Estimate a refrigerator's daily, monthly, and yearly electricity cost from its wattage and compressor duty cycle, or straight from its energy-label rating.
📂 Energy & Home CalculatorsIf you know your refrigerator's power rating in watts, use the first method and enter an estimated compressor duty cycle (the default of about 33% — roughly 8 out of 24 hours — is a reasonable starting point for a modern fridge). If you'd rather use the annual kWh figure printed on the appliance's energy label, switch to the second method and enter that directly. Add your price per kWh and press Calculate.
Refrigerators are unusual among household appliances in that their compressor doesn't run the whole time the unit is plugged in — it cycles on to cool the interior down to the target temperature, then shuts off until the temperature drifts back up, repeating this cycle continuously. This tool offers two independent, equally valid ways to estimate the cost that results: build it up from the compressor's rated wattage and an estimated duty cycle (the percentage of each 24-hour day the compressor is actually running), or use the far simpler annual kWh figure that appliance energy labels are required to display in many countries.
A refrigerator's duty cycle — the fraction of time its compressor is actually running rather than idle — depends on the unit's age, size, insulation quality, ambient kitchen temperature, how often the door is opened, and how full it is. A reasonable modern default is roughly 30–40% (about 7–10 hours of compressor runtime per 24-hour day), though older or poorly-insulated units can run considerably more.
Many countries require an energy label on new refrigerators showing estimated annual consumption in kWh, measured under standardized laboratory test conditions. This figure already accounts for the compressor's duty cycle internally, which is exactly why the second calculation method here only needs that single number — no separate wattage or duty-cycle guess required, and it's usually the more accurate option when you have it.
Refrigerators are one of the few home appliances that essentially never turn fully off, so even a modest difference in estimated duty cycle compounds meaningfully over a full year. If your two methods give noticeably different answers, the energy-label figure (when available and for the correct model) is generally the more trustworthy one, since it comes from standardized testing rather than an estimated percentage.
Around 33% (roughly 8 hours of compressor runtime per 24-hour day) is a commonly used estimate for a modern, reasonably efficient refrigerator in normal household use.
It's usually printed directly on the yellow or colored energy label attached to the appliance, often labeled “kWh/year” or “annual energy consumption,” based on standardized test conditions.
The wattage + duty-cycle method depends on an estimated percentage that may not exactly match your specific unit's real-world behavior, while the label figure comes from standardized lab testing — use whichever input you trust more, or treat the two results as a reasonable range.