Do any of you NOT have a fridge?

Caterina

I have often asked my DH if we could just use a cool box outside our house, on the north side. I think it would be possible to live without fridge or freezer, in fact without many other gadgets, but because our kids still live at home it would be too much for us to try and implement it.

I am sure that once they leave home, DH and I can live much more simply and frugally, but for the time being I would much rather have the time-saving shortcut of the electric gadgetry, even if they cost quite a lot to run!

clutterydrawer

Hmmm I'm intrigued now - does a fridge cost £10 a year to run or £215?! Anyone have any evidence? I know I coulod theoretically work it out myself but maths isn't my thing

I can't test it out yet as I rent and the fridge supplied is a combined fridge freezer, I'm just researching it for future.

I suppose it must be possible cos people used to manage... I would definitely miss the taste of cold thinsg though - yogurt, drinks etc.

hotcookie101

My giant american fridge freezer uses 500kwh per year, so about £50-55 per year. I think its completely worth it! certainly not 200! is A (or A+) rated......

Taadaa

You get the amount of power it uses then multiply it by the price you pay per unit of electricity, which should be on your bill. The data they give is for peak loads i.e. the most it wll ever need to use, so it should be a bit under, which I didn't account for in previous post.

Quasar

Many years ago before I got my flat, I lived in a bedsit for about a year and there was no fridge. I also shopped frequently, however things like eggs and milk I stored in a basin full of clean water, which I changed a few times a day. Water tends to maintain a slightly cooler temperature than air, and the milk kept for a full day in summer. Everything that was in a tight and waterproof container such as jars etcl, went in the water.

Was glad when I could get a fridge though.

charliee_3

we didnt have a fridge in our new house for a week and it was awful, i kept the milk in water in the sink and it was cheese by the end of the day every day.. what a waste...

Patchwork_Quilt

I think it must be worth having one in health terms. Things go off so much more quickly without a fridge. We also couldn't manage without one because I save all the left overs from every meal and then if someone needs a quick lunch the next day I have one handy at no extra cost.

BitterAndTwisted

I can't conceive of what it would be like without a fridge. I remember when my parents got their first fridge (before the Flood) and still can't imagine how my mother used to manage without one but then that was back in the days of doorstep milk-delivery and she shopped pretty much every day

Currently my freezer is on the blink and it's been so long I think I'm used to not having one. I really miss not having Haagen Dasz at hand 24/7 but I'm trying to look at that as a positive

emay

When we first bought our house we couldn't afford a fridge (or freezer) so had a cool box (mil lived about 5mins away so used to swap blue blocks every couple of days) bought smaller packs/bottles of things, so not very mse in the long term, and honestly can't remember seeing much of a difference in bills the next year when we finally got one

geordie_joe

Taadaa wrote: »

Err actually it depends on the fridge you have. A 10 year old C rated fridge costs around £400 year to run.

That's just rubbish!

A 10 year old fridge would come under the The Energy Information (Refrigerators and Freezers) Regulations 1994.

Take a look at schedule 5

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si1994/Uksi_19943076_en_6.htm

According to this a 1 star fridge rated C can not use more than 192 units of electricity per year. A 3 star fridge can not use more than 237 units per year.

At today's prices, around 12 per unit, a 1 star fridge would cost 192 X 12p = £23.04
a 3 star fridge would cost 237 X 12p = £28.44

Where did you find the figure "£400 per year" ?

I searched the internet and the most inaccurate figure I found was "A 10 year old fridge will use twice the amount of electricity compared to an equivalent modern one"

Even that was pretty close to the mark.




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