What a refrigerator costs to run in Oregon

What a refrigerator costs here

Across 8 plans priced in Oregon, a refrigerator adds $92.03 to $155.88 a year — $7.67 to $12.99 a month. The median plan puts a refrigerator at $138.18 a year.

Cheapest for a refrigerator: Residential Time-Of-Use Service (Rate 7-TOU), Portland General Electric Co. Dearest: Residential Service (Rate 7), Portland General Electric Co.

Those 816 kWh are billed at 11.3¢–19.1¢, against a 18.7¢ 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 Oregon homes use

EIA's 2020 residential survey found 816 kWh a year across 311 sampled homes that run one, near the national 839 kWh. The middle half spans 490 kWh to 1,085 kWh, so a refrigerator varies by 595 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 — 99% of homes here.

That makes a refrigerator about 7% of the electricity an Oregon home uses. The remaining 10,316 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 490 kWh a year and pays $55.23 on the cheapest plan. One in the heavier quarter runs it for 1,085 kWh and pays $122.38 — $67.15 more for a refrigerator on the same tariff.

Limits

A 2020 survey average for Oregon, not a measurement of any one home, priced against the 8 Oregon tariffs WattClear has ingested — not every plan sold there.