What a refrigerator costs to run in Colorado

What a refrigerator costs here

Across 5 plans priced in Colorado, a refrigerator adds $63.46 to $139.96 a year — $5.29 to $11.66 a month. The median plan puts a refrigerator at $131.55 a year.

Cheapest for a refrigerator: Residential Demand - Time Differentiated Rates (Schedule RD-TDR), Public Service Co of Colorado. Dearest: Residential General Service Opt-Out (Schedule R-OO), Public Service Co of Colorado.

Those 857 kWh are billed at 7.4¢–16.3¢, against a 16.6¢ whole-bill average on the median plan, so on these plans the two rates are close.

What Colorado homes use

EIA's 2020 residential survey found 857 kWh a year across 360 sampled homes that run one, near the national 839 kWh. The middle half spans 522 kWh to 1,065 kWh, so a refrigerator varies by 544 kWh between one household and another.

Every refrigerator in the home, including a second one in a garage or basement. That average covers homes with a refrigerator — 100% of homes here.

That makes a refrigerator about 11% of the electricity a Colorado home uses. The remaining 7,288 kWh is what a refrigerator is billed on top of, and on a tiered or time-of-use plan that is what sets the rate it meets.

Light and heavy use of a refrigerator

A household in the lighter quarter runs a refrigerator for 522 kWh a year and pays $38.71 on the cheapest plan. One in the heavier quarter runs it for 1,065 kWh and pays $79.04 — $40.33 more for a refrigerator on the same tariff.

Limits

A 2020 survey average for Colorado, not a measurement of any one home, priced against the 5 Colorado tariffs WattClear has ingested — not every plan sold there.