How much amps does a mini fridge use

A refrigerator is a home appliance that most of us have grown accustomed to having in our homes, and we find this item indispensable for our day-to-day lives. Contemplating installing a solar power system to supply your home with electricity, including the refrigerator, takes careful planning to make sure that there is enough supply to power your fridge.

Large fridges draw up to 20-Amps, while regular sizes only draw 1.5-Amps. Mini fridges only draw 0.6, while wine coolers draw 0.8 and car fridges draw a minuscule 0.375. Models with lower Amp requirements are better for solar systems, and they have a lower startup Amp requirement.

When determining what effect a refrigerator will have on your solar system or how to size a solar system to cater to running a fridge, you need to know what the power demands will be. Obviously, the larger the model, the greater the power demands will be, so these numbers are crucial data for your solar system calculations.

How Many Amps Does a Large Refrigerator Draw?

A large refrigerator is usually considered to be a refrigerator of 15-cubic feet or larger. Some larger models can be 18-cubic feet or more. The larger the model, the larger the internal space that needs to be cooled down.

This larger space needs a larger compressor to adequately cool the space. The larger compressor will draw more power than a smaller one, especially on startup.

The power requirements on all models will vary from manufacturer to manufacture, so it is best to examine the specification tag on the rear to get the exact details.

On average, an 18-cubit foot fridge will require 115-volts and 15-amps of power. Since solar systems are usually rated in watts and watt-hours, you need to convert these numbers into watts to have some useful information for your solar system specs.

The formula to calculate Watts is as follows.

Volts X Amps = Watts

Using this formula, the Watts required by an 18-cubic foot fridge would be 115V x 15-Amps = 1725-Watts.

The other component in calculating the power needs in a solar system is the number of hours that the fridge runs on a daily basis. This will give you the Watt-hours value for the fridge that you need for your solar system calculations.

In this example, if we were to run it for 20 hours a day, the calculation would be as follows.

1725W x 20 = 34 500Wh or 34.5kWh per day.

How Many Amps Do Regular Size Refrigerators Draw? (10 – 14cuft)

Regular size refrigerators are generally considered to be fridges that are between 10 and 14-cubic feet in capacity.

A considerably small compressor would be required to power these size fridges and keep them at cool temperatures. As an example, some models of 12-cubic foot fridge draws only 1.5-Amps. This is significantly lower than the 15-Amps required by the 18-cubic foot model.

The solar calculations for a 12-cubit foot unit would be as follows.

115-Volts X 1.5-Amps = 172.5-Watts

The calculation to run this fridge for 20 hours for your solar calculations would be as follows.

172.5-Watts x 20-Hours = 3450-Wh or 3.45kWh

As you can see from the two examples we have evaluated thus far, it would make more sense from a solar system point of view to have two 12-cubic foot fridges in your house than one 18-cubic foot unit!

Learn how to run electrical wire in an adobe house with my article here.

How Many Amps Does a Beer Fridge Or Mini-Fridge Use?

A mini-fridge or a beer fridge usually has a capacity range of 1-cubic foot to about 3.5-cubic foot. These sizes are compact and draw a surprisingly small amount of power.

For example, a 1.7-cubic foot fridge draws a minuscule 0.6-Amps! When you apply the calculations to this mini fridge, you get the following results.

115-Volts X 0.6-Amps = 69-Watts

To calculate the power consumption for your solar system, you get the following results.

69-Watts X 20-hours = 1380-Wh or 1.38kWh

The advantage of many of the refrigerators in this range is that they not only come in 115 to 120-Volt versions, but many of them also come in 12-Volt options, allowing them to be used on normal household mains or on 12-Volt systems.

How Many Amps Does a Wine Cooler Draw

Wine coolers come in a range of different sizes, and the size of the wine cooler will influence the amount of power that the unit will draw. Wine cooler sizes are often rated by the number of wine bottles that they can hold. This can vary from anywhere from 6 bottles to 30 bottles.

For the purpose of our calculations, we have used an average 18-bottle wine cooler. This wine cooler is rated to draw 0.79-Amps at 120-Volts.

If we plug these numbers into our solar calculations, our results come out as follows.

120-Volts X 0.79-Amps = 94.8-Watts

To convert this to the kWh rating for the solar system, we get the following result.

94.8-Watts x 20-Hours = 1896Wh or 1.9kWh

A wine cooler can be used to keep your drinks cool and may be opened less frequently than a normal fridge, which would keep the power usage of this unit down. Also, if you opted for a smaller unit, you could also lower your power consumption.

How Many Amps Does A Car Fridge Draw

Car refrigerators are the most power-efficient and the most versatile of all the fridges that we have investigated. Car models also come in a range of sizes, which will affect the consumption required of the unit.

The average 30-Quart car fridge draws only 0.375-Amps at 120-Volts. This is quite impressive, given the temperatures that these units can get down to can be around -5F.

The calculations for this 30-Quart car fridge are as follows.

120-Volts X 0.375-Amps = 45-Watts

When we apply our solar calculation requirements to this fridge’s numbers, we get this result.

45-Watts X 20-Hours = 900-Wk or 0.1kWh

These numbers make the use of these units on a solar system an extremely viable option to reduce your power needs. The fact that the majority of the units are already 12-Volt compatible is also an added bonus, so you could run them without an inverter if required.

Low Amp Fridge Options For Solar Power Systems Off-grid

As we can see from our investigation into the Amps that fridges draw, large units draw an exponentially greater amount of power than slightly smaller capacity fridges.

Large Amp models do not only have a high demand while the compressor is running, but they also draw a large amount of current when they startup.

Refrigerator Start-up Amp Demand

When fridge compressors kick in, they draw a huge amount of power from the electricity supply. This high amperage is only for a split second, but your solar system needs to be sized to be able to handle this kind of power drain.

This startup Amp demand can be between 3 and 5 times the Amp rating on the specification plate.

This means that the large 18-cubic feet model in our example, which draws 20-Amps, could draw up to 100-Amps on startup. In comparison, the little car model will only draw 1.875 on startup.

Summary

To summarize all this, for a solar system, you need to watch the number of Amps that the fridge draws and take into consideration the startup Amp draw when sizing your solar system.

It would also be a better choice to have a number of smaller fridges for different purposes rather than one large one that gets opened all the time for all your household needs, causing the large compressor to kick in often.

Sizing appliances for solar systems is all about using power in the most efficient manner, and when it comes to refrigerators, this means going smaller rather than larger.

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