Refrigeration: the load that never switches off

Short answer. A refrigerator runs every hour of every year, so small inefficiencies compound enormously. The three things that matter are the door gasket, the condition of the condenser coils, and where it stands — together they can swing consumption by half without any change to the appliance itself.

Applies: All year · Cost to do: Small one-off cost · Indicative saving: around 45 units a month

Duty cycle, not wattage

A modern medium fridge draws about 160 watts when the compressor runs, and the compressor runs perhaps 8 hours of a winter day and 13 of a Pakistani summer one.

Everything that lengthens that fraction — a warm room, a failing gasket, dusty coils, hot food going in, frequent door openings — costs money every single day of the year.

The gasket test

Close the door on a currency note so half of it is inside. If it slides out with no resistance, the seal at that point has failed. Test at several points around the door.

A gasket is replaceable and cheap, and on an otherwise sound fridge it is the highest-return repair available. A failing seal turns a 62-unit month into a 90-unit one without anything else changing.

Coils and clearance

The coils at the back are where the heat leaves. Packed with dust, they cannot shed it and the compressor runs continuously trying.

Clean them twice a year, keep six inches of clearance from the wall, and never site a fridge in direct sun or beside a cooker. Each of those is worth several units a month and all three together are worth considerably more.

When replacement is justified

Rarely — but refrigeration is the exception where it can be. A twenty-year-old unit with degraded insulation and a worn gasket can use two to three times what a current model uses, which over a year approaches 500 units.

Check the gasket and coils first. If both are sound and it still runs almost continuously in a cool room, the insulation has failed and no repair addresses that.

Freezers and load shedding

A full chest freezer holds safe temperature for well over a day without power; a half-empty one loses it far faster, because air stores almost no thermal energy.

Filling empty space with sealed water bottles costs nothing, reduces cycling in normal operation, and buys hours during an outage.

What to actually do

Run the currency-note gasket test on the fridge and freezer today.
Clean the condenser coils at the back twice a year.
Move the fridge out of direct sun and away from the cooker, with six inches of clearance behind.
Let hot food cool before it goes in.
Set the thermostat to a middle position rather than maximum.
Fill empty freezer space with sealed water bottles.
Keep the door closed during load shedding — a closed fridge holds temperature for hours.

Frequently asked questions

Should I unplug the fridge during load shedding?

There is no supply to unplug from. What matters is not opening the door during the outage, because a fridge opened mid-outage has to recover the entire load when power returns.

Is an inverter refrigerator worth the extra cost?

Over a device that runs continuously for a decade, the variable-speed compressor's saving is real, and it behaves considerably better on an unstable supply. It is one of the better places to spend an efficiency premium.

Related guides

Standby power, in honest proportion — all year, costs nothing
A plan for the Pakistani summer bill — summer, small one-off cost

The numbers behind this

All 10 guides are ranked by value in the index. To see what your own house needs, run the efficiency audit.