Nate Nagel wrote:

subject says all...

in an effort to see how much a new fridge would really be worth in terms
of energy savings I got a Kill-A-Watt (found one online under $30)
hooked it up to fridge. In 24 hours of use it's apparently used almost
2.5 kWh - that's over 900 kWh/year!

You need to sample over a good week period to get an accurate figure
since the defrost heater is one of the largest consumers, but only runs
intermittently. Yes, a new unit will use quite a bit less power overall,
and I expect the energy guide numbers are pretty accurate.