I'm writing this article for 
Well, as I like to do, I like to over analyze everything but here is how I would approach the problem. Hope you find it interesting and follow along.
I have way too many fridge at home
Now if you have read my previous posts you might have noticed that at home I have 9 different fridges of different varieties and types. I wrote all about them and told how my wife calls me a fridge hoarder. This post is more about choosing the best fridge for a specific situation and maybe give some insight for anyone else looking to buy a fridge.
Different shapes, sizes, technology and efficiency
Technology
When looking at fridges there are two main categories of fridges. Ones that use compressor technology and ones that use solid state / Peltier technology. AVOID Peltier technology I'll explain why later but just please PLEASE don't buy this crap.
As for the compressor technology. That is the vast majority of fridges you will see on the market. However with the compressor technology there are two main varieties. The less efficient variety is an ALL or None type of technology.
All or None
With this type when the fridge gets above a certain temperature the fridge turns on at full speed. It keeps going until the fridge gets to a certain temperature then the compressor turns off. Going from OFF to ON at full speed is hard on electricity, hard on the components and fairly noisy. It works but it isn't the best.
Linear technology
This is the one I would prefer. It starts off with the compressor running in a lower power mode and scales up as needed. This means that it uses less electricity at startup, it scales to need so uses less power overall, and as the compressor isn't running so hard all the time it is much quieter. Yes, it is more expensive but with less wear on the components and less energy usage I'm certain it pays for itself over time.
Shape and size
Now there are two common shapes for fridges. Chest style which open from the top and "traditional" fridges which open from the front.
Personally I love the chest style fridges because when you open them up all the cold doesn't just escape (cold air is colder than warm air and will stay put in a chest fridge or run out of a traditional one). The problem with chest fridges is that they aren't easy to get everything in and out of PLUS they tend to gather moisture at the bottom which can get quite gross if left. Then again, you can use virtually all available space as you just pile everything on top of each other and it isn't going to fall out the front!
With "traditional" fridges the main difference is in how large they are (usually measured in either cuft or as liters. Then there is a matter of where the freezer is (top or bottom) and how many doors the fridge has. Remember that every time you open the door cold escapes. Multiple doors allow cold air to escape from the area opened and may lead to better efficiency. Then again, a lot depends on the insulation, bad insulation is going to result in an inefficient fridge.
A quick note on how fridges work
Now people often just think that fridges make the interior cold. That's not entirely true. It is more efficient to save that they take the heat that is inside the fridge and move it to the outside of the fridge. They do this by moving a liquid (such as cyclopentane) which absorbs heat inside the fridge chamber and that heat is "squeezed" out when the cyclopentane hits the compressor. It's more technical than that and uses phase changes but in general just think that cooling the inside of a fridge means HEATING the room that the fridge is placed in. That's important!
Why is it important? Well, assume that a fridge uses 1Kwh of electricity. Assuming it is very efficient as moving heat and moves 3Kw worth of heat for every 1Kw put in (a COP of 3 which is somewhat typical). It means that the fridge will add 4Kw worth of heat into the room it is in every single day. (3 from the interior of the fridge and 1 from the energy used). That's as much heat as using a rice cooker for 5 hours every single day.
Now if you are in the Philippines where you are already sweating in the heat and relying on your fan to keep you functioning do you really want to make you room HOTTER? If you look carefully at the largest fridge I'll be examining it uses over 2kwh of power daily. That is like sticking a rice cooker into a room and leaving it on all day long. Extra hot during the day and night. Fun, right?
Finding the right balance
If you ask me its important to find the perfect balance between space that needs to be held and efficiency to keep the energy bill down and the room comfortable, free from too much extra heat!
Now there is going to be a lot of math in the background but I'll just present the results so I don't boggle people with more numbers than necessary.
Small Fridge
Small Fridge. Image is mine
Small Fridge specs. Again image is mine
What's the take home message here? It uses 50W of power which is very low. Great for solar applications. It uses 0.315Kwh per day so it would need a medium size power bank to run it. However at 46l it doesn't hold very much and with the fridge and freezer combined in one area it is not efficient at storage.
Overall efficiency: It uses 0.00685kWh/liter
A little larger fridge.
Now this is a small fridge that I've found on Lazada.
Image source: Lazada search
It is certainly small at 158L but then again it is triple the size of the first small fridge and only uses virtually the same amount of electricity. Probably because it uses the same compressor (just a guess).
Looking at the specs. 158liters means much larger than the tiny first one. Using 0.32kWh means its very energy efficient with its power usage per liter at 0.00196kWh per liter. That is about one third the power usage of the smaller one. 3x the efficiency? Sounds good to me!
Medium Fridge
But I decided to look at my sister in laws fridge and see how it compares to the two I've looked at so far.
My sisters fridge
The specs for the fridge
Now it doesn't specifically say how many kWh daily be it says it uses 65W and runs roughly 8hrs a day. It is 209l which is again larger than the last unit and this would be a medium sized fridge.
Overall efficiency: 0.00249kWh/liter
So way better than the tiny fridge but not as good as the small fridge. Using only 65W we might even be able to its it on a solar system and using about 0.52kWh daily it would need a pretty beefy battery pack to run it.
A large fridge
Now my brother in law has a large family and a sari sari store. He needs a lot of storage and his fridge reflects that.
Now his fridge didn't have the handy dandy spec sheet which was pretty sad but I went online to do some looking. This fridge is 750l which is almost 5x as large as the small fridge and over triple the size of a medium sized fridge. It also uses a fairly hefty 1.73kWh daily.
Now it is a very good fridge and is actually quite efficient using 0.00231kWh/liter
That's not quite as good as the small (not tiny) fridge but it still very respectable.
It might make sense in a large room or a dedicated kitchen where people rarely stay for long but in a small home it will cause it to become noticeably hotter and take up a lot of space.
And just for fun
The Unit you REALLY want to avoid!
Generic Peltier type fridge
Sure this fridge is cheap at only P1500. But lets run the numbers.
First: It holds only 8l worth of stuff. Seriously? I mean my 46l fridge is pretty small but at least I can hold some drinks, fruit, meat, and a few items in the freezer. At 8l I can hold very very little.
But wait it gets worse.
It can only really cool up to 20C lower than room temperature ... at best. Typically is usually about 15C lower. So, if it is a toasty 33C in Manila that means your drinks will be sitting at 13-18C. That's lukewarm and absolutely not a cold drink. If it is meat then it is still in the danger zone and certainly not useable for storing food like that!
And it gets even worse.
These items use roughly 50W of power just like the mini compressor fridge. But they use it all day long and they never take a break. That means in 24 hours they use 1.2kWh a day. That's almost as much as a 750l big fridge! Which holds almost 100x more food AND keeps it at a useable temperature!
So which one would I choose myself?
I would probably look at using the 158l small fridge. I would want to try it simply because it is the most efficient fridge on the list. But if I weighed the benefits.
- It's small but not the smallest and with careful use of space can hold a meaningful amount of food.
- It isn't terribly expensive to buy and the energy savings over time mean its not expensive to run.
- It is quiet so its not going to keep the family awake at night. Larger fridges can get very noisy at nighttime.
- It won't heat up the house nearly as much as a larger unit.
While it may see like I'm being cheap by buying a small unit I like to think that I've done my homework to find a balance between price and performance.
Of course feel free to disagree,
...and if the NEED list was different I might make a different decision. Every family and every person will have a different use case scenario. That's why I bought the tiniest fridge for myself even though it isn't as efficient. That's why the big fridge can be a very good deal for someone who needs it and has a good place for it.
Thanks for reading.
Hope you enjoyed the article.