator there are a lot of items to cool off and very less space for air circulation inside the refrigerator this puts a lot of strain on the compressor, and thus more power consumption.
However, when you underfill or basically keep less food in the refrigerator there is more air inside the refrigerator (more than food) which has to be cooled down (which is absolute waste of electricity).
Hence the sweet spot is to organize your food items in such a way that there is enough space in the refrigerator for free-flowing of air and there are enough food items to cool off. This will save your refrigerator power consumption.
Below picture depicts this quite eloquently.
2. Defrost Your Refrigerator: If you see a layer of ice anywhere inside your refrigerator then defrost it either manually or automatically whichever option is available.
Frost inside your freezer is caused by moisture coming into contact with the coils inside the refrigerator and freezing. It can lead to odors, loss of storage space, and ineffective sealing of the appliance door which can lead to an increase in power consumption. Thus always defrost to reduce your refrigerator power consumption.
3. Clean Coils: The condenser coil on the back of your refrigerator is the place where all the heat from inside the refrigerator is dissipated hence, it should always be clean. A thick layer of dust acts as a barrier in the smooth transfer of heat.
Due to this the compressor works harder to maintain the temperature inside the refrigerator and inturn will consume more power.
The pictures below depict dirty condenser and clean condenser, if you think your’s would not be this dirty then please check for yourself.
4. Refrigerator Door Properly Sealed: This is a common problem, most of us never change the refrigerator door seal (gasket) in the entire lifetime of the refrigerator.
In reality, the door seal loses its effectiveness to properly seal the door with time. This allows cold and conditioned air from inside the refrigerator to flow out, and hot air from outside to enter inside the refrigerator thereby increasing the load the compressor to cool more air and thus increasing power consumption.
To find out whether your refrigerator seal is worn off:
- Slide Rs 10 note or $ 1 note ( or any paper), if it passes through the seal easily then it’s time to change the seal.
- Place a flashlight (high intensity) inside the refrigerator and turn off the light in that room, if the light is coming out of the refrigerator then it’s time to change the seal.
5. Check Temperature: I don’t want to give you a temperature figure at which you should keep your refrigerator, instead I would recommend you simply do what the knobs in your refrigerator and freezer compartment say.
The below image shows that a setting of 1 – 3 is good for winter, 3 – 5 is good for monsoon, and 5 – 7 is good for summer.
Just do what your refrigerator says.
6. Keep The Heat Away: One should always try to keep any heat-producing appliances like cooking gas, oven away from the refrigerator as these appliances heat the air around the refrigerator, which puts a lot of strain on the condenser to release heat to the environment.
(If a body is at 50 degree Celsius and surrounding air is at 30 degree Celsius then heat transfer is relatively easy, but if a body is at 50 degree Celsius and surrounding air is at 45 degree Celsius then heat transfer becomes difficult.)
Also if possible place your refrigerator in such a place that it does not receive any direct sunlight.
6. Let Your Food Cool Off: This is an easy change all of us can do, if you are keeping any food item in your refrigerator then make sure it is cooled down to the room temperature before you keep it in the refrigerator.
This is best for power saving and also to keep your food getting spoiled due to sudden temperature difference.
7. Keep The Door Closed: This is again a lifestyle change all of us can do, Always keep the door of your refrigerator closed and do not open & close the door unnecessarily.
Every time you open the door of your refrigerator, warm hot air from the surrounding gushes inside the refrigerator and heats the cold air inside it. This significantly increases the power consumption. Thus avoid unnecessary door opening and closing to reduce refrigerator power consumption.
8. Cover Any Liquid With Lid: If you are keeping a liquid in the refrigerator then make sure the container is perfectly sealed. If the container is open then moisture will go in the remaining air and this will make cooling more difficult.
Besides this, food which is kept open can leave it’s smell in the entire refrigerator and can even contaminate other foods kept beside it.
Note: If you are using a 15 – 20 years old refrigerator then I highly recommend you buy a new refrigerator as new technology is much more energy-efficient.
Start following all these tips and you will see a considerable reduction in your electricity bill.
Note: If you are using a refrigerator which was made 15 – 20 years ago then it is seriously time to change it to modern energy efficient refrigerators. Those old refrigerators were power hogs when compared to modern one’s.
Old VS New Refrigerator Power Consumption:
If you are using a refrigerator that you purchased in the last 10 years, then chances are it is BEE rated and has energy-saving stars on it.
This energy-saving label depicts the overall power consumption of a refrigerator.
The below photo is of my LG refrigerator which we purchased in 2010. It is having a 4-star rating from BEE and as you can see it consumes 460 kWh of electricity in the entire year. (Don’t know what is kWh check out this article – What is watt and kWh? )
And now the below photo is of the latest refrigerator from Samsung which is also of the same capacity (230 liters) that I have. As you can see it is rated 3-star by BEE but only consumes 169 kWh in the entire year, that’s a reduction of 63 % in the power consumption for the same size fridge.
That’s a yearly saving of Rs 2,900 in electricity bill.
Mine is still a relatively new refrigerator in terms of energy efficiency as it is rated by BEE, those old refrigerators will consume even more power than what mine does.
All I want to say is technology has improved drastically in the last 10 -15 years hence if you own a 15 – 20 year old refrigerator then it is time to change it to a new one.
In the end I would like to share this info-graphic which will help you to organize the food items inside your refrigerator.
If you are looking for new refrigerator then feel free to check out my other articles to know more about inverter refrigerator and select the best refrigerator for your home.
- Best Single Door Refrigerator To Buy in India.
- Best Double Door Refrigerator To Buy in India.
- How To Calculate Power Consumption Of Refrigerator.
- What Are Inverter Refrigerators?
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Thank You for reading.
Have a nice day.
Bye 🙂
