A deep or chest freezer is an essential appliance of every household that consumes a sustainable amount of electricity. This is required to keep your food frozen, safe and fresh for a long time.
Calculating how many amps & watts is your deep or chest freezer using might be hard for you. So, let us help you to know how to do this calculation and know how many amps and watts does a deep or chest freezer use.
How many amps & watts does a deep or chest freezer use?
Generally, a deep or chest freezer uses 1 – 7 amps & 300 – 700 watts. How many amps & watts does a deep or chest freezer uses mainly depends on the size of the deep or freezer and if the deep or freezer is on running or start-up mode. Depending on this consumption, watts and amps differ.
Let us discuss how much amps and watts does a few popular sizes of deep or chest freezer use:
Compact chest freezer:
One of the favorite affordable choices for everyone is the compact chest freezer. It sizes from 3 – 5 cubic feet.
It is a favorite choice of many for its compact size and affordable price. Also, it consumes the least number of amps and watts among all sizes of the chest freezer.
It consumes around 1 amp. But during startup, it consumes more. It consumes around 3 – 6 amps during start-up. In terms of watt consumption, it uses around 50 – 100 watts.
Small chest freezer:
Another favorite choice for small families is the small chest freezer. It sizes between 5 – 9 cubic feet.
You can find a top door and single door in this size range. Even though the price is a bit high, you can get a bit more space to store your necessary frozen items.
A small chest freezer uses an average of 1.2 – 2 amps. During startup, it uses 3 – 5 amps. Besides that, it uses around 120 – 155 watts.
Standard chest freezer:
If you want something classy to compliment your kitchen environment, a standard chest freezer is the best choice for you.
Standard chest freezers come in sizes that are convenient for everyone. By everyone we mean, it comes in sizes for normal users and also for business purposes.
The size of a standard chest freezer is 10 – 16 cubic feet. This is the usual standard size for a chest freezer.
It uses around 1.5 – 3.5 amps during the running time and 4 – 8.5 amps while starting up. It also consumes around 300 watts on average.
Large chest freezer:
For a big family or any restaurant business, a large chest freezer is an important appliance.
The size of the large chest freezer is about 17 cubic feet and above. These chest freezers can be found in single door and top door. But people prefer a single door in case of such freezers.
As these chest freezers are the biggest ones, it consumes the most amount of amps & watts among all the types.
A large chest freezer can use around 4 – 7 amps while running normally. But during start-up, it consumes around 9 – 16 amps to perform its initial cooling.
In terms of how much watts it consumes, it uses around 420 watts on average.
Chest or deep freezer amps and watts usage:
| Size of the chest freezer | Watt | Amp |
|---|---|---|
| 3.5 cu ft | 100 Watts | < 1 Amp |
| 5 cu ft | 120 Watts | 3 Amps |
| 7 cu ft | 130 Watts | 3.75 Amps |
| 8 cu ft | 135 Watts | 4.75 Amps |
| 9.5 cu ft | 200 Watts | 5.4 Amps |
| 10.5 cu ft | 325 Watts | 6.4 Amps |
| 15 cu ft | 400 Watts | 8 Amps |
| 16 cu ft | 420 Watts | 10.1 Amps |
| 17 cu ft | 465 Watts | 10.9 Amps |
| 21 cu ft | 580 Watts | 15.5 Amps |
How much electricity does a chest freezer use?
Depending on your chest freezer size, the amount of electricity used by a chest freezer varies. Likewise, based on your current use, your chest freezer may consume less or more electricity.
Let us look into how much electricity does a chest freezer use hourly, daily and yearly:
Per hour:
A 3 – 5 cubic feet chest freezer uses around 55 watts. Likewise, 5 – 9 cubic feet chest freezer may use around 75 watts per hour. Moreover, 10 – 16 cubic feet chest freezer uses around 97 watts.
