In , Richard J Kinch wrote:
ransley writes:

That "Toy" as you call the KAW meter has quite a few reviews online
stating accuracy is very, very good. I suspect your instrument is off,
or your frige on the bum, since my tests, done on several friges
conform to my utility bill at $0.13 kwh. Even an old unit I have, came
up after a 4 day test at around $11 a month.

You claim $11 per month, so that's 11/0.13 = 84 KWH over 30*24 hours, which
would as an always-on average load rate to just over 100 watts. A big
refrigerator does not average 100 watts. It's more like 300 watts when it
runs, and typical duty cycles with an icemaker are mostly running.

My experience is that most fridges don't have icemakers, and modern ones
with icemakers don't consume power like that unless people use immense
amounts of ice.

And don't forget my little gem of wisdom that your indoor refrigeration
cost is twice as bad as your refrigerator electric cost when you are air
conditioning, because you're pumping that heat twice, not once. Once from
the refrigerator into the kitchen for $1/day, and again from the kitchen to
outdoors for $1.25/day.

Amount of electrical energy to pump a given amount of heat energy from
indoors to outdoors is about 1/3 of the heat energy. Ideally the ratio is
3.41 divided by EER of the air conditioner.
And heat energy output of a fridge is same as electrical energy
consumption of the fridge, plus only a tiny bit more for heat coming out
for items going in warmer than they are coming out - it's close enough to
equal to the electrical energy going into the fridge.

Cost to pump the heat from indoors to outdoors is zero when outdoors is
cool enough to not use an air conditioner.

So the accuracy of your outlet meter is not really
the point, because it doesn't measure the true marginal cost of the
refrigeration per BTU. This is one of the huge holes in the Energy Star
claims.

- Don Klipstein )