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will having freezer make my energy bill much higher?
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Posted by natalija_gardener (My Page) on Thu, Jan 28, 10 at 17:58
Hi,
I am thinking about having freezer besