On average, a dorm fridge (mini-fridge) consumes around 90 watts per hour.
However, remember that not all mini-fridges are the same size and can consume varying amounts of power.
A dorm/room fridge is quite a bit smaller than a house fridge, but still, there are multiple sizes, even in the mini category.
For example, a Costway compact refrigerator is rated at 65 Watts.
At the same time, a Silonn Mini fridge is rated at 50 Watts.
Therefore, even though both of them fall under the “mini” category, they consume different energy levels due to the slight size difference.
If you want to calculate how much energy a mini fridge would consume per month or year, this is how you do it.
- Take the power rating of the dorm fridge you want to buy, for example, 65 Watts, and multiply it by hours of use per day. A fridge typically runs all day. 65 x 24 = 1560 Watt-hours.
- Now multiply the watt-hour value by 30 to get power consumption per month. 1560 x 30 = 46800 Watt-hours.
- Divide by 1000 to get the value in kWh. 46800/1000 = 46.8 kWh.
- If you want annual consumption, simply multiply by 12. 46.8 kWh x 12 = 561 kWh.
- If you want to calculate the yearly cost, multiply the annual consumption by the cost of a single kWh in your country. For example, the average cost per kWh in the U.S. is $0.1042. So, 561 kWh multiplied by $0.1042 equals $58.5/year.
You can also use the following calculator to calculate the yearly cost of running a dorm fridge.