Fridges: Fridge energy costs
Your fridge is switched on 24 hours a day, seven days a week, so finding an energy-efficient model will make a difference to your energy bills.
The everyday running costs of a fridge affect its true price – a model that is cheap to buy but guzzles electricity could cost you more than a more expensive model with low running costs.
To help you work out how the costs of a fridge add up, we’ve developed this fridge energy running costs tool below. You can use it to compare how much fridges cost to power over their lifetime on top of their purchase price to work out which fridges are best value overall. Cross-reference it with our Best Buy fridges recommendations and reviews to find the best model for your home.
Fridge energy running costs
Energy-saving fridges
Our fridge energy running costs calculator leads you through to our fridge reviews to help you find a cheap-to-run model that is also recommended by our experts.
To help you find the best low energy models, we award our Which? Energy Saver logo to Best Buy fridges which also have among the lowest running costs of all the models we have tested. Look out for it when you compare fridge features and prices using our interactive tool.
All fridges have EU energy labels which give a good indication of how energy efficient different models are. All new models must have a minimum rating of A+ (with the best models labelled A+++). Find out more in our fridge energy labels guide.
But energy labels don’t tell you how much a fridge will cost you to run. You’ll can use Which? test results to tell you this. As part of our in-depth testing we calculate exactly how much electricity is used to power each fridge. We’ve seen big differences in running costs between fridges with the same energy label.
Finding the most energy-efficient fridge won’t be much use if it breaks down within a couple of years though. The energy-saving benefits will be quickly outweighed by the costs of repairs or a replacement. Check our fridge brand reliability survey results to find out which brands are consistently dependable – based on the experiences of thousands of Which? members.
- Watch our video for insider tips on how to buy the best fridge
- Our expert guides you through fridge features to look out for
- Discover how we test and rate fridges
