Fridge v Fridge Freezer

[viz48]

Can anyone tell me how much power a fridge freezer uses and would it be less cost effective to use a seperate under the worktop fridge and freezer. Or direct me to a site which gives the information. I have a friend who has her fridgefreezer in the same cupboard as the hot water tank due to lack of space. Surely this must be wrong!!

Thanks in advance.

[pug100]

Hi,
Many places now display the energy efficiency of a fridge or freezer on the front in the form of a bar graph going from A rated (good ) to G or H (poor).
Websites such as Comet give more info such as yearly power useage and running costs (although this assumes a particular tariff, yours may be more or less depending on your supplier). As an example look here a Beko fridge freezer on the spec tab 340kWh annually ( thats 340 units per year)

http://www.comet.co.uk/cometbrowse/product.do? sku=312541&cm_sp=FeatureEnd-_-Fridge_Freezers- _-position1

Next a LEC fridge freezer 324kWh so will cost less to run

http://www.comet.co.uk/cometbrowse/product.do? sku=410241&cm_sp=FeatureEnd-_-Fridge_Freezers- _-position2

This of course assumes perfect placing in your kitchen with good ventilation esp. around the back where the heat exchange coils are, and as you say putting it in a cupboard or next to a heater or cooker will make the fridge work harder and cost more to run.

[vehelpfulguy]

One of the problems with combined Fridge Freezers is that the Freezer section is usually quite small.

We found that after we got a freezer it filled up very quickly as you get more used to using one.

We have all sorts of things in there, such as pre cooked meals, vegetables, ice cream, bread, bacon, cheese, sausages etc

Always assume you are going to use a bigger Freezer than you think.

[J.JJ]

A seperate fridge and freezer is by far the best solution for most households, because a seperate freezer will have a much larger freezer compartment and can be placed in a shed or garage freeing up valuable space in a kitchen.

The only decent efficient freezers are chest freezers with a lift-up lid, these freezers are the most efficient because cold air is very heavy and when you lift the lid, the cold ( frozen air ) remains within the chest freezer. With upright freezers, when you open the door the cold ( frozen air ) tumbles out of the freezer onto the floor, to be replaced by warm moist air ( thus leading to the freezer frosting up and requiring to be de-frosted, it also requires the compressor to work for longer to cool this extra warm air that has entered the upright freezer.

Modern upright freezers have tried to overcome this drawback by having enclosed shelves to keep the cold air in when the door is opened but this simply reduces the useable space inside the upright freezer.

If you look into Iceland or other frozen food stores you'll notice that the majority use chest freezers . Even if customers in these stores leave the lid up, these freezers are very efficient because the cold air being heavy stay surrounding the frozen food stopping it from de-frosting.

To gain most efficiency from a chest freezer wire baskets should be used to hold the foods and all contents should be marked so that it can be found quickly and easily.

Unfortunately most people don't have huge kitchens that can hold a chest freezer, so a shed or garage is the best place for them.

Big posey fridge/freezers and integral fridge/freezers look
good, cost the earth and are not efficient, however some people these days go purely on looks. One day I hope they learn to judge something by what it does and not by the fact that it looks good but is useless in the real world.