Residential Refrigerator Amp Draw

[SLO]

I currently own a 2012 3070RL. Am looking for a slightly bigger unit and possible the residential refrigerator. Has anyone put a Kill a Watt meter on the Frigidaire residential refrigerator to see what is the kWh usage per day? Looking at the Energy Guide for that model, it estimates 688 kWh per year or 1.88 kWh per day. This converts to 157 Ah per day, I think. Seems high to me if running off batteries and inverter for a short period of time, like a day. Most of what I've read suggest a residential refrigerator should use about 1 kWh per day when sizing for solar and batteries. If you had 4 6v batteries, the refrigerator would use over 3/4 of your Ah capacity per day. I may be looking at this wrong. Just wondering if anyone has actually measured kWh with a Kill a Watt mater.

 

[jbeletti]

I have never tested mine but I understand the load when the compressor is running is 6 or 7 amps at 110 VAC. Not sure what percentage of the time the compressor runs while you are traveling, but I'd guess it's not greater than 50%.

I travel all day long using two 12 volt batteries in parallel on the 1000 watt inverter (Xantrex) that came with the coach and I arrive each evening with the inverter still going. Unsure as to how much of the battery bank I've depleted but I'd guess it's pretty well gone.

 

[branson4020]

Based on the DOE energy guide, The compressor runs only about 10% of the time.

 

[SLO]

According to a friend of mine in the refrigeration business, the posted amps on an appliance is the max (or full load). I assume that would mean compressor on, door heaters on, icemaker heater on. both doors open, etc. I've put a Kill a Watt meter on my home refrigerator, a Whirlpool 27 cf, side by side, 10 years old with 6.5 full load amps listed on sticker. The Kill a Watt has never gone over 3 watts with compressor on. The watt draw has never gone below .08 watts with nothing on. Opening one door adds about 1 watt. Opening both doors adds about 1.75 watts. The Frigidaire, I think, says about 8 amps on sticker (more than my Whirlpool). Yet total annual kWh use is less on Frigidaire than Whirlpool. By the way, the Kill a Watt annual kWh projection is reasonably close to the energy guide number on my Whirlpool. Again, I may be missing something in the calculations.