How much does it cost per year to run an integrated fridge freezer?

The spread behind that average is much wider than the average suggests. The cheapest integrated model Which? has tested runs at £46 a year and the most expensive at £143². A maker's guidance puts the range at £44 at the low end to £140 at the high end⁴. Which? has tested fridge freezers costing as little as £41 annually to run⁵. The figure a household actually pays depends on the model, its size, its efficiency rating and the unit rate on the tariff.

A fridge freezer is one of the few appliances that runs every hour of the year, so its cost is a permanent part of the household baseline rather than a seasonal spike. That makes it a reasonable first target when working through which appliances use most electricity, and a fixed cost that no behaviour change removes.

Why the published figures range from £44 to £143

The gap between the lowest and highest published figures is not a disagreement about physics. It is four different measurements being reported as if they were one.

The first is the sample. Which?'s £78 is an average across the integrated models it has tested, with a cheapest of £46 and a dearest of £143². A maker's £44 to £140 range describes the same spread from the manufacturer's side⁴. A single tested appliance gives a single number: Which? found one Hisense model retailing at around £399 would cost £113.12 a year to run, against an average for freestanding models at that time of £81⁵.

The second is the date and the unit rate. Which? reported the average integrated fridge freezer at £62.19 in October 2021, £139.90 in April 2023, and £73 rising to £136 under a 2022 price cap change⁷. Those are the same appliance category measured against three different electricity prices. The £139.90 figure reflects the 2023 price spike, not a worse appliance.

The third is the efficiency rating of the model measured. A D-rated fridge freezer costs £53.04 a year and an F-rated one £93.50⁹. A G-rated 265-litre fridge-freezer costs £70 a year in Great Britain, while an F-rated 424-litre model costs £80¹⁰. Size and rating move the number independently of each other.

The fourth is what the figure includes. Some running costs exclude the standing charge; a 250kWh/year freezer at 26.11p/kWh costs about £5.44 a month on that basis¹¹.

Integrated, freestanding or American style: which costs less

On average, integrated and freestanding models are almost indistinguishable. Which? puts integrated at £78 a year and freestanding at £79². A maker's guidance gives the same near-parity from the other direction: around £77 for an integrated model against closer to £79 for a freestanding one³. Which? reported a freestanding average of £74 a year in May 2026¹ and around £75 a year in 2024⁵.

American-style models are the clear outlier. Which? puts the average at £117 a year, with a cheapest of £61 and a dearest of £172². Its May 2026 guidance gives £110 for the average power-hungry American-style model¹, and a 2024 figure put a large American-style fridge freezer at over £108, more than 40% above freestanding⁵. Welsh Government guidance drawing on Which? material states that American-style fridge freezers add an average of over £125 a year to run¹².

Averages and ranges from Which? appliance running cost data².

The practical point is that the type matters far less than the model. The £97 gap between the cheapest and dearest integrated models is larger than the £39 gap between the integrated and American-style averages. Choosing a well-rated integrated model over a poor one saves more than choosing integrated over freestanding.

What drives a fridge freezer's running cost

Four things set the number, and only one of them is under a household's control at the point of purchase.

The efficiency rating is the largest single factor. An A+++ fridge costs a third of what a B rated fridge costs to run per year¹³. The current label scale runs from A to G¹⁴, and the gap between a D-rated model at £53.04 and an F-rated one at £93.50 shows what a two-band difference is worth⁹.

Size and compartment volume come next. A 265-litre G-rated fridge-freezer costs £70 a year in Great Britain, while a 424-litre F-rated model costs £80¹⁰. The larger appliance is more efficient per litre but consumes more in total.

The unit rate on the tariff converts kWh into pounds. A fridge freezer using 233kWh a year costs £49 in one price cap period and £61 in another, a £12 difference from the rate alone¹⁵. A fridge freezer on a standard variable tariff costs £5.39 a month⁶.

How the appliance is used and maintained matters at the margin. Frost build-up in a freezer compartment increases consumption, and defrosting restores performance³. Siting matters too: an appliance next to an oven or in a hot room works harder.

Reading the energy label and finding the rating plate

The energy label does not state a running cost in pounds. It shows yearly energy consumption in kWh/annum under the rating scale¹⁶, the capacity of the chilled and frozen compartments, and the noise the appliance emits¹⁶. The rating itself runs from A to G¹⁴.

That kWh figure is the one to compare between models, because it is independent of tariff. Multiplying it by the household's own unit rate gives the running cost. A 233kWh appliance at one cap period's rate costs £49 and at another £61¹⁵.

On an integrated model the label is not on the door front, because the door front is a cabinet panel. The label is supplied with the paperwork and is normally fixed inside the appliance or on the cabinet edge. The rating plate carrying the serial number is usually inside the fridge compartment or behind a drawer.

Which? recommends a fridge freezer rated at least D or above, except where an integrated or American-style model is wanted¹. That is a recommendation about efficiency, not about running cost in pounds, and it does not account for the tariff the household is on.

How the price cap changes the numbers

Every published running cost figure is a snapshot of an electricity price, and that price moves. The price cap changes every three months¹⁸, and the current cap is 70% higher than in 2021²³.

That is why the same appliance category carries such different figures across the years. Which? reported the average integrated fridge freezer at £62.19 in October 2021, £139.90 in April 2023, and £73 rising to £136 under a 2022 cap change⁷. The appliance did not change; the rate did.

The cap limits the unit rate charge rather than the total bill, and it is calculated and updated four times a year²⁰. Because it moves quarterly, a running cost calculated at one cap period will not hold for the next. A fridge freezer using 233kWh a year costs £49 in one period and £61 in another¹⁵.

For a household, the practical consequence is that any pound figure quoted for a fridge freezer is a figure at a particular rate on a particular date. The kWh/annum figure on the label is stable; the pound figure is not. Where a household wants to compare models, the kWh figure is the one that survives a cap change.

What this means for household energy independence

A fridge freezer is the clearest example of a load a household cannot switch off. It runs continuously, so its cost is a permanent part of the baseline rather than something that can be timed, shifted or avoided. At £5.39 a month on a standard variable tariff⁶, or about £5.44 a month for a 250kWh/year freezer at 26.11p/kWh excluding standing charge¹¹, it is a fixed draw on the electricity supply every day of the year.

That has two consequences for independence. The first is that the only lever is efficiency at the point of purchase, since behaviour cannot reduce a fridge's consumption. Choosing a model rated D or above, as Which? recommends for non-integrated and non-American models¹, locks in a lower baseline for the appliance's life. The second is that the running cost is set by the tariff, not the appliance, so a household on a standard variable tariff pays whatever the cap period dictates.

The dependence that remains is on the grid and on a supplier. A fridge freezer cannot be run from a battery indefinitely without a charging source, and its consumption is invisible to the household unless metered. A smart meter or an energy monitor makes the baseline visible, which is the starting point for working out how much energy your home uses before any spending decision. For a household planning a route to independence, the fridge freezer is the floor of the load: everything else is added on top of it.