There are certain appliances that consume a lot of electricity and are responsible for a large part of the bill each month. One of the main ones, without a doubt, is the refrigerator. In fact, it is estimated that it can be 30% of the total in some cases. In this article I tell you about my experience with a very old fridge, a little over 30 years old, and what’s the difference between keeping it on and keeping it off. As you will see, it is quite noticeable in the consumption.
Consumption of a very old refrigerator
It is a very old refrigerator that is practically not used, but that has been on for a while. I wanted to see to what extent it can cause daily consumption to skyrocket and what is the monthly savings when turned off completely. The results, as you can imagine, have been quite clear.
Keep in mind that a modern refrigerator today consumes between 1 and 1.5 kWh each day. It will depend on the exact model, the temperature at which you have it, the times you open it, etc. But to get an idea, calculate between 1 and 1.5 kWh as usual. That, given that the kWh costs about €0.20 (it will also depend a lot on your rate, whether or not you have time discrimination, etc.), it would be between 20 and 30 cents per day, about €6-9 per month.
How much does the refrigerator of more than 30 years consume me? What I have done is analyze the consumption of light that I have had for several days with the refrigerator on and, later, see that consumption with the appliance off. It is worth mentioning that the conditions have been the same. That is, the rest of the appliances in the home have worked the same.
What I have found is that that old refrigerator has consumed between 2 and 2.5 kWh. As you can see, practically double that of a more modern refrigerator. This, if we transfer it to the total consumption in the monthly bill, we would be talking about between €12 and €18always calculating on those €0.20 the kWh that we have given as an example.
Huge savings all year long
If that refrigerator were on all year round, consumption would be between €144 and €216, while with a more modern one consumption could be half that. So as you can see the savings are significant and if you have an older device similar to this, it might be a good idea to make a cheap investment since you will end up saving money.
In addition, a factor to take into account is that this refrigerator with which I have verified the cost is an appliance that is practically not used. That is, it has been running without the door being opened. If it were the usual refrigerator, the daily consumption would be somewhat higher since every time the door is opened the appliance will have to recover the temperature and it will consume energy.
You can apply the same to any other old appliance that you have at home For example, an old television consumes much more electricity than a modern LED screen. The same with light bulbs, oven, washing machine, dryer, dishwasher… Luckily, modern appliances are much more efficient and that helps us save on our bills. You can always control consumption with smart plugs, although sometimes it is necessary to use good Wi-Fi repeaters.
In short, as you see disconnect an old fridge from electricity It can help save quite a bit on the bill. Depending on the type of device and the use you have, it could consume between 2 and 2.5 kWh each day, although in some cases it could even exceed 3 kWh if it is damaged or you use it a lot.
