New A rating Fridge/freezer pay for itself within a few years?

UKSBD

I was going to buy a cheap 2nd hand fridge but someone told me I would be better of buying a new energy efficient one as it would probably pay for itself compared with buying an old one due to them being so much more efficient nowadays - is that correct?

GlitterMedusa

My data point of 1 is that when my then 26 year old counter height fridge died and was replaced by a reasonably priced new one of the same size, my electricity use reduced by a consistent 0.5kWh a day. So they are clearly more efficient but it will take a long time to pay for itself

QrizB

is that correct?

It does depend on exactly how old your "old" second-hand fridge would be.

If it's more than 10-15 years old there's a fair chance it would be using 200kWh a year or more. A modern energy-efficient fridge (even a cheap Currys special) might only use 100kWh a year. So you'd save 100kWh a year.

100kWh currently costs about £26, so if you can buy a new fridge for £150 vs. an old fridge for free, the new one will pay for itself in six years.

molerat

I replaced my antique upright freezer with one 1.5 times the volume and saw a 1 kWh per day reduction in use.

Bigphil1474

Like above, I replaced our quite old chest freezer with a new upright freezer and the energy use is gonna be around 5kwh a week less. It also has more room. Gonna take about 8 years to pay for itself, although not having to empty the chest freezer to find the one thing you want at the bottom has made it already worth it.

Neil_Jones

my current Fridge Freezer I bought in July 2024 brand new uses 244.5kWh a year. At my current rates per kWh it costs £62 a year to run. It cost me £330 to buy.

My previous unit (also brand new) used 314kWh a year, so I'm saving £18 a year. It'll pay for itself in 18 years time.

Before everything went crazy price wise and electricity was closer to 13p per unit, the saving on the running costs between the units was £8 and would have took 41 years to pay for itself.

Of course it depends on the environment and how full it is. It'll take much less juice sitting in a garage than it would sitting in its traditional place in a kitchen.