1. Electricity in other countries is more expensive. e.g. in Ireland it is €0.35/kwh (~$0.40).
2. Other countries have smaller houses, therefore smaller kitchens therefore smaller refrigerators. Between that and higher energy efficiency standards in general, new refrigerators in my local store vary from 230kwh (A energy rating) to 260kwh (F energy rating) in power usage.
For your second point it probably applied 10/20 years ago too, then it means you have an even smaller budget to make some economy.
So even when doubling electricity price I fail to see how it could be possible to reach the two years originally mentioned.
And I believe each time I have seen this 2 years figure mentioned it was probably USA centric conversation. I'm French and I had never heard of it before.
2. Other countries have smaller houses, therefore smaller kitchens therefore smaller refrigerators. Between that and higher energy efficiency standards in general, new refrigerators in my local store vary from 230kwh (A energy rating) to 260kwh (F energy rating) in power usage.