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Saving electricity when using a fridge is always a concern for consumers. Especially, does opening the fridge frequently consume electricity, and how much? To help consumers solve this dilemma, let's follow Mytour's article below!
1. Does opening the fridge consume electricity?
To check or take food out for use, you certainly need to open the fridge. However, each time you open the fridge, the cool air inside also escapes. At the same time, it creates conditions for room temperature air to flow into the fridge.
Therefore, at this point, the compressor will have to work harder to cool the incoming air. This ensures and maintains the necessary temperature for uninterrupted food preservation. Hence, each time you open the fridge, the device will consume more electricity than usual.
To determine whether opening the fridge consumes a lot of electricity and how much energy it consumes, we need to consider the energy consumption level when the same model fridge is closed. The results show that the electricity consumption of opening the fridge compared to closing the door will increase by about 7 - 30%. This increase will vary depending on the number of times and how long the door is opened.
2. Does continuous opening of the fridge consume a lot of electricity?
As mentioned earlier, each time the fridge is opened, it consumes electricity. Continuous opening of the fridge further increases the electricity consumption. This increases the convective heat transfer between the environment inside and outside the fridge. As a result, the appliance has to operate continuously to quickly reach the set temperature. This also explains why the energy consumption increases as the number of openings increases.
Based on the chart above, it can be seen that opening the door 12 - 48 times in 6 hours will result in electricity consumption fluctuating from 6.67 - 30%. It also causes other issues if users maintain the habit of continuously opening the fridge:
- Reduces the Quality of Food Preserved in the Fridge: Opening the fridge frequently increases the temperature inside and decreases the cold air. This affects food preservation, causing them to spoil quickly, become stale, and provides conditions for bacteria to easily invade.
- Fridge Prone to Overloading or Compressor Damage: As mentioned earlier, continuously opening the fridge makes the compressor work harder to replenish the lost cold air. Consequently, the compressor is significantly affected, prone to damage, and may overload or produce loud noises.
- Prevents Ice from Quickly Melting and Fridge Damage if the Door is Left Open for Too Long
- Damages the Rubber Seal on the Door, Causing the Fridge Door to Sag, Not Close Tightly, and More Seriously, Causing the Fridge to Leak or Not Cool
3. Solutions to Help Save Energy When Opening the Fridge
It is evident that opening the fridge frequently leads to increased energy consumption. So, how can you save electricity effectively? Please refer to some solutions below with Mytour!
- Only open the fridge when necessary and promptly close it after storing or retrieving food. This will minimize the number of times and duration of opening the fridge to reduce cold air loss.
- Avoid letting young children repeatedly open the fridge
- Prepare ingredients needed for cooking each time to avoid keeping the fridge open for too long and multiple times
- Arrange food items scientifically to monitor the amount of food as well as make it more convenient for each use.
- Currently, some refrigerator models also have features such as water and ice dispensers outside the door to minimize the number of door openings, thereby saving energy. Therefore, consumers can consider choosing these refrigerator models for use.
Thus, this article from Mytour has answered the question “Does opening the fridge consume electricity?”. Hopefully, through this article, you will know how to use the fridge efficiently and save energy. Thank you for reading the article!
