Predicting the ups and downs of a power supply is next to impossible. You can never tell when a hurricane is about to hit. Power shortages cause great inconvenience. When you are working from home or have small kids to take care of, it gets even harder.
One of the worst consequences of a long power shortage is the spoilage of food. As the refrigerator stops getting power, the coolness inside starts to diminish. This leads to a lot of food going to waste.
In such cases, a generator always saves the day. It especially proves to be a great help in providing sufficient power to the refrigerator. Although, how much power consumption does a refrigerator have? How long would you need to run the generator for a refrigerator? Let us find out.
Energy Requirements of a Refrigerator
A medium or a large size refrigerator consumes around 500 to 1000 watts in normal situations. Your refrigerator could be of a very small or large size. This range of power consumption will vary accordingly.
To meet this power requirement, you cannot run the generator the entire day. The fuel requirements of a generator are high and cost a lot.
This calls for a workable strategy so that you get the required amount of energy to the refrigerator. This should be done without wasting any fuel or power from the generator.
A generator, if made to run for about an hour, will provide power to a refrigerator for four hours. Through this assumption, an entire day’s power requirement can be calculated easily.
This calculation, however, would also depend on two external factors.
Model of Your Refrigerator
The amount of power required to make a fridge usually depends on its model. The model needs to be working properly to be able to consume the right amount of energy. An old model’s coil works poorly and consumes a lot of power but provides less.
This leads to a steep surge in your house’s power requirement and increases your electricity bill amount as well. The same happens when you use an old model of an air conditioner. The cooling it provides starts to fade, but the power consumption starts increasing.
A new version or a model using the latest technology has better ways to convert power into cool air. This controls the power requirement. It also provides a satisfying cooling for your food inside the fridge.
Weather Conditions
It is a very obvious factor that the external temperature of a fridge greatly influences the internal temperature as well. If the weather outside is hot, the fridge will take more time to reach the minimum temperature. At this temperature, the food would stay fresh.
On the other hand, if the external temperature is cold, the fridge would find it easier to keep the fruits and vegetables inside fresh. The food would already be at an appropriate temperature. The usual time taken by the fridge to attain the minimum temperature will also decrease.
In short, it will consume significantly less power in winters as compared to summers.
The power consumption of a fridge can also depend on the kind of food you are storing in it. Additionally, if you have a freezer separated from the fridge, you may switch off either of the two. This will bring down the power consumption as well.
To Sum It Up
Predicting the power consumption of a fridge is not difficult if you consider the right factors. Go through the factors mentioned above. You can easily come up with the required amount of time you need to run the generator for your fridge.
