Maybe you are wondering how much power or watts your refrigerator is consuming and how it is impacting your monthly electricity bills or you are thinking about buying a mini-refrigerator for your dorm or office and you are not sure how to make a decision, you have browsed to the right place! Read along and hopefully, you will find answers to all your questions along with some tips and best practices.
Normally a mini-refrigerator or compact refrigerator uses 60 watts to 100 watts per hour. Many compact refrigerators can consume up to 220 watts per hour. Not all refrigerators consume the same amount of electricity. That’s why it deserves some homework on your own to find out how many watts does a mini-refrigerator use. I have done some research myself to save your time, thank me later!
Nowadays a mini-refrigerator has become a demanding home appliance for single persons in-home or offices. A refrigerator takes good care of your vegetables, meats, and other perishable stuff. A mini refrigerator is also proving to be very helpful to small families who live in small apartments.
It easily fits in any corner of your home, you can even put it in your living room or bedroom. Some people do that to get easy access to their beverages and snacks. Suppose you are having a party in your front yard and don’t want to go inside home for drinks over and over. You can also put one beside your swimming pool! The mini-refrigerator could be a handy appliance at that time.
Apparently, a mini-refrigerator uses fewer watts compared to standard-sized ones and this is almost always true except for some ifs and buts. Let’s dig deeper. I promise I won’t talk your ears off with technical jargon, I will be as simple and to the point as possible.
What is a Watt and how does it Impact your Electricity Bill?
The power consumed by electrical appliances is calculated in watts. There are some steps to find out the watts used by your home appliance. Typically, every electrical component carries a sticker either on the backside or on the inside that specifies the power consumption rate in watts. Try to find this and keep in mind that it tells the amount of power an electric appliance consumes per hour.
In order to compute your total consumption in energy or dollars, watts are the key root. At the end of the month when you receive the electricity bill, you will find the kilowatt-hour (kWh) mentioned. KWH is the standard unit for calculating electricity consumption.
Changing watts into kilowatt is not a tough job. Divide the watt value with 1000 or just past the decimal point three places on the left. By using this method 550.0 watt-hours will be equivalent to 0.550 kilowatt-hours.
If your refrigerator says it uses 100W, it means it will consume 100W or .01KW per hour when in operation. You let your refrigerator run always, so it might seem that it will consume electricity 24 hours. But it is hardly the case. In reality, a refrigerator has an operation cycle and that is 33% of the time it is on that is on average it will be in operation for 8 hours a day. So it will consume .08KWH units of electricity every day on average.
Also, the 8 hours of operation can be more or less depending on your usage and the temperature you set for it to settle on.
Some refrigerators list the voltage and ampere on the sticker. Don’t get nervous if you see that. A simple calculation will For an easy understanding have a look at the formula.
Volts x Amps = Watts (P = VI)
Just multiply the Volts by the Ampere and the result that will come after that is Watts.
Don’t get confused when you see the units in a short form. Volts might be listed as V or VAC or ampere might be listed as Amps or I on the sticker. Suppose you have a mini-refrigerator which is 120 vac and 7 amps, the amount of the watts will be 120×7=840 watts.
If you have a restriction in your dorm or office and you need to find out the ampere value for your refrigerator and you couldn’t find that info on the sticker, a simple equation comes to the rescue. Read the watt value and the voltage mentioned on the sticker. Divide the watt with the voltage and you will get the ampere value. So for example, you find in the sticker,
Voltage = 120V
Wattage = 240W
then, Ampere = 240W / 120V = 2 I
Few, we are done with all the maths. Before moving on you can read through the rest of the article to learn about different types of mini refrigerators available and best practices for handling refrigerators.
Types of Mini Refrigerators
According to size and technology, there are many types of mini-refrigerator.
Size-Wise
Cube mini-refrigerator – A little bit bigger than a portable refrigerator. Easily fits in the bedroom, living room, and vehicles. Moreover, this one is best to keep your beverages.
Medium size mini refrigerator – Can be easily used in the office. Compared to other mini-refrigerators they consume more electricity. You can easily stock frozen foods and drinks for immediate access.
Portable refrigerator – Easily portable, as they are small in size. These refrigerators are the best fit for picnics or road trips.
Technology-Wise
Thermoelectric refrigerators – These refrigerators are similar to portable mini-refrigerators. They can also be carried by van or boat. There is a Thermoelectric sensor in the refrigerator. This sensor controls the thermostat which intelligently turns on or off the refrigeration process.
Absorption Mini refrigerators – This refrigerator has incorporated top-notch technologies for the users. A low sound, adequate storage capacity, led light are some of the best features.
Compressor Compact refrigerator – Exceptional power solidity and comes with 12V, 24V, and 45V voltage. The compressor is updated with high-quality small liquid cooling and extraordinary efficiency.
Does Mini Refrigerator save Electricity?
Well, there is no doubt that a mini-refrigerator consumes less power than a standard-size refrigerator. The requirement of wattage for a mini-refrigerator is between 50 watts to 100 watts. A large refrigerator uses 100 watts to 400 watts which leads to about 1600kWh for each year. On the other hand, a mini-refrigerator according to its size consumes about 300kWh for each year.
It’s a simple calculation of how a mini-refrigerator saves electricity. If you own a standard size refrigerator and a mini-refrigerator you will easily get the calculation. Every time you open your big refrigerator to get a drink or something it consumes energy. Whenever you open the door the refrigerator loses cold air, to cover that up the refrigerator has to do work again.
A compact refrigerator is pretty small compared to a standard-sized refrigerator. Compact refrigerators vary in size 2 cubic feet to 4.5 cubic feet in volume on the other hand standard size refrigerators vary around 22.5 to 31 cubic feet in volume. A standard refrigerator that owns around 22.5 to 31 cubic feet volume has less cold air in there to cool it down. This proves that a mini-refrigerator or compact refrigerator loses less cold air rather than a standard refrigerator and consumes less electricity.
Some other facts that Influence Energy Consumption
Though a mini or compact refrigerator consumes less energy, some tips are advised to avoid excessive consumption.
- Create some space around the refrigerator. A refrigerator releases high temperature and that’s why space is necessary.
- Running duration of the mini-refrigerator.
- The quantity how much you open the door. Do not open the door too frequently and don’t leave the door opened unnecessarily or indifferently.
- Do not overburden the refrigerator. Every item inside the refrigerator needs to cool properly. If you stuff the refrigerator with too many items then cold air cannot flow naturally, which cools down the items. So ignore overstuffing. Fill up space about ¾ full for perfect Air circulation.
- Understand the optimum temperature you should set. Believe me, this also affects energy consumption.
- Manual or automatic defrost refrigerators also affect energy consumption. The Automatic defrost appliances use much energy because they use heating components in the interior part. On the other side, the manual appliance does not use any heating components.
- Do not put any hot items inside the refrigerator. Wait until the food reaches the natural temperature before putting it inside.
- The excellence of the elements and techniques used in the making of the mini or compact refrigerator. So choose your brand wisely.
Final Words
When it comes to saving space, portability, and electricity bills, a mini-refrigerator is one of the best options you could consider. By reading this article I hope you have understood how many watts a mini-refrigerator uses.
These types of refrigerators are designed for a small family or individual people and it easily fits in any corner of your home. Since it’s a small-sized lightweight appliance, it is a great convenience for people who have to relocate frequently for a job or business purposes. Just take good care of it for long-time service.