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Fridges & Freezers

Chest Freezer

Chest Freezer - Cheap & Efficient

 

These two major appliances are consuming energy 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and you'll be surprised quite how much they can use. There are some simple things you can do to reduce the running costs.

Fridges and freezers simply work by exchanging the heat from out of the interior and delivering it to the outside. So, the hotter it is outside the harder the motor has to work.

The positioning is a major issue. Never put your fridge or freezer next to a boiler or close to an cooking appliance. Ensure good ventilation behind your fridge or freezer so that air can easily flow of the grill behind. It's just like a car's radiator and needs airflow to efficiently get rid of the heat.

Often people will put a freezer into a garage or even a garden shed. This is fine in the winter but these rooms can, because of low insulation, become very hot in summer and so the freezer has to work harder using more electricity.

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.

Some freezers come with automatic defrosting 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 cheapest option. The manual defrost costs less to buy as well!

Keep your freezer as full as you can, they generally work more efficiently when full for some reason. If, like us, you use your freezer to store home-grown seasonal foods then there are times when the cupboard starts to look bare. Keep an eye out for bargains in the supermarket at the end of the day on bread and fill the freezer with loaves. Alternatively, put crushed up newspaper or loads of squashed supermarket plastic bags to fill up the empty space.

Chest or Upright Freezer?

There is not a great difference in running costs between an upright or a chest freezer. The uprights are obviously easier to get at things but the chest freezer has the benefit of not letting the cold air flow out when the door is opened.

Chest freezers can be really useful even when they no longer work. They make a great rat proof store for chicken food in the shed or can even be pressed into a new life as a water butt. Throw nothing away until you are sure you can't use it!

Finally, you can reduce the running costs of your fridge or freezer by means of a Savaplug. I've undertaken tests of a Savaplug on our selection of fridges and freezers. The savings ranged from 40% to 15% of electricity used over a period. Sadly they're hard to find at the moment. Try Nigel's Eco Store or Ebay

Freezer Temperature

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%.

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