Cost of refrigerating 2.5 gallons of liquid?

Question

So, my wife has gone insane finally.. I'm a homebrewer and have recently begun filling my beer into 2.5 gallon "mini kegs" to eliminate some of the many tedious problems with filling dozens of bottles. I am ready to refrigerate the first of my four mini kegs, and told this to my wife, and she flipped out. She is concerened with the extra energy we will be using to keep the 2.5 gallons of beer cold in the refrigerator. I do not believe it will be much, if any additional money to keep it cold, but she thinks it will add a significant amount to our electric bill.

Does anybody have any idea how much it will cost to keep 2.5 gallons of beer cold per month in the fridge? It is a new, efficient fridge, and we will not be changing any of the settings after the beer is put in. Thanks!

Answer 1

It will actually help to keep the temperature more even and make the unit run less.

Answer 2

The only real cost is cooling the beer to the average temperature of the rest of the items in the fridge. Once it is at the right temperature it will not cost any extra as long as there is space for air circulation around in the fridge. The cost to cool the 2.5 gallon jug is going to be less than the numerous bottles beacuse of the difference of less container material.

Answer 3

if you have the room in the fridge for the keg, it will not cost a cent more once the original cooling down has been done. since its keeping the fridge at an even temp, once the beer is down to that temp its just holding with the rest of the fridge, be it coke, milk or just air.