Fridge/Freezer

PennineAcute

Wonder if someone can help me.

According to my handbook, the estimated usage of my fridge freezer is 263 Kw per year. This works out at 721 w at day, or around 3 w an hour.

My daily base use is 90 w an hour, so deducting the 3 w, leaves a base use of 87 w. If this is correct, I cannot see how my router and two TVs (on standby) are using 87 w an hour.

Robin9

How are you calculating the 90w ?

Do you have an ACTUAL consumption for the year.

Stompa

PennineAcute wrote: »

According to my handbook, the estimated usage of my fridge freezer is 263 Kw per year. This works out at 721 w at day, or around 3 w an hour.

I think you'll find that's 30W per hour. And of course, consumption will be higher in the summer than in the winter.

matelodave

30watts x 24 = 720w/h x 365 = 262.8kwh (dont forget it's only an estimate and will depend on the temperature (both ambient and the inside it), how often you open the door and how much you keep in it)

check your router consumption, usually around 6-10 watts = 150-240w/h

Tvs could be around a watt each on standby = 24w/h in a day each,

Don't forget central heating (pump, electronics, timers etc), cooker, clocks,microwaves, washing machine and anything else that has a standby facility. What about chargers, satellite box, video recorders, computer psu's etc etc. Even lighting (have you got an outside fllod light that comes on & off)

Non of them are all that much individually but it can soon add up. Our cooker uses 30-40 watts when it's in standby mode (clock, induction hob etc). We used to have electric reclining chairs which chewed their way through 15watts each just by being plugged in.

Where are you getting your baseload info from?

We switch everything off when we go away, except for the freezer, router, optical network unit (for FTTP broadband) Sky box, a couple of powerline adapters, a couple of surveillance cameras and two clocks and we still get through over 3kwh kwh a day (about 130 watts)

PennineAcute

Getting base units from my IHD. Ocassasionally the fridge makes a noise and it adds another 100 W to my realtime usage.

coffeehound

Out of interest, what does the manual say the F-F's power is? I was expecting it to be a multiple of 30 watts.

[Deleted User]

The fridge making the noise is when the motor kicks in to run the compressor to cool the interior. And starting a motor takes a high current draw which decreases once it is running. So there will be a marked increase in energy used every time it starts up.

PennineAcute

coffeehound wrote: »

Out of interest, what does the manual say the F-F's power is? I was expecting it to be a multiple of 30 watts.

This is all it gives me. Yes, I misread. It is actually 243

I had noticed that the fan at the rear of the top shelf of freezer was covered. Food was right up to the back. Adjusted to leave some space around the fan.

matelodave

As gsmlnx says the fridge compressor will take between 3-5 times it's running current when starting so there's a big peak inrush which settles down when the motor is up to speed.

The 243kwh/year is an average based on normal use and will not equate to a running consumption of 30w because the unit only runs intermittently (20-30% of the time).

It probably takes 60-100 watts when actually running - have a shufti around the back to see if there's a rating plate which should give you some idea of what it's actual consumption is.

Is you IHD telling you that your base load is 90 watts or or you doing your own sums. If it's the IHD then it will probably compute the baseload as the minimum power consumption when it thinks everything is off (ie when the power consumption is the lowest), so it wont necessarily include the fridge freezer if it doesn't run during the computing period.

My energy monitor assumes my baseload equates to when the power consumption is at it's lowest level. You can see the fridge or freezer pulses which are higher than the assumed baseload (usually in the middle of the night)

[Deleted User]

If you can get to the back of the fridge, you may want to remove any dust from the condenser coils so the heat can be dissipated better.

Talldave

PennineAcute wrote: »

Wonder if someone can help me.

According to my handbook, the estimated usage of my fridge freezer is 263 Kw per year. This works out at 721 w at day, or around 3 w an hour.

My daily base use is 90 w an hour, so deducting the 3 w, leaves a base use of 87 w. If this is correct, I cannot see how my router and two TVs (on standby) are using 87 w an hour.

Is that really all that's connected to the electricity supply in your home? No boiler, oven, microwave, doorbell, dishwasher, washing machine, etc?