On Saturday, January 24, 2015 at 10:05:05 PM UTC-5, wrote:
On Sat, 24 Jan 2015 15:36:38 -0800 (PST), bob haller
wrote:



My second fridge and freezer do not have individual circuits, but both
are not on the same one so little chance they would start at the same
time and cause an overload. They do take small loads running these days
though, just that startup may be more.

ahh take a power failure situation that lasts for awhile. in this case both fridges will likely turn on at the same time, breaker trips and if no one is home you could lose both fridges food


That is old school thinking. Modern refrigerators are low current
appliances these days, even when starting. Most modern breakers are
HACR anyway and are curved to handle a compressor or two starting.
I have a big side by side and with the doors closed, running, it only
pulls a few amps. Opening the doors and turning the (4) lights on
bumps it up about 50%.

During hurricane Sandy I was running off a generator and had my KillaWatt
meter inline. Had a fridge and a freezer, one was about 7 years old, the
other 2. When either went to start, I saw the power blip up to
about 350 watts for a couple seconds, then it started to quickly decline.
Once running they pull less than 100W. So, I agree, I don't see the
startup of two modern fridges being an issue. Even my 25 year old one
that I replaced pulled only 250W when running. IDK what the startup
draw was, but you would think even two of those would be OK on a 15A
circuit.