https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_ysVqppaN0
The article you posted shows they went from 1300kWh/yr to 412kWh/yr. Amusing that it says "Some use as little as 255 kwh/year" when the article I posted mentions 244kWh/yr for the 30s Monitor-Top. (Mine is a "flat top" but has a very similar refrigeration system.) Like I said, average power consumption went up after the late 60s/early 70s, but before that they used less.
The compressor in mine draws <100W when running. A quick calculation shows that if it was running 24/7 that would be almost 900kWh/yr, but it definitely won't be running that much --- duty cycles I've found for these old ones vary from 15-20%, giving around 200kWh/yr, still very good. How often you open it and/or put warm things in probably has a higher impact on total power consumption than anything else.
This is extremely surprising, no. Motor/compressor/refrigerant/insulation design have all improved considerably.
Any insight there?
Usage patterns clearly have an impact, but I doubt they change much for a particular family across models -- some models have little doors for heavy use items to reduce air exchange, compartments probably make a big difference ('glass' shelves instead of wire).
Interesting. /beardStroke
In fact, the newer "environmentally friendly" refrigerants are less efficient than CFCs... so it's sort of a tradeoff between risking more ozone depletion when they leak, or putting more CO2 into the atmosphere from the higher power consumption...
https://www.thegeoexchange.org/fridge-power-consumption/inde... - shows a saving of two-thirds by replacing a 20yo fridge with a mid-range model (they say they could have saved about 80% power use with a more expensive model).