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Someone may be leaving the door open for too long, or opening it too often or the door seal may be bad. If cool air keeps getting out and warm air keeps getting in then the fridge is going to have to work very hard to stay cool.

It could be the way you use it, never put hot or warm things into the fridge, always let them cool down to room temperature first. A fridge has to use energy to cool anything down, the hotter it is the more energy. If you leave something on the sideboard it cools down to room temperature for free. If it is not a self defrosting model then ice build up around the cooling element will mean the fridge has to work much harder. Unplug and leave with the door open until all ice has melted. Put towels in bottom to catch water (melted ice)

The heat exchanger (normlly black grill at the back but can be a flat back or side, its the bit that gets warm when the fridge is runninng) may not be able to get rid of the heat that is being pumped out of the fridge - check out if it is furry or dirty, they crete a lot of air movement and that attracts dirt and dust. Brush or vacum it off if it is dirty. Air must be able to flow past this heat exchanger and take away the heat. If the airflow is blocked by dirt, a shelf, etc the fridge will not be efficient.

If it's using a lot of extra electricity it may not be chilling to the proper temperature. Check that the temperature is right. If the thermostat is set too low it will use more power, this will be shown by a temperature check. This is a good idea anyway, if temperature is too high or low food will spoil and may be dangerous. (Food poisening)

It could be a bad thermostat, if you find the temperature is wrong and adjusting the thermostat doesn't fix it then it is probably the thermostat. Depending where you are in the world it may or may not be cheaper to replace the fridge or get this fixed. It comes down to repair labour cost. It could be an "airlock" in the cooling system, try turning off for 24hrs, always do this after moving a fridge.

It could just be 'old age.' The average life of the sealed compressor unit (the bit that actually does the cooling) is on average very good, normally the shelves, etc fall apart long before the actual fridge bit goes wrong but if you are unlucky and get a bad one then it is almost certainly new fridge time - the units are normally sealed so are not servicable, don't try, you will release some unpleasant gasses! If you do need to replce the fridge look for a good energy rating, (as close to A as you can afford in Europe.)

A Misunderstanding "It may be too full - the chilling unit has to work harder when there is more food in it." Within reason this is not true. Yes it has to work harder to cool everything down in the first place if it is full but once it is all cool then it takes no more energy than an empty fridge with the door closed and actually less overall as the contents should not fall out when you open the door unlike the cold air which falls out and is replaced by warm air every time you open the door. This only holds if air can circulate - if you get silly and stuff every cubic inch then the air can not circulate and it may have to work harder for the cold to reach the temperature sensor. One more thing, the DOOR may not be closing right. You should be able to place a dollar bill in the door and close it and then run the bill around, snagging all the way if the door is not twisted from being hung on by little kids usually. If the dollar bill slips out easily at any point, the door needs to adjusted to stop the air leakage. This is easy to correct by hand. NO tools required.

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Q: Why would your refrigerator be consuming more energy than usual?
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