What the ELLIPSE ERBM170S costs to run
ENERGY STAR certifies the ELLIPSE ERBM170S at 453 kWh/yr, more expensive than most models in its category to run for its category.
That $85 is priced at 18.8¢/kWh, the average of all 51 state rates this site tracks. Your own state's rate is one click away.
Efficient, or not, for a refrigerator
The category average is 386 kWh/yr; this model runs 17.4% above it, ranking 3,205 of 4,704 refrigerators tracked here for running cost. That average is drawn from all 4,704 refrigerators ENERGY STAR currently certifies, not an outside number, a $13/year gap from this model at the national rate. Full sourcing is in the sourcing notes.
Right next to it on the list
A rank or two either side of the ELLIPSE ERBM170S: AVG ARBM171DSE ($85/yr, 453 kWh/yr), then ELLIPSE ERBM170W ($85/yr, 453 kWh/yr).
Within the ELLIPSE lineup
Ranked 10 of ELLIPSE's 12 certified refrigerators, this sits between the EFVC14W ($40/yr, the brand's cheapest) and the ERBM221SE ($110/yr, its priciest).
What this adds up to over time
NAHB's Study of Life Expectancy of Home Components puts a typical refrigerator's service life at 13 years; run the ELLIPSE ERBM170S that long and it costs about $1,107 in electricity, on top of whatever it cost to buy.
Weighing a replacement
Running above the category average, $85/year is exactly the kind of number that makes a newer, more efficient model pay for itself faster.
See what else is certified in this category before you decide.
If you're keeping it
At $85/year just to run, a refrigerator is worth protecting against an unplanned repair bill on top of that.
Where this number comes from
The full Refrigerator category page shows all 4,704 refrigerators ranked by cost; the state-rate guide covers the half of this number that isn't the appliance. The 453 kWh/yr figure is ENERGY STAR's own certification, not a wattage estimate; exact dataset IDs are on the data sources page.