What a refrigerator costs to run in Michigan

What a refrigerator costs here

Across 7 plans priced in Michigan, a refrigerator adds $112.32 to $196.44 a year — $9.36 to $16.37 a month. The median plan puts a refrigerator at $183.03 a year.

Cheapest for a refrigerator: Residential Service Secondary Non-Transmitting Meter Rate (RSM), Consumers Energy Co. Dearest: Residential Service Secondary Non-Transmitting Meter Rate (RSM), Consumers Energy Co.

Those 798 kWh are billed at 14.1¢–24.6¢, against a 24.2¢ whole-bill average on the median plan: they land in the last tier the household reaches, so the average rate understates them by up to 0.4¢ per kWh.

What Michigan homes use

EIA's 2020 residential survey found 798 kWh a year across 387 sampled homes that run one, near the national 839 kWh. The middle half spans 510 kWh to 985 kWh, so a refrigerator varies by 476 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 10% of the electricity a Michigan home uses. The remaining 7,573 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 510 kWh a year and pays $71.88 on the cheapest plan. One in the heavier quarter runs it for 985 kWh and pays $138.84 — $66.96 more for a refrigerator on the same tariff.

Limits

A 2020 survey average for Michigan, not a measurement of any one home, priced against the 7 Michigan tariffs WattClear has ingested — not every plan sold there.