Hamilton Beach BC-396: running cost
At 269 kWh/yr, the Hamilton Beach BC-396's ENERGY STAR certification puts it one of the cheaper models in its category to run against every other certified refrigerator.
The $51 figure above uses the simple average of all 51 published state rates. Pick your state for the real number.
Hamilton Beach BC-396 against the category
That's 30.3% below the refrigerator category average of 386 kWh/yr, and ranks 1,409 of 4,704 certified refrigerators for annual running cost, 1 being cheapest. The category average comes from every refrigerator ENERGY STAR currently certifies (4,704 models), not an outside benchmark, about $22/year below that average at the national rate. See the methodology page.
What sits beside it in the ranking
Hisense HRC044AVE ($51/yr, 269 kWh/yr) costs a little more to run than the Hamilton Beach BC-396. Frigidaire FRPE4436AV ($51/yr, 269 kWh/yr) costs a little less.
Comparing Hamilton Beach's own models
Hamilton Beach makes 33 ENERGY STAR certified refrigerators; this one ranks 13 of 33 for running cost, between the brand's cheapest, the HBFR115-AMZ-BLACK-6COM at $38/yr, and its priciest, the HBF2067/HZ7602 at $87/yr.
What this adds up to over time
Over the 13-year service life NAHB reports for this category, running the Hamilton Beach BC-396 costs roughly $657 in electricity, separate from the purchase price.
Shopping for a new one
The Hamilton Beach BC-396 is already efficient for its category at $51/year. If you're shopping and comparing options, this is roughly what a well-chosen new refrigerator costs to run.
Worth comparing a few current certified models before deciding.
Protecting what you have
At $51/year just to run, a refrigerator is worth protecting against an unplanned repair bill on top of that.
Sourcing
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 269 kWh/yr figure is ENERGY STAR's own certification, not a wattage estimate; exact dataset IDs are on the data sources page.