Per day:
On regular days basis, A 3 – 5 cubic feet, 5 – 9 cubic feet & 10 – 16 cubic feet chest freezer uses around 1230 watts, 1800 watts & 2300 watts respectively.
Per month:
Per month, A 3 – 5 cubic feet, 5 – 9 cubic feet & 10 – 16 cubic feet chest freezer may use around 36.9 kilowatts, 54 kilowatts & 70 kilowatts respectively.
Per year:
All brands provide an estimated annual electricity use. This tells you how much electricity a chest freezer uses per year.
Yearly, a small chest freezer of around 3 – 5 cubic feet uses around 190 kilowatts. Likewise, 5 – 9 cubic feet sized small chest freezer uses around 270 kilowatts per year approximately.
Besides, 10 – 16 cubic feet chest freezer & 17 cubic feet chest freezer uses around 350 kilowatts and 430 kilowatts per year respectively.
Are chest freezers expensive to run?
No, chest freezers aren’t expensive to run as they consume less electricity compared to other freezers. Due to its high efficiency in freezing, a chest freezer consumes less electricity than other freezers.
Let’s look into a small comparison, the monthly cost of running a chest freezer is 5$ on average. Whereas, the monthly bill of an upright freezer might cost you 14$. So, a chest freezer isn’t expensive to run at all.
Moreover, the chest freezer costs less in maintenance also. Spare parts are not that expensive and fixing them is easy compared with other freezers.
How much does a chest freezer cost to run?
It costs around 4$ – 10$ per month to run a chest freezer depending on its size. Let us look into the costs of different sizes of chest freezers that are available in the markets nowadays:
- A 3 – 5 cubic feet compact chest freezer costs less than 1$ per month.
- A 5 – 9 cubic feet small chest freezer costs around 1.5$ per month.
- A 10 – 16 cubic feet standard chest freezer costs around 2$ per month.
- 17 cubic feet large chest freezer costs less than 4$ per month.
How big of a generator do I need to run a deep freezer?
A 2000 watt or a bit high power generator will be enough for you to run a deep freeze. Though it doesn’t take more than 600-1200 watts to run a deep freeze using a generator, still keeping some extra power is a better idea just to be in the safe side.
If you know the required number of watts to run your freezer, you must keep in mind that you will need to use a generator that is double the rating of the deep freezer.
The reason is, deep freezers need twice the amount of actual watts during the start-up, but this is for a very short time.
How long can you run a deep freezer on a generator?
You can run a deep freezer using a generator. But the optional rule is to run your deep freezer on a generator for an hour after every 4 hours if unopened. In this way, you can save some money on generator fuel and put less stress on it as well.
The general rule of a freezer cooling period is 1:4. Though this is not a universal truth, you can take it as a rule of thumb for easier understanding.
If you do not open your freezer at all while running it on a generator, it can keep the optimal cooling temperature inside for at least 4 hours. After that, you should run your deep freezer for an hour to keep hold of the optimal temperature.
Are chest freezer more energy efficient?
Yes, chest freezers are more energy efficient. A chest freezer can freeze the food items faster than other freezers. As a result, monthly expenses can be less compared to other freezers that are available in the market.
For example, if you compare a 13 cubic feet chest freezer and an upright freezer, you will find that an upright freezer consumes 430 kilowatts per month whereas a chest freezer uses 350 kilowatts per month. So, chest freezers are more energy efficient.
Does chest freezer save money?
Yes, chest freezer does save money. It is budget-friendly and consumes less electricity compared to the other freezers.
Chest freezers are less costly in the market as they are widely available. Also, chest freezers consume less electricity, thus it doesn’t affect our monthly bill that much. Thus, chest freezers save money.
Final thoughts
A deep or chest freezer usually uses 1–20 amps & 90–600 watts. However, this range of amps & watts varies based on the size and the current condition of the operation of the deep or chest freezer. Moreover, the amps and watts might also vary depending on the stored items in a particular freezer.