Fridge freezer costing £20 per day to run?

[Buttonsluna]

Hi there ,

We have just realised our standard size Liebherr fridge freezer is costing us over £7,000 a year to run . 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 (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.

I’m so confused and can’t afford to pay for someone to look really. So going to need to take a deep breath and go through everything.

As long as you leave it closed a freezer will keep the food frozen four at least a day...........you can safely turn it off for a bit!

@JollyAndBright I will do that now - with hairdryer. Bit worried about safety now.

Thanks @Tricked2003

According to this simple calculator, if the fridge is drawing 100W then it should not use anything close to 100 kWh over a 24h period ... instead it should use 2.4 kWh,
www.inchcalculator.com/watts-to-kwh-calculator/

This other site suggests that it's quite normal for a fridge to draw 100W.
www.electricalsafetyfirst.org.uk/guidance/safety-around-the-home/home-appliances-ratings/

Working backwards using the first calculator I worked out that you'd have to draw 4167W, equivalent to 17 Amps on a 240V circuit, in order to burn through 100 kWh in 24 hours.

So what I am actually wondering is this: is it possible that your electricity meter is defective and massively overcounting your power usage? Alternatively, something other than the Liebherr is probably drawing all of that power, consistent with your device reading of 100W.

High usage is definitely possible even on 13amp fuses - we have an electric aga and it uses around 40kwh a day, which we used to suck up but since the price hikes we're trying to be much more clever about when it's on, turned down etc.

For you op I would be systematic as others have said - but also give each device & your monitor time to adjust. Don't just plug in and out. My money is on the water heater and fridge conspiring against you. High bills are scary, I hope you get answers soon!

Ok that’s helpful, I feel like I’m going round in circles and so confused!

I tried a hairdryer in FF plug socket and the reading was the same as other plug.

Plugged FF in another plug and reading was same.

Perhaps I have set the price wrong, the manual is terrible and doesn’t explain how to actually read the thing, just how to change settings.

I’ve had hardly any sleep due to panic attacks over paying the bills so my brain is not really working properly and I feel overwhelmed and confused. Plus I have a job to do but children will be home later and then I won’t be able to think straight. It’s a nightmare this is

There is something not adding up here.

If I put the immersion on for 15 minutes, the sweat starts pouring off me, with stress. (I’m Irish, so immersion heating being on 24hours a day would be insanity)

I hope you figure it out. Good luck.

What is your electricity bill right now?

Ok we’re going to try and do this methodically. My brain can’t cope with the numbers as I’m feeling stressed and it’s all sixes and sevens. I think I’m going to ditch the monitor and just monitor the meter looking at the units, rather than converting into money.

food will definitely stay frozen for most of the day, we had electricians in doing some work on our fuse box a couple of weeks ago and we had to unplug everything in the house for most of the day 8am-3pm ish.
I was worried about my massively over stuffed freezer but everything stayed frozen solid.

the electrician gave me a tip, anything like meat or something you definitely want to stay frozen, stuff into the middle of other things as it will definitely keep it frozen solid.

Our gas bill is £20 pcm. We hardly put the heating on (I’be Irish blood too!). Our electricity bill was £185 pcm May- mid October.

Before that was £20pcm for gas £70pcm for electricity. Used to be half that in old house. I don’t know units as everything online and they went bust.

I dread to think what it will be mid October to now as units have shot up.

@Buttonsluna

Ok that’s helpful, I feel like I’m going round in circles and so confused!

I tried a hairdryer in FF plug socket and the reading was the same as other plug.

Plugged FF in another plug and reading was same.

Perhaps I have set the price wrong, the manual is terrible and doesn’t explain how to actually read the thing, just how to change settings.

have you double checked using the actual meter reading? just in case the device is faulty?

I would literally turn off everything else in the entire house, inc the FF, take a meter reading, turn just the FF back on, after 10 minutes take another meter reading and work out exactly how much it is actually using.

Btw we’re meticulous about turning off lights/ chargers. Eg WFH and unplug laptop when it’s charged. We only leave router and tv on standby (because it’s an arse to boot up).

Dishwasher once daily and dryer twice a week. No major appliances or hot tubs, no electric car. We’re just a normal family and environmentally conscious.

@Buttonsluna

Unfortunately the immersion and water is not linked up with the gas boiler. So there is no timer. I know, it seems like a terrible system. But it states in the boiler manual that it doesn’t heat up water. I couldn’t believe it either.

Yes the device we used tells you how much energy you’ve used and how much it costs (we inputted the unit price). It definitely costs £23.50 to power the FF over last 24 hours. Electricity meter outside confirms this

I had a non combi boiler and an immersion heater set-up years ago. I got a plumber to run pipes to the immersion heater (like its another radiator) so it heated up when I put the heating on. Not an ideal solution maybe but worth looking into.

How stressful, I hope you can get to the bottom of it!

Wasn't there a long thread on MM years ago, where a woman had problems with huge lecky usage but she couldn't figure out what was causing the problem??

Anyone remember that? It was very entertaining .

You've been panicked into rash actions. I really don't think the fridge is truly using that much. Your meter shows 100 W.

If anything is truly using 100 kWh a day it will be hot. That's more power than an electric heater.

One thing that can use that much power is the immersion heater. But even then, it probably needs a broken thermostat, poor insulation, or a hot water leak to account for.

Or it's a faulty meter. Some smart meters are known for misreading usage by certain appliances.

The gadget showing 100 watts is about right. But 100 watts doesn't cost what you seem to think it does. 100 watts is 0.1 of a kilowatt. At 18p per kilowatt hour, the fridge costs 0.18 x 0.1 x 24 = 43p a day!

So send the new one back.

And use the money to get your immersion heated from the boiler.

[quote Buttonsluna]@BarbaraofSeville thanks, that’s all very useful. I will check out. I too have an entrenched fear of being told off for leaving the immersion on from my childhood!![/quote]
There's always a bun fight here around this time of year as to whether it's better to leave the immersion on all the time or turn it on & off.

When I had mine it was definitely no more expensive to have it on 24/7 & infinitely more convenient!

100w seems normal for a fridge freezer, surely? This doesn’t add up to anything like 100kWh a day!

I think you are looking at the wrong culprit OP. Keep your fridge freezer and look at what else might have caused the huge increase.

@Buttonsluna

Our gas bill is £20 pcm. We hardly put the heating on (I’be Irish blood too!). Our electricity bill was £185 pcm May- mid October.

Before that was £20pcm for gas £70pcm for electricity. Used to be half that in old house. I don’t know units as everything online and they went bust.

I dread to think what it will be mid October to now as units have shot up.

Are these figures for the bills with actual readings? Or with estimated readings? Or just the direct debit amounts?

If the bill was £185pcm to mid October where has the info about £800 pcm for the last 3 calendar months come from? Are you forecasting that as a possible bill or have you actually been billed it?

BTW changing from having immersion heater on all day to having it on just 1.5 hours in the morning and 1.5 hours in the evening has more than halved our bill. So that might be worth a try.