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.

@NotDavidTennant

You'e confused yourself because your monitor gives a reading in Watts but you've calculated the bill as if the reading is in Kilowatts. One Kilowatt = 1000 Watts, so you've overestimated the fridge's energy usage by a factor of a thousand!

Cancel the new fridge and go back to the drawing board on working out what is causing your high electricity usage. The problem is not your fridge!

It's not that or the actual usage would be 2p per day which is equally ridiculous

It couldn’t be your fridge - it wouldn’t be keeping anything cool / frozen if it was.

The immersion is likely what’s murdering your electric - it should be as and when and no more.

[quote Buttonsluna]@BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz we noticed our bills went up dramatically when we moved into a new house just before Covid. We assumed because we have an immersion heating water 247 (we’ve been told by heating professionals we need to keep it on for efficiency reasons). There’s a chance the FF could have been damaged in move I guess. Also Covid - WFH explained partly another jump in bills.

Unfortunately I can’t check old bills as our supplier went bust and it was all online [/quote]
You wouldn't need to check your old bills though ? You would surely have noticed if it was costing you 7000 a year - as you have now .

I don’t know what to think anymore

New FF will be here any minute from AO.com I can’t cancel it.

DH and I going to fall out about it soon as the stress is getting to us.

I hear what you’re saying about it not being the FF and it’s the immersion. We had my dads friend pop over who was a heating engineer and he confirmed boiler not hooked up to water so we have to have the immersion on. He said he had this before, ran tests and it was cheaper to keep immersion on 247 rather than on/off.

I’m at a loss really. I spoke to our energy company EOn - got an automaton person who said to get an electrician out. Not willing to look into it all.

For those asking that was our actual payment. The £800 I’m estimating by looking at our meter reads (not smart meter) and unit cost of 21p

Dads friend popped over 20 mins ago before someone jumps on me, saying I didn’t share the info in OP

Ps dads friend was heating engineer trained estates mgr for a site with flats/ homes and he is basing his experience off this. He recently retired.

My ‘dads friend’ hooked up an electric shower for us and our house almost burnt down.

I have never heard of immersion on all the time. They are very very expensive, that's what I've always been told.

What is your annual usage in kWh? It should say somewhere on your bills. What do you mean by actual payment? A direct debit amount does not always correspond to monthly usage. When I input my meter readings I get a breakdown of how much actual gas/electric I have used. It's not the same as my direct debit amount

@DameMaureen can’t check old bills for this house. All online and company went bust. Yes I know I should have kept records, but I didn’t. Changed energy supplier to EON recently which is how it’s all come to light. Had big debt with old supplier

Can you refuse to accept the new fridge/freezer? You will have to pay the delivery charge I would think but if they take the fridge back they will (eventually) refund you the cost.

Don't rely on heating engineer friend's experiments and run your own instead. If that's the only other electrical device that's on all the time then it's more likely to be the culprit than the fridge freezer

To clarify, have you actually been billed £800 a month based meter readings or are you estimating £800 per month yourself based on your own meter readings?

With the immersion heater I used a timer usually, however sometimes overrode that and switched it on 24/7 and would forget to switch it off for days, sometimes even a week. It certainly didn't cost £20 a day and I never actually noticed a change of expenditure, so if their was it was likely to have been minor.

I know your readings are all over the place with the meter but can you put in a dispute with the electric supplier.
My daughter has just had a horrendous second electric bill and gave the supplier the correct electric number when moving in. However since then the old supplier to the previous tenants gave her supplier their ‘end’ reading. Which her bill defaults to. It is obvious the old tenants have given a very different meter reading. Luckily my daughter has photos etc. And her supplier told her not to worry just raise it as a dispute.
I don’t suppose this could have happened since you have seen the numbers go up but you could raise a dispute so someone can investigate?

@dementedpixie actual - DD debit and reconciled with actual meeting readings, we owed them money to early October which i paid. I expect around £800 due since then due to meter readings (our use is quickly going up!)

How long have you been with Eon?
What company were you with before? Sounds like you were underpaying before. Did the debt go with you to Eon and that's why your monthly payment amount is higher?

So many variables: new smaller/larger dwelling so energy usage may change to achieve your thermostat settings; insufficient insulation so greater heat loss; change of tariff rates; recent tariff increases; handover rates when previous supplier went bust...

Old FF - out of warrantee.

You can still cancel the new one from ao before it is delivered. Please don't dither on this.

WTFFFFFFFFFF!!!!! How is that even possible, I'd die a thousand deaths.
Bit late now but to avoid anything like this happening again get the electricity company to fit a free smart meter.
I was shocked by mine and have stopped using several appliances as a result.
Are you sure the local power station wasn't accidentally plugged into your house? Have you had an electrician look at it.

I dont understand
You said £185 per month up to October
Where has £800 come from?

Do I read that right from your last post that you owe £800 from Oct to Nov?
That can't be right. I have an electric car and don't use the much, even if I gave it a full charge every day it wouldn't be anywhere near that.

I think you now realise that it isn't the FF, for reference 100w of electricity would take 10hours to use 1000w or 1kw ie 1 unit of electricity at 20p.

How long was the dwelling empty before you moved in?

Any chance that a third party or plant based business may be piggy backing their ‘lecky off your power supply?

Thinking logically, why would it be cheaper to have an immersion heater on constantly. A kettle is an immersion heater too, just it sits in a jug rather than a tank. What do you think would use less energy? A kettle that runs constantly to keep the water at boiling point until you're ready for a cup of tea? Or turning it on and letting it come to the boil, then using the water immediately to make a cup of tea?

will you not be covered by the price cap if you are on a standard variable rate tariff?

That fridge Freezer isn't adding up...

The most you can draw from a UK plug socket is 20A, most appliances are fitted with a 13A or less fuse.

(Worst case senario a domestic UK ring main can pull 32A - however this would be for everything on the fuseboard on that ring - likely to be at least your entire kitchen)

20A x 230V = 4600W or 4.6kW
13A x 230V = 2990W or 2.9kW

4.6kW 24 hours a day is 4.6 x 24 = 110.4 kWh

On the basis of government cap elec pricing of ~15p /kWh
110.4 kWh would be costing you £16.56

£27.36 would be an entire ring running to capacity - and would suggest you need a good electrical check.

Your fridge from your readings...
100W = 0.1KwH over 24 hours 2.4kWh - @15p per kWh = 36p

Sorry but it isn't your fridge!!