Do you turn off your refrigerator at night?

I never heard of such a thing. I have to re-echo what rekhum said. The refrigerator will consume more energy to cool down to its optimal temperature again. Other energy-saving tips you might think about is adjusting the thermostat, turning off the icemaker, and not opening the door frequently.

Ive never done that... or even thought about it. Id say its not a good idea. As it may use even more electricity to cool off.

No, never, I'd never do this. I am a total puritan when it comes to food. I'd not risk it. Most foods that are supposed to be refrigerated say, "Keep Refrigerated" on the sides of their containers. For our safety. The risk may be nonexistent especially for a strong, fit, well, young person; or minimal. But it's still a risk that I'd not be prepared to take. For certain products; such as recently purcahsed milk, it would - of course - be fine. But by no means necessarily for others; not that I'm any kind of expert. I'd never advise this. Food poisoning is an awful thing to get. My advice is...if it's supposed to be refrigerated, keep it refrigerated.

I keep it switched on 24/7 in summers. I read somewhere that refrigerator works similarly with tube light in terms of power consumption. When it is switched on, it doesn't consume that much power to maintain the cool temperature. However, once it is switched on (after it has been kept switched off), it consumes more energy to reach the cooling temperature.

I think that it might destroy the motor of the refrigerator if they keep on turning it on and off as it was made to be most of the time plugged into the socket.

oh someone here always remembers to unplug it at night alright, but always forgets to plug it back on in the morning. an exercise in futility, in my opinion. personally, i'd rather keep it plugged on. i think refrigerators have built-in temperature regulators so it's safe to keep them plugged on, unlike when you leave an electric fan running 24/7. if you still want to experiment to find out, maybe you can use a timer so that it switches on and off at the same time every day.

Someone has posted a similar discussion on this subject before..you may save a little on juice by cutting the working cycle of the machine,but as a cost saving measure,it can go very wrong if you would forget to turn it back on again and the contents may spoil-bad for you..the thermostat on a fridge is designed to keep the contents at the optimum temperature,anyway..it shouldn't be running UNLESS to bring the temperature inside down..If You're keen to save money by economizing on electricity,You can buy power consumption meters that plug between your appliances and the wall socket to tell you how hungry each of them would be,so as to assess where you can make savings.

I actually don't do as this is much waste of energy as the moment you turn it on, it needs to "warm up" or rather get cool again thus using more energy than to leaving it turned on. It does not keep "running" per se over night as it has thermostat that knows when to "relax" when it hits a certain temperature.

This would definitely not be something that I would try. I mean I know that you don't necessarily lose your food, but you can't open and close your refrigerator and have the warmer air fanning into the refrigerator. In addition to that, you are running the risk that the temperature will get too high inside the fridge and that could cause your food to spoil and that would mean that you were doing the opposite of saving money. If it was me, I definitely wouldn't risk it.

Hi, I used to turn off the refrigerator at night, it is good at saving electricity but when it is full of perishable goods like fish, fruits and vegetables, it is always on even at night. During hot summer months,the ref is the only bastion of coolness being a source of cold drinks, cold water and ice. It need to work overtime.

We only turn off our refrigirator when the ice in the freezer is very thick. Mom told me that it consume more electricity if it is turned on and off everyday.

It wont save electricity because the fridge will have to work extra hard to get the fridge back to the right temperature. There far better ways to save on electricity.

As the others have said, it's really not a good idea to turn it off as the motor is designed to run constantly under the control of the thermostat and won't use any power while it's at the correct temperature. As you open the door to get things out or put things in, you allow the cold air out and this is replaced by warmer air which has to be cooled down again, but through the night the door should be closed as your're asleep and the temperature shouldn't change. But as you're in a hot climate, there is always the chance that things might change a little and so the motor may run, but at least that's better than having the food spoil and the more the temperature drops, the harder the motor has to work to regain the optimum temperature. To save money try to open the door as little as possible and maybe adjust the thermostat, but not too much as the food may spoil.

We have hot climate here and there is no way I could turn off my refrigerator as I have a lot things kept in the fridge all the time. And I do not think this is a good idea to on and off the fridge frequently. It will also consume more current when it needs to get started again. So, I would rather leave it on 24 hours.

In theory, the food should be OK over-night as long as no one keeps opening the door over and over. However, I would be more concerned about the damage you would be doing to the refrigerator by turning it on and off every night like that. They are not designed to be started and stopped like that. They are designed to turn themselves on and off as necessary to maintain a constant temperature. Turning them off over-night means that the cooling system has to work a lot longer and harder to get the temperature back down to where it should be. I would be worried that doing this would cause the system to break down sooner than it would if you just let it run.

hi c utie no I think thats utterly foolish and taking chances with food stuff is not my idea of saving money. turn off appliances you are not using and use saving mode on air conditioners too.also set furnaces to lower temperature too. Bu t do not turn off the refrigerator.

I've never heard of such a thing, but if the room temperature is cool it is not likely the refrigerator would run as much anyways. I would not take the chance of food poisoning only to save a few dollars on the electric bill. Keeping the door closed decreases the run time and a full unit will not run as much as one less full. I would seek other ways to be thrifty. Please don't play games with your health and that of your family if not necessary. Most perishables like eggs and milk should be at 40 degrees F.

Hi even i heard of this many off their refrigerator at night and i tried it sometimes but i found sometimes the cool is not just enough to keep the food fresh and also there are lot of power cuts here during the day time so i am keeping it on at night too.

This is the first time I read about it, i usually upon my refrigerator 24/7 and defrost once a month. I think the best way to save power consumption by avoiding overloading food in the fridge.

i would not recommend switching off the refrigerator because 1) a continuously running refrigerator consumes less power. 2) in summer switching off your refrigerator can spoil your food.