How much gas does a fridge use?

vbfg
vbfg Forum Participant Posts: 504
100 Comments
edited July 2019 in Caravan & Motorhome Chat #1

Has anyone any indication of how long a bottle of gas lasts when the fridge is being used for a  a week?

Comments

  • young thomas
    young thomas Forum Participant Posts: 11,356
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    edited July 2019 #2

    ...also, if you're using gas as there's no EHU, will you be using gas for hot water and cooking where you might not be usually?

  • ocsid
    ocsid Forum Participant Posts: 1,395
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    edited July 2019 #3

    It is not a question with a simple answer, as fridges are thermostatically controlled so gas use reflects the challenges they face.

    EG; if it is very hot weather then it will use very much more gas than if it is a cold snap. The same variability can occur if the vents are housed in a poorly ventilated awning as happens with some designs. How frequently you open it and place large water content items in it to chill, the greater will be its gas use.

    The makers quote the maximum consumption rate and if the model is identified there could be people here with the handbook to look up that value. Clearly they can't be on full chat more than 100% of the time.

    We have the very big tower fridge with separate freezer and being away off an EHU for 14 days in this latest very warm weather I would estimate we have used 8 kgs of our new 10 Kg bottle, a very big part of that the fridge figthing the warm ambient day and night. I was amazed how much was used up.

  • ocsid
    ocsid Forum Participant Posts: 1,395
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    edited July 2019 #4

    Ours a RMT 7655L is rated at 380g per 24 hours, so in 14 days could account for over 5 KGs, it certainly seemed to take little rest from firing up the burner.

  • KjellNN
    KjellNN Club Member Posts: 8,665 ✭✭✭
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    edited July 2019 #5

    We have the large Thetford fridge with separate freezer and find it will use a full 6kg bottle of gas in about 14 days in moderate summer temperatures.

  • hitchglitch
    hitchglitch Forum Participant Posts: 3,007
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    edited July 2019 #6

    We were once in southern France and I couldn’t select the mains position on the fridge so we ran on gas for about a week to ten days. In hot weather (30 - 32 deg. C.) the gas consumption was very high and it was quite noticeable how much we used.

  • Merve
    Merve Forum Participant Posts: 2,333
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    edited July 2019 #7

    Just been away for 10 days and we used about 6kg of gas- I know this because I took my 5kg and my 7.5 kg with me. The 5kg ran out on the 7th day- cooking and water heater was in that too and on a couple of occasions we had the heating on for an hour for the OH.  I hardly touched the 7.5kg. Ocsid says they are thermostatically controlled and I bow to his obvious knowledge on this but surely doesn’t it all depend on the setting of the fridge? I have 5 settings low to high- on the cooler days 1 will be fine but on the really hot days that will not be sufficient and it  has to be increased to 4 or even 5 (although I haven’t used 5 yet). Thank goodness I’m on Safefill! I don’t know how many of you turn the gas off at night or when you go out for the day- when I remember, I do and its amazing how much gas you save not keeping water hot through unoccupied periods -?just a thought 

  • Unknown
    Unknown Forum Participant
    edited July 2019 #8
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  • peedee
    peedee Club Member Posts: 9,383
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    edited July 2019 #9

    Here is what I wrote a few years ago on the subject.

    Gas consumption
    You should be able to work this out for yourselves from the appliance handbooks.

    From the fridge handbook, typical consumption is given at 0.27Kgms per 24hrs on Hi setting.  Therefore, if you were not doing any cooking or heating and ran a fridge continually on gas, for every 1Kgm of gas you have, you should last just over 3.5 days

     Heating is rarely used in the summer and if you cook with gas it is estimated you would use not more than 0.200Kgms per day. It is assumed 2 days a week other sources are used e.g. eat out or barbecue.

    Water heaters are rated a 120gms per hour, lets say it is used 2 hours per day.

    So if you were on gas only, consumption per week would be:

    Water heating ...............0.24x7 = 1.68Kgms
    Fridge ..........................0.27x7 = 1.89Kgms
    Cooking 5 days ..............0.2x5 = 1.00Kgms

    Total per week ..................... = 4.57Kgms

    or total per day ……………………..=  0.652Kgms

    It looks as though it is quite feasible to go up to 3 weeks on a full 13kgm bottle or up to 9 days on a 6Kgm bottle.

    If you used a hook up every day, only cooking would use gas in a modern van. Using the above figures a 13 Kgm bottle could last up to 13 weeks before running out.

    The totals quoted above are probably on the high side. A sample of reports from various forum members suggests a daily consumption figure of 0.5Kgms is more realistic. The consumption figure used for cooking above is very much a rough estimate and depends on life style. Another factor might be not every one runs a fridge on high all the time and thermostatic control of the fridge and heaters and external temperatures can all influence consumption.

    A good yardstick for summer consumption would therefore appear to be between 0.5 and 0.6Kgms per day.

     Of course in wintertime with gas heating, daily consumption will be very much higher and it is estimated you would need to allow for a consumption of 1 to 1.5Kgms per day.

     peedee

  • vbfg
    vbfg Forum Participant Posts: 504
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    edited July 2019 #10

    Thank you for the replies which have been very useful and informative.

  • Gail and John Evans
    Gail and John Evans Forum Participant Posts: 1
    edited March 2023 #11

     I've been trying to work out how much gas we would use during our upcoming 6 weeks in France in Sept 2023 (mainly for Thetford fridge / freezer and cooking sometimes). Looks like we can expect about 0.5kg per day from summarising the information posted. Hope to have some time on EHU so I'm hoping about 21 kgs will do us. Just need to see if we can get 2 x 13kgs bottles in the gas storage cupboard Auto-Trail tracker 2019. 

    Any other help / tips / information would be appreciated!

  • cyberyacht
    cyberyacht Forum Participant Posts: 10,218
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    edited March 2023 #12

    Get yourself a refillable gas bottle. The gas is cheaper so the cost will be recovered over time plus you can get gas in many places in the UK and practically everywhere in Europe.

  • JollyKernow
    JollyKernow Forum Participant Posts: 2,629
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    edited March 2023 #13

    While lpg pumps are dwindling I've noticed the Marquis dealership chain is installing pumps at some of their sites and also supplying refillable bottles. They're charging 90p per litre I think.

    JK

  • Unknown
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    edited March 2023 #14
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