Your main fridge costs $117 a year — the garage one costs more.
A modern kitchen fridge is quieter on your bill than most people think. The surprise is almost always the older second fridge parked in a hot garage.
Why wattage times 24 hours is wrong for a fridge
Look at the compliance plate inside a 450-litre fridge and you will usually see around 200W. Multiply 200W by 24 hours and you get 4.8 kWh a day — a figure that appears on plenty of generic energy blogs and overstates a modern fridge nearly fivefold.
A refrigerator is a duty-cycling appliance. Once the cabinet is down to temperature, the compressor modulates down or rests for most of every hour. Measured across a full day on the Australian Energy Rating Label test, a modern 300–500L inverter fridge uses roughly 1.0 kWh a day — about $117 a year at 32 c/kWh.
Modern 300–500L inverter cabinet indoors.
Older seals & compressor in a warm garage.
Top-opening lid holds cold air when opened.
Glass-door beverage cooler.
24-hour baseline loads, solar and blackout backup
You cannot put a fridge on a daytime timer. With solar panels alone, your roof automatically covers the daytime half of your refrigeration load — including the afternoon hours when the kitchen is warmest and the door is opened most — while the overnight half still comes from the grid.
When households add a home solar battery, the kitchen fridge, chest freezer and internet router are the first loads wired onto the essential backup circuit. Because they draw only 1.5 to 2.5 kWh a day combined, a charged battery can keep food frozen through a multi-day storm outage while re-charging from the roof each morning.
Compare your always-on appliances
Modern 300–500L inverter fridge draws 200W compressor peak (~1.0 kWh/day based on Energy Rating label).
Briefly draws several times that on start-up, for a second or two.
It runs on its own schedule rather than yours — there are no hours to set. The figure already allows for it switching itself on and off through the day.
Most of these run all year. Drop it if you only use this one seasonally.
Most published running costs quote one national rate of about 33 c/kWh. Yours is on your bill, and it is the number that decides everything here.
Only applies to the hours it runs while the sun is up. After dark you are buying from the grid again — or from a battery.
Estimate only. Running on solar is costed at your feed-in rate — the earnings you give up by using the power instead of exporting it, not zero. Appliance figures verified 2026-10-03; default rates 2026-06-22.
Frequently asked questions
How much electricity does a fridge use per day in Australia?
A modern 300–500 litre main kitchen fridge-freezer uses roughly 1.0 kWh a day (about 365 kWh a year), which costs around 32 cents a day or $117 a year at 32 c/kWh. Although its compressor is rated at around 200W, it cycles on and off under thermostat control rather than running continuously.
Why does multiplying fridge wattage by 24 hours give the wrong number?
Because a refrigerator is a duty-cycling load. A 200W compressor running flat out for 24 hours would use 4.8 kWh a day — nearly five times what a modern insulated fridge actually consumes. Once the cabinet is cold, the inverter compressor slows down or switches off for most of each hour.
How much does a second fridge in the garage cost to run?
An older second fridge kept in an uninsulated garage typically uses around 1.5 kWh a day (about 548 kWh a year), costing roughly $175 a year at 32 c/kWh — 50% more than your main kitchen fridge. Older seals, older compressors and 35°C+ summer garage temperatures force it to work much harder.
Does solar cover my fridge without a battery?
About half of it. Because a fridge runs 24 hours a day and slightly harder in the warmer afternoon hours, rooftop solar covers its daytime compressor cycles while you still buy the overnight hours from the grid. A home battery shifts your afternoon solar surplus to cover the overnight baseline — including the fridge, chest freezer, routers and standby loads.
How much battery capacity do I need to keep the fridge running in a blackout?
Very little energy, provided the inverter is wired for backup. A kitchen fridge and a chest freezer together use only about 1.6 kWh over a full 24 hours, which is a fraction of a 10kWh or 13.5kWh home battery. What matters during a blackout is that your battery inverter can handle the brief start-up surge when the compressor kicks in.
Get your free solar quote in under 2 minutes.
Tell us a little about your place and we’ll tailor the numbers. Everything in the list below is included, no exceptions.