Running Costs for Freezers

This is part 1 of a 3 part article on Freezer Running Costs. See also :

• Freezer Running Costs Test Results
• Freezer Running Costs Conclusions

With growing our own food, we need to store it. We enjoy seasonal food but it's nice to have a selection available all year round and a freezer is ideal for this. Like most people we have busy lives and the freezer helps us there. It takes no longer to make 2 shepherd's pies or lasagnes than one, enough soup for 6 meals as one, so we bulk cook and freeze.

Then when we are busy, we can pop into the freezer and defrost a 'ready meal' except that this is a genuine home cooked meal. We're also bargain hunters; when the shop reduces something because it is at the end of its shelf life, we grab it. Our best bargain was a chateaubriand reduced from £27.99 to £4.99. By freezing we can hold the bargain until we're ready to eat it.

Now this has meant that we've acquired 4 freezers. Second hand bargains, of course. A small chest freezer, a small upright freezer, a tall upright freezer and a fridge freezer. Perhaps a bit much for two of us and four cats, but that's how things have worked out.

With the increasing cost of electricity, we decided to see how much they actually cost to run and to measure the effectiveness of a device called a Savaplug that is claimed to reduce running costs for fridges and freezers. The results were interesting and in some cases, the costs were chilling. Sorry about that pun!

We bought a power metering device that tells us how many hours it has been running since the last reset and how many KWh have been consumed. Since we pay just over 11p per KWh, we can calculate running costs with a bit of maths. A KWh is a unit of electricity – one kilowatt run for one hour.

We also checked the freezers performed as well with and without the Savaplug using a maximum / minimum digital thermometer with a sensor on a lead. This also enabled us to make sure the temperature wasn't going up and down as the device kicked in and out and the temperature was the same with and without the device.

Unfortunately Savaplug seems to be sold out everywhere at the moment but you might find some on ebay.

Test Methodology

1. Each freezer was run for a minimum period of 24 hours without the Savaplug and then with the device connected. Temperature was measured continuously and no difference was found.
2. At the end of each test cycle the KWh consumption and running time was noted. By dividing by the number of hours on test, power used per hour was calculated.
3. By multiplying this figure by 24 hours in the day and 365 days in the year (8,760), annual running costs were calculated on the basis of a cost per KWh of 11.7p

This is part 1 of a 3 part article on Freezer Running Costs. See also :

• Freezer Running Costs Test Results
• Freezer Running Costs Conclusions
• Buying a Freezer - chest, upright or fridge freezer?

Freezer & Energy Saving Resources

• Big Green Smile - an online shop specialising in ecologically sound products including meters and standby busters etc
• Nigel's Eco Store - another online shop specialising in ecologically sound products.
• Currys - Refrigeration - good range of freezers at especially good prices
  inc. Chest Freezers
• Electricshop.com - good range of chest freezers

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