How many watts does a deep freezer use?

A deep freezer doesn’t exactly shut down the way other appliances do. Instead, it switches on and off throughout the day to keep the temperature steady. When the cooling starts, most modern freezers use between 200 and 500 watts, which works out to about 1–2 kWh of electricity daily.

That’s about the same as keeping a big TV running for 10 hours. Since the freezer only draws that power while the compressor is running, the actual energy used over 24 hours is less than the wattage number might make it seem. So let’s break down how many watts a deep freezer really uses.

How many watts does a deep freezer use?

Most deep freezers use between 80 and 900 watts of power, depending on their size, age, and efficiency rating. Modern models typically need 150 to 200 watts at startup, then run in an active cooling range of about 60 to 100 watts, with idle phases using almost no power. 

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Older freezers tend to draw more, with startup spikes reaching 800 watts and cooling cycles between 100 and 300 watts. Wattage, however, doesn’t tell the full story. Your actual electricity costs also depend on how long the compressor runs each day and how often the freezer cycles between cooling and idle. For example, a newer freezer that averages 70 watts across 24 hours will use about 20 to 25 kWh per month, or 240 to 300 kWh per year.

How to calculate your freezer's energy use?

To calculate your freezer’s consumption, check the wattage rating on the nameplate or in the manual. Then factor in its daily runtime using this formula: Wattage × Hours per day × 365 ÷ 1,000 = Yearly kWh.

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For instance, if your freezer averages 70 watts and runs continuously over 24 hours (including idle time), the calculation is: 70 × 24 × 365 ÷ 1,000 = 613.2 kWh per year. At an electricity rate of ₹7 per kWh, that equals about ₹4,292 annually, or roughly ₹357 per month.