4 ms·

$1.75/year doesn't sound like watts turning into dollars quickly to me, when a freezer costs several hundred to replace.

• rrss 7y ago
  That's per year per watt, though. A fridge made prior to 1990 probably uses 1000-1500 kWh/year, and one made more recently probably uses 300-500 kWh/year. There's $70+ per year.
  • userbinator 7y ago
    ...and a 1930s GE Monitor Top uses less than 250kWh/year, with ones from the 40s and 50s also in that range. Frigidaire truthfully advertised its "Meter-Miser" compressor (which is 1/8HP, or ~93W) as using less power than a 100W lightbulb. Having done most of the restoration of one, I can confirm that power usage. If it ran 24/7 that would still be ~800kWh/year, but it doesn't run continuously so actual consumption is far less --- at a more typical 50% duty cycle it would be closer to 400. Once I get it completely back together and reinsulated I can check. Energy consumption shot up in the 60s and 70s with things like automatic defrost heaters and thinner insulation (because power was cheap and it made for more interior room), and then decreased again gradually after that due to environmental regulations. But the ones before that are a lot more efficient than most people think.