What uses more electricity, the big refrigerator in your kitchen or the little refrigerator in your bedroom? Surprisingly, it is probably the little refrigerator. That may seem hard to believe, but it’s true. A lot of my tenants have compact refrigerators in their bedrooms. Almost all of these little refrigerators were purchased by my tenants when they were freshmen living in the dorms. When they moved out of the dorms, they took their refrigerators with them. I own one house that has 3 compact refrigerators in it. All of these refrigerators are either empty or just have a few cans of soda or beer inside them. Because compact refrigerators are so small, most people assume that they don’t use a lot of electricity, but that isn’t true. Compact refrigerators are electricity guzzlers. That is because full size refrigerators are subject to government standards for energy efficiency, but small ones are not. Full size refrigerators have external condensers and fans, but compact refrigerators normally vent their excess heat through their exterior walls. It’s a cheap way to make a refrigerator, but very energy inefficient. This explains why a 22 cubic foot G.E. refrigerator costs $72 a year to operate but a 4 cubic foot Magic Chef compact refrigerator costs $81 a year to operate. Do you have a compact refrigerator in your apartment? Do you really use it? Turning off a compact refrigerator is an easy way to reduce your electric bill.