What does a fridge freezer cost to run?
Small hourly draw, but it never switches off — so a fridge freezer is one of the larger yearly costs in the house without anyone noticing.
Typical model is rated 100W
Price cap is 26.11p
21p per day, 365 days a year, 292 kWh in total — about £6 a month. Costed over 365 days, not the whole year — this is a winter appliance.
New A-rated fridge freezer
Modern insulation and a variable-speed compressor cut consumption by a third or more against a 12-year-old machine.
£28 a year cheaper — £48 instead of £76. At around £400 to buy, that is 14.3 years to pay for itself.
A fridge freezer runs 24/7, cycling its compressor on and off to hold temperature. That constant duty is why a modest 100-watt appliance adds up to a meaningful yearly figure — and why an ageing one with tired door seals and degraded insulation can quietly cost half as much again as a new equivalent.
You cannot switch it off, so the savings come from the machine and its setting. Keeping the fridge at 4°C rather than colder, letting the coils breathe at the back, and replacing perished door seals all help. Over a decade the difference between an old energy-guzzler and a new A-rated model can outweigh the price of replacing it.
The short answer: Always-on, so it adds up. A tired old unit is worth replacing on running cost alone.
What actually helps
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This is the small stuff
Every appliance on this site put together is usually less than a third of a typical energy bill. Heating the house is the rest of it. If the numbers here bothered you, the number that actually matters is what your heating costs — and whether a heat pump would make it better or worse in your particular house.
Work out your heating costOther appliances
Energy figures checked 2026-08-26. Electricity priced at the Ofgem cap for 1 July – 30 September 2026. Your own machine and tariff will differ — put your figures in above.