How to reduce Refrigerator power consumption

    Hello friends, welcome to Daily life hacks. There is a trick to reduce refrigerator power consumption by half or more without effecting amount of cooling you desire(not applicable in shops and restaurants). If you place your fridge in your kitchen or other places like bedroom we don’t need to open the door very often. In this case I don't have not plug in my fridge 24*7. However, we shouldn’t keep our fridge un-plugged for a very long time like one or two months, which may cause leakage of cooling gas if temperature rises.

     Considering my electricity bill every month I wanted to run my fridge 12 hours in summer and 8 hours in winter. Before that we need to understand how a fridge auto cut works. If there is already an auto-cut system, then why we need an extra mechanism to save electricity?

Special Terms to understand how refrigerator power consumption- can be reduced:

1. Evaporator Coils: Inside a refrigerator's freezer compartment, there are evaporator coils. These coils circulate a refrigerant, which absorbs heat from the inside of the fridge and freezer, keeping them cool.

2. Temperature Sensor: The auto-cut system typically includes a temperature sensor or thermostat. This sensor is strategically placed on the evaporator coils.

3. Timer or Control Board: The refrigerator's control system includes a timer or control board that regulates the automatic defrost cycle.

Here's how the auto-cut system operates:

1. Cooling Cycle: During the normal cooling cycle, the compressor runs to cool the refrigerator, and the evaporator coils become very cold.

2. Defrost Cycle Initiation: The control board or timer initiates the defrost cycle at regular intervals (usually every 6 to 12 hours, depending on the refrigerator's design). The initiation of this cycle is based on time or the accumulation of frost.

3. Resumption of Cooling: After a designated defrosting period, the refrigerator then returns to its regular cooling cycle, with the compressor and fans running as needed. By periodically initiating the defrost cycle based on time or the build-up of frost and then automatically stopping it when the evaporator coils are sufficiently defrosted, the auto-cut system helps maintain efficient cooling and prevents excessive ice accumulation in the freezer. This ensures that the refrigerator operates properly and maintains the desired temperature.

Read more: How to reduce electricity bill?

Which submersible pump is best- For your bore well

How refrigerator power consumption- can be reduced: Solution

      From above I have learnt that fridge has a self-auto cut system which works with temperature sensor and timer. That auto-cut stops fridge cooling when the cooling coils are too cold/ice or depends on time-how long the cooling system been on. Therefore, I can’t rely on fridge’s self-auto-cut to save electricity. So I need to stop the cooling manually so that refrigerator power consumption can be reduced.  I can keep refrigerator OFF for two hours because the amount of cooling is more than enough for me.

Read more: How to program a Frontier Digital Timer Switch.

    But I don't want to keep it OFF for continuous 12 hours. I need to keep it ON for 2 hours and OFF for 2 hours the again ON for 2 hours and so on. Thus I started finding a solution. The solution is to use a programmable Timer switch of Frontier. In “How to” segment you will find “How to program Frontier Programmable switch”. This is how you can save electricity and save money. You can use any of the programmable switch available in market. We can run two no of refrigerators in single Timer (before running two refrigerators in single timer properly measure your both refrigerator's load current and o/p load current capacity of timer).

Conclusion: In our household uses refrigerator can be kept ON periodically in two hours OFF and then two hours ON. Thus we can save more than 40% of energy consumption by our refrigerator. For which we only need a programmable Timer switch available in online at a very affordable price. 

FAQ:

1.Does lowering refrigerator consume more electricity?

Answer: Lowering refrigerator will not consume more electricity if your regulator knob indicating "cooling" which is usual. If your refrigerator's regulator knob indicating "temperature" which is unusual, then lowering the refrigerator will consume more  electricity.

 2.What causes fridge to consume more electricity?

Answer: There are many reasons which causes refrigerator consumes more electricity some are given bellow-- If it is placed in a comparatively hotter place.- If it's door is frequently opened or not closed properly.- If there is a very small leakage in the cooling coil which might not come in to notice.-If the radiator coils behind is not getting ventilation.

3.Which type of fridge consumes less electricity?
Answer: Top-mount freezer types are more efficient because when air becomes cold it gets heavier and flows downwards thus keeps the entire refrigerator cool. Well as technologies upgrading we are advancing towards less power consuming products. So in the market there are higher stars given to the less power consuming appliances. I would say we should buy more star appliances as much as we can.
4.How can I save power consumption?

Answer: Power consumption can be saved by only using less power whichever way you can-

• Use appliances  those consume less power. LED bulbs, BLDC fans or stand fans or table Fans rather than conventional ceiling Fans, submersible pumps(runs less time for same work of a jet pump).
• If you use electric motor or pumps to lift water on the top of your building. I will suggest you to store rain water in all the floors bellow your top ceiling. You can use a Auto-stop water valve for each inlets of your each storage one bellow another. This way you can save pumping electricity as well as ground water- which is important for environment and soil in long term.