Advanced options
The kWh/year figure is on every energy label and product listing: use your model's real number in advanced options if you have it. The fridge freezer is the only appliance running 24/7/365, which is why an inefficient one out-costs far bigger appliances used occasionally. Full freezers run cheaper than empty ones; dusty coils and perished door seals cost real money.
What The Fridge Freezer Cost Calculator Works Out
- Per year: the appliance's annual kilowatt-hours multiplied by your electricity unit rate, which defaults to the current Ofgem price cap unit rate. A typical E-F rated unit at 250 kWh a year costs GBP 65 to GBP 70; an efficient new one at 150 kWh halves it, and an elderly garage survivor at 400-plus kWh quietly out-costs the washing machine and dishwasher combined.
- Per day: the annual cost divided by 365. Nothing else in the house runs every hour of every day, which is why a modest wattage compounds into a top-three electricity line.
- Upgrade saving: the difference between your unit's annual cost and an efficient 150 kWh/yr replacement. The energy label's kWh/year figure, measured to a standard test, is the honest comparator; the post-2021 rescaled bands (today's C was yesterday's A+++) explain why nothing seems to score an A.
- Custom annual use (advanced): type in the exact kWh/year figure from your energy label or the product listing instead of using a preset.
- Number of appliances (advanced): multiplies everything for a second fridge, a chest freezer in the garage or the beer fridge. The beer fridge running all year for July's cans is the classic audit casualty.
- Months powered on per year (advanced): scales the annual cost for a seasonal appliance that is switched off for part of the year.
- Replacement model and price (advanced): set the kWh/year of the model you are considering and what it costs. The payback card divides the price by the annual running saving: replacing a working 250 kWh unit rarely pays back inside a decade, while a 400-plus kWh veteran often does within four or five years.
- Running cost over its life (advanced): the annual cost multiplied by the years you expect to keep it, at today's rate. A fridge freezer typically lasts 10 to 15 years.
- Lifetime saving from upgrading (advanced): the running saving over those years minus the purchase price, so a negative figure means the replacement is a false economy. Cheaper wins first: vacuum the coils, replace door seals that no longer grip a banknote, keep the fridge at 4-5C and the freezer at minus 18, and keep the unit away from radiators, ovens and sunny windows.