Inverter fridge - worth it?

softdown

My 18 cu. ft. fridge is rated at ~550 kWh/year. Been considering an 18 cu. ft. inverter fridge that is rated at 400 kWh/year. Perhaps I would store it until this unit becomes problematic - it has ~ 5 years of usage on it. It was made in 2008 by Samsung. Never used until I bought it for some reason.

Costco business center has this Made in Mexico inverter fridge for $400 - a very good price. My Samsung retailed for $800 in 2008 fwiw.

Fridges can last from months to a couple decades though. Think my microwave is going out. Rarely do we get much notice.

petertearai

For off grid , every bit helps  . My Lg 450l fridge freezer is rated 299 kw per anum . The samsung 350 approx us rated 317 per anum . . Both still going well the samsung about 6 years old , the lg around 3 .

mike95490

It allows you to use a smaller inverter (with lower losses) since the inverter fridge has little starting surge.

softdown

petertearai said:

For off grid , every bit helps  . My Lg 450l fridge freezer is rated 299 kw per anum . The samsung 350 approx us rated 317 per anum . . Both still going well the samsung about 6 years old , the lg around 3 .

Last I checked those inverter fridges were not available in the USA. If they are the next question is how many cu ft they offer.

petertearai

I wonder why they arnt available .?

BB.

Inverter refrigerators do not really save much on electricity usage (from what little I have seen--may be slightly more efficient). For inverter based compressors used on refrigerators and A/C systems, they typically have almost no surge current over normal running current and can throttle back to lower speeds when needed (like AC running on 1/3rd power after room cooled down), which is nice for both solar power/AC inverter sizing, and if you are in a location with less than optimum AC power (don't want your AC power dimming the lights when the refrigerator fires up).

-Bill

softdown

Why are inverter ACs considered mega efficient and inverter fridges not? I think petertearai's very efficient fridges are inverter based - and no longer available as I recall things.

The surge on my Samsung is not an issue at all.

BB.

You also have to look for "other buzzwords"... I think Linear Compressors are also "Inverter based" systems (for LG at least).

It seems, at the moment, that in the USA refrigerators are using more power (at least the more efficient units). Is it because of electric door heaters (anti-moisture on doors), more ice makers/in door water dispensers, other things like WiFi and computer monitors, etc. are driving up energy usage--Or even the "cheating" on Energy Star tags from a few years ago are not as prevalent now...

-Bill

softdown

Have noticed that general ethics seem to have plunged in the past few years. Curious indeed.

D Angelini has said that he doesn't think the inverter fridges do that much better. What if they do 25% better though? That may be worth it in the long term.

This fridge will die - someday. Though I kind of have a back in the garage. A converted upright freezer kept between 38F and 41F from what I've seen. The experiment is working but I disconnected it today. Too much energy usage for a case of beer. Some may disagree.

BB.

Softdown,

What was the WH per day for your beer fridge/feezer conversion? A chest freezer to refrigerator conversion can get down to ~250 WH per day (it seems).

It seems to be getting a bit more difficult to find 1,000 to 1,500 WH per day refrigerators these days (hanging on more accessories consumes more power?).

The other issue seems to have been that Samsung and LG refrigerators have icing problems (they ice up the fans, ice up the defrost/condensate drain lines, etc.). Seems to be longer term issue (not paying attention to the "basics" by the engineers?).

-Bill

petertearai

Yes both fridges inverter . Bought because for the money they have the lowest energy use i could get  from a standard apliance  store . 
Haven't had any issues with them. On continuously but intermittent occupancy of house . 

mcgivor

Inverter refrigerators do have an energy advantage especially with linear compressors and more efficient refrigerants like R32 or R600. The other advantage is temperature control, a conventional refrigerator compressor has only 2 states of operation on or off, in order to prevent short cycling the compressor, known as hunting, means the throttling range must be wider.

With inverter units the temperature is maintained closer to the setpoint by running at lower speeds, at night for example  when it's not opened, it may never operate at more than 50%. The same applies to air conditioning, my 9000 BTU  Diakin linear compressor idles at 126 W once the setpoint is met, very nice for battery based systems.

Energy costs must dictate market availability to some degree, here in Thailand most refrigerators bigger than ~4 cubic feet are inverter based, grid power cost is  US $0.20 Kwh.

petertearai

Yes i think both mine are R600 . Also our  cost is similar to your per kw hour .  I pay around $  .18 cents a kw hour  plus $2.36 per day line charge plus tax at 15%  . This obviously for the house in town .
Ive got very little idea what cost per kw h for off grid home . But a lot more than town .

softdown

I don't know how to tell if an inverter model has a "linear compressor" or what kind of freon is used. All I have is the Energy Star rating - which seems to be cheated on with regularity.

I suppose I should go down to maybe 12-14 cu. ft. though. Stuff in the back of larger fridges are too easy to overlook for a casual housekeeper such as I.

Interesting that the avg. cost of a kWh in the US has risen from .08 cents to .12 cents in the past 12 years. Pretty sure that the warm fu$$y wind and solar units have a lot to do with that. I think BB has presided over a doubling of the WH rates in the SF area - just in the past six years or so.

mcgivor

The specifications should reveal the compressor type along with refrigerant, R -600 A or isobutane, is very common in refrigerator applications, R-32 is commonly used in AC in Europe along with Asia, both are significantly more environmentally friendly than the commonly used types R-134A, R-22  and R-410 A used in North America, which sadly lags behind the rest of the world when it comes to environmental protection. 

softdown

Looked at a bunch of fridges at Amazon. Exact kWh usage was not stated a single time. TV data often state their energy usage by comparison.

Has to be more economic to unload an 18 wheeler load at a Best Buy than have UPS/FedEx deliver a big 220 pound box to a consumer - a lot of the units are damaged in shipping to the home.

Here are spec's on the 18 cu. ft. Daewoo I have been eyeing: https://www.homedepot.com/p/DAEWOO-18-cu-ft-Semi-Electric-Top-Freezer-Refrigerator-in-White-RTE18GBWCD/311775421

Going from 550 kWh to 400 kWh could be interpreted as ~ $60.year/savings for the typical solar user. Broadly speaking. $400 is also a great price - Home Depot was asking $650.

Amazon buyers posted quite a few bad experiences: https://www.amazon.com/Daewoo-RTE18GSBCD-Mount-Refrigerator-Black/dp/B07KYCPLS5?th=1

Fridge quality seems to be declining overall - so many lemons.

mcgivor

Your links are access denied, probally due to my location, but for a 10-18 cubic foot, something in the 200-300 Kwh per annum neighborhood, would be more realistic, being the choices are limited you may have to go with what's available in the price range.

softdown

I'd pay with blood for 200 kWh!