Low cost living - Fridges and Freezers

Fridges and Freezers

The key thing in keeping running costs down on fridges and freezers is simply keeping the cold in and the heat out, plus an efficient thermostat which will not keep the poor things working away all day.

Even putting warm or hot food straight into a Fridge will keep the thermostat working harder to maintain it's temperature, so avoid doing this will save you many a penny or more.

Placement can be a major issue. Never put your fridge or freezer next to a boiler or close to an Oven.
People often have them in a shed or garage nowadays. Great idea during the winter, but not so good in mid-summer when temperatures are rocketing.

With freezers, it's beneficial to de-frost on a regular basis. If it is frosting up too quickly, check the door seal. You can fold a newspaper and shut the door on it. If the paper falls out, there's a faulty door seal and it will have to be replaced.

Keep your freezer as full as you can. If the contents go down a bit, put crushed up newspaper or loads of squashed supermarket plastic bags to make up the space.

There is not a great difference in running costs between an upright or a box freezer. The uprights are obviously easier to get at things but the box freezer has the benefit of being able to have less space in front of it because there's not a door to open (pretty obvious really !).

Some come with manual defrosters which is obviously a time saver, but it will cost you 40% more on the bill when defrosting automatically. Although the thermostat has to go in overdrive to get it back to freezing again when defrosting manually, this is still by far the cheaper option.

These two major appliances are consuming energy 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Regular maintenance will be most beneficial to your electricity costs.

See also Buying a Green Fridge/Freezer

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Upright
Higher purchase price
self defrost available
medium term storage
easier food access
more electricity
more options such as quick
freeze or temperature alarm

Chest
lower purchase price
manual defrost
long term storage
poor food access
less electricity
limited options

FREEZERS PROS AND CONS

Freezers keep food at –18C ° and fast freeze at –26C°. Fast freezing is the optimum freezing temperature for fresh food to retain most of its nutritional value. It is important to keep the freezer temperature constant in order not to increase energy expenditure - every degree below - 18°C increases energy expenditure by 5%.

FREEZER TEMPERATURE