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Original poster

Fridge freezer costing £20 per day to run?

346 replies

Buttonsluna · 15/11/2021 08:34

Hi there ,

We have just realised our standard size Liebherr fridge freezer is costing us over £7,000 a year to run Shock. Obviously we’ve unplugged it and bought a new one (arriving today), but do you think I can get compensation from the company?

It took us a whole quarterly bill period to realise it‘s been using over 100 KWH per 24 hours. Our bills went up dramatically before that, but we put it down to both WFH.

Basically we now owe thousands of pounds we can’t afford Envy (I feel sick and I’m having panic attack about how we’re going to pay).

As soon as we realised there was a problem when submitting our meter read, we bought a plug to check how much electricity each appliance is using. We were shocked that our Liebherr FF cost £23.50 over a 24 hour period!!!

We purchased it from John Lewis 10 years ago. Is there any recourse for compensation or do we have to suck it up? Is this just what happens when FF break down- is it normal? It seemed to be functioning ok, everything cold/ frozen and no frost or anything.

If you have any ideas please help. We acted as soon as we realised there is a problem so please don’t tell me I’m stupid for not noticing, I am busy working mum and struggle as it is to keep up with all life admin. Obviously I’m checking meter constantly now.

OP posts:
youwouldthink · 15/11/2021 09:36

Make sure you heck all sources to the point of turning off everything in house and see if the charge/units are still moving.
10 years ago I bought a show house. Had been with same electric co for years and in the new house...pretty much same size as previous house my bills were coming in 5 or 6 times higher!! Almost a year of desperate calls to the provider and several electricians out and still paying crazy bills. I was wrecked with it.
One afternoon I had a knock to the door from the head of my County Council asking if my bills were high. It seems the developer, who had gone out of business, had wired the street lighting for my street and the next street to the power supply in my garage.
The relief!!! Never got my money back though!

youwouldthink · 15/11/2021 09:37

*check

Sprig1 · 15/11/2021 09:38

Speak with your supplier. I would have expected them to flag such a huge increase in useage. Our water provider refunded us when we had a few months of huge bills due to a faulty boiler/water tank.

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Home improvement
friskybivalves · 15/11/2021 09:38

I may be wrong but I think @pigletjohn is often wise about immersion heater matters (and many other matters too). Paging him to see if he has any insights to offer on this mystery.

LucentBlade · 15/11/2021 09:39

The device you bought from Amazon could be faulty.

Have you had the thermostat checked on your immersion heater? If it’s faulty it will mean the water is being heated constantly but more than is necessary. Like a kettle being boiled constantly.

friskybivalves · 15/11/2021 09:40

@friskybivalves

I may be wrong but I think *@pigletjohn* is often wise about immersion heater matters (and many other matters too). Paging him to see if he has any insights to offer on this mystery.
I should have said that pigletJohn is most certainly wise about many other matters which is why he might have thoughts about the FF mystery!!
BarbaraofSeville · 15/11/2021 09:42

@Buttonsluna

If it’s the rewiring, what would the recourse be? Obviously we’d contact the electrician, but would be good to know what our rights are.

We have just purchased a new (Bosch) FF we can’t really afford but didn’t want to lose all the frozen food in there as money is tight.

I think electricians have to have certain qualifications and registrations in order to be able to work, so it is likely that there are relevant trade bodies that might be able to advise you and arbitrate between you.

The electrician should also have liability insurance which may cover additional costs due to faulty work.

rossclare · 15/11/2021 09:45

[quote Buttonsluna]@BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz we were told by 3 separate professionals (2 heating engineers) that letting the water cool down will cost more to heat it back up again. I know I know, sounds crazy to me too.[/quote]
This makes no sense. If you only put the immersion on for 2 hours a day, you are only paying for 2hours electricity.

titchy · 15/11/2021 09:46

I don't think it's physically possible to cost that on a domestic circuit.

15 amps on a 240volt circuit is less than 2000 watts (2 kilowatts). A kilowatt hour costs around 18p in uk so daily cost at most would be £8.

And fridge freezers are only a couple of amps!

Your calculations are wrong, or the gadget is wrong.

And I agree don't have the immersion on 24/7. I bet that is constantly heating with a broken thermostat. That's the cause not your fridge. But get it connected to your gas boiler. Madness not to. In fact are you certain that it isn't? It's very difficult to believe someone added a boiler and only connected it to radiators.

bakingdemon · 15/11/2021 09:48

Check the seal on the fridge - have you done a full defrost and reset recently? That sounds like a machine which needs a full going over before you decide to chuck it out.

Chemenger · 15/11/2021 09:51

If the tank of an immersion heater is well insulated and the thermostat works correctly most of the time it will be off, because once the water is hot it will stay off and the thermostat will cut off the power to the heater. When you draw off hot water the heater will come back on to heat the tank back up to the thermostat temperature. If it is well insulated the outside surface of the tank will be at more or less room temperature. The warmer the outside is the more heat you are losing and the more it is costing you to run the immersion continuously (the upside is that it will be costing you less to heat your house, but electricity is more expensive than gas so not a good tactic overall).
Our immersion, which is only used if the boiler is off or we have too many people having showers for the boiler to keep up, does not have a working thermostat (on my list of things to fix) so it keeps heating the tank until it boils, very much not a good situation. We use a timer to stop this happening. When the tank has boiled it is loud and water comes out of the overflow on the roof, you would notice.
It seems unlikely that a fridge freezer could be drawing around 4kW, I don't think a normal socket would cope with that power load. Fridges also don't continuously draw power, they come on when the temperature inside rises and go off when it falls back to the set point. If it was on continuously it would be too cold.

TakeYourFinalPosition · 15/11/2021 09:52

*I don't think it's physically possible to cost that on a domestic circuit.

15 amps on a 240volt circuit is less than 2000 watts (2 kilowatts). A kilowatt hour costs around 18p in uk so daily cost at most would be £8.

And fridge freezers are only a couple of amps!

Your calculations are wrong, or the gadget is wrong.*

This. It’s Monday morning and my brain isn’t fully awake yet but I don’t think this is even possible; there’s either been a mistake with the calculation you did; or the gadget is wrong. I can’t make your figures work at all for a domestic property.

PrtScn · 15/11/2021 09:54

@Theunamedcat

Are you sure its not faulty wiring? Have you plugged something else in that socket?
That was my thought, or the device is not accurately calculatingnthe amount of energy used. £23.50 per day over a 30 day period would be £705 just on the fridge freezer. Combine that with general day to day use, inluding the immersion and yoy’re looking at nearly £900-£1000 ish a month?!
BarbaraofSeville · 15/11/2021 09:58

You haven't programmed pounds instead of pence into the measuring device for unit costs have you? So £20 a unit instead or 20 pence?

A fridge freezer costing £7 a month to run is in the right ball park, but obviously it doesn't explain the £800 pm electricity bill.

Original poster
Buttonsluna · 15/11/2021 10:02

@BarbaraofSeville no definitely put cost in at 0.20 which is 20p

OP posts:
RevolutionRadio · 15/11/2021 10:05

In these circumstances I'd turn off everything electrical wait for the meter to stop and turn on items 1 at a time for 1 hour to see how much KW/h is being registered. If you suspect the fridge of being faulty do that first.

I'd imagine the immersion heating is also contributing alot to the cost.

Twickerhun · 15/11/2021 10:10

@RevolutionRadio

In these circumstances I'd turn off everything electrical wait for the meter to stop and turn on items 1 at a time for 1 hour to see how much KW/h is being registered. If you suspect the fridge of being faulty do that first.

I'd imagine the immersion heating is also contributing alot to the cost.

I agree with turning things on one by one but if the FVF or immersion is faulty it may only be faulty when cooling to heating - so the phases need to be longer….
RockingMyFiftiesNot · 15/11/2021 10:18

I googled keeping immersion heater and the first half dozen results I read suggested it is a myth that it is cheaper to keep it in all day. Make sure your tank is well lagged and water should stay warm.

I don't think you stand any chance of recompense from the freezer company after 10 years.

Original poster
Buttonsluna · 15/11/2021 10:19

Photo of monitor showing fridge is drawing down over 100 watts

Fridge freezer costing £20 per day to run?
OP posts:
Original poster
Buttonsluna · 15/11/2021 10:19

New FF coming today but can’t afford to switch this one off and lose everything in my freezer

OP posts:
Zilla1 · 15/11/2021 10:22

Agree with the PPs about it being unlikely that the fridge can physically draw sufficient electricity to cost that much, that it is unlikely to be more efficient to run an immersion 24/7 if the cylinder is insulated and that it would seem sensible to get a different electrician and heating engineer to look at the issues, including the scope to adapt the heating system. In the short term, turn everything off and sequentially turn things on, also possibly see how hot the plug to the fridge feels though be careful of safety.

Good luck.

Zilla1 · 15/11/2021 10:24

But 100W over 24 hours does not equal 100 KWh.

BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz · 15/11/2021 10:26

@Buttonsluna

New FF coming today but can’t afford to switch this one off and lose everything in my freezer
If the new one arrives today then keep the door shut on the old one once its turned off.
WhatAWasteOfOranges · 15/11/2021 10:27

Have you tried it in another socket? To see if the readings for FF are the same?

JollyAndBright · 15/11/2021 10:29

This may seem like a stupid question, and appologies if its been suggested before, but have you tried plugging something else into the FF's usual socket? or plugging the FF into a different socket and testing it that way?