Worth replacing 15 year old fridge - energy savings?

[JOEPRO]

Hi All,

We are in times where energy costs are of course very high.

My old oil boiler had burst its jacket over a year ago. There have been massive oil savings switching to a modern condensing oil boiler.

Then the tumble dryer packed up. And the new heat pump tumble dryer appears to be saving alot of electricity. (I have a pre payment meter so it's easy to see the actual balance)

My home is detached 6 bed 2 of us living in it. We use alot of electric. Like £80 every 2.5 weeks or so.

The whole house is on economy 7. So most appliances have delay timers and the hot water is heated this way daily.

I have been thinking though- I need to test and find whatever appliance(s) are still using so much electric. I bought a plug to test consumption.

FYI 100% LED lights in my house too - garage and all.

First thing I want to check is the fridge. Its a 15 year old roughly American fridge freezer. Whirlpool brand. I think it must be using about £2 a day or something like that and want to do the comparison on replacing it with a modern efficient one.

Anyone have thoughts on what else to check out consumption wise? Have you noticed an improvement when updating a fridge etc? Given it runs 24/7 it's on my radar now because something isn't right.

 

[angellonewolf]

would the fridge cost that much to run the motor only runs on and off when it needs to

costly stuff is normaly heating stuff cooker kettle wall panel heaters etc

 

[Barking Mat]

We've just upgraded our washing machine at work, it was ancient and dying, our work fridge seems to run constantly, can't be economic, it too is ancient. Yes apparently can make a huge difference if you can afford it.
Tumble dryers are the other ones, and turning down the thermostat on your hot water tank.

 

[Kram]

Theres little new in fridge tech. Older ones may even be better due to more refrigerant choice,and dumping yours early may be worse for the environment - more chance of leakage if everyone replaced early.

The only improvement would be, increased insulation thickness and quality, likely at the expense of space. Quality these days is probably worse, it may look shiny, but made cheaper.

I'd not recommend replacing it yet.
Clean it and replace the seals if they look saggy.

 

[Neilj]

First thing I want to check is the fridge. Its a 15 year old roughly American fridge freezer. Whirlpool brand. I think it must be using about £2 a day or something like that and want to do the comparison on replacing it with a modern efficient one.

Do you think your fridge is using £2 a day or is that total consumption? £2 a day for a fridge is huge!

 

[Parm]

6 bed house on prepayment meter?

Sounds like it’s your property, first thing you want to do is get rid of the pre payment meter

 

[addjunkie]

Id look at anything thats heating like an electric cooker. We bought a fancy 9 in 1 air fryer thing. Electric consumption has dropped a fair bit as shes not using the 32 amp cooker

 

[Parm]

Id look at anything thats heating like an electric cooker. We bought a fancy 9 in 1 air fryer thing. Electric consumption has dropped a fair bit as shes not using the 32 amp cooker

I’ve noticed a drop in consumption by adding an air fryer to the fleet of cooking contraptions

 

[Kayos]

Modern compressors are more efficient but it's all about relative gains. If it works it's not worth swapping just for efficiency

 

[Neilj]

Given it runs 24/7 it's on my radar now because something isn't right.

I missed this bit. Are you saying your fridge compressor can be heard running 24/7? If so then something's not right. Is it getting cold?

 

[optima21]

Ive got a 30 year old fridge and if your fridge is using £2 a day that is more electricity than my whole house.......how big is your fridge, maybe get a smaller one if there is only two of you

 

[JOEPRO]

6 bed house on prepayment meter?

Sounds like it’s your property, first thing you want to do is get rid of the pre payment meter

Yes true! I got it in years ago as I was sure there was something wrong with the old meter and I was proven right at the time... but that was 10 years ago.

I know this because I got a letter to change the meter again so I said this time put a normal one back on.

 

[JOEPRO]

I missed this bit. Are you saying your fridge compressor can be heard running 24/7? If so then something's not right. Is it getting cold?

Ive got a 30 year old fridge and if your fridge is using £2 a day that is more electricity than my whole house.......how big is your fridge, maybe get a smaller one if there is only two of you

Sorry I haven't properly tested it yet but we use about £4 a day and the only appliance which is actually used all day and night is the fridge! I don't mean it runs all the time just that we both work every day so no TV or anything running at all.

We hardly use oven now have an air fryer. Hob occasionally.

I have the plug coming tomorrow. I can then test the fridge for a day or two and see exactly what it's consuming and go from there.

 

[MattF]

is using £2 a day that is more electricity than my whole house.

You lucky......

 

[Neilj]

I've got a roughly 7 year old Beko fridge freezer, probably 1.8m tall I would guess. If I'm away and the Combi boiler heating is turned down (so no electric usage for the pump), I effectively have the following loads online: Boiler PCB, Router, a Blink camera sync module and the fridge. That lot uses slightly over 1kw per day, so about 36p. There's something very wrong if yours is using £2!

 

[Parm]

Yes true! I got it in years ago as I was sure there was something wrong with the old meter and I was proven right at the time... but that was 10 years ago.

I know this because I got a letter to change the meter again so I said this time put a normal one back on.

Get it changed and your tarrif will come right down

Infact I’m surprised your spending money on appliances with out looking at tarrif costs.

It’s been big in the news recently ?

 

[dobbslc]

Heating your hot water with electric will be the biggest user by miles! Even on E7.
Can you not use that brand new oil boiler instead?

 

[Shox Dr]

Fridge (20yr Bosch) and 4yr old Samsung freezer use 95% of our leccy bill in summer and 75% in winter. Id love to get ride of the fridge, but out lass wont let me.

@optima21 how is your fridge situated?

 

[JOEPRO]

Get it changed and your tarrif will come right down

Infact I’m surprised your spending money on appliances with out looking at tarrif costs.

It’s been big in the news recently ?

I am on about the cheapest tariff believe it or not. I am from NI. I did move back to Power NI a couple years back as they were / are the cheapest for me.

I dont think it will make much of a difference changing meter. Will check rates again and happy to stand corrected. I just hate topping up the damn thing now!

Heating your hot water with electric will be the biggest user by miles! Even on E7.
Can you not use that brand new oil boiler instead?

Short answer = no.

My oil boiler is about 50 metres away from the gravity cylinder. And gravity circuit only not fully pumped from boiler.

The HW is on economy 7 timer and highly insulated so that works well for me. It comes on and runs on cheap electric and stays warm all day.

 

[optima21]

Fridge (20yr Bosch) and 4yr old Samsung freezer use 95% of our leccy bill in summer and 75% in winter. Id love to get ride of the fridge, but out lass wont let me.

@optima21 how is your fridge situated?

its a small under counter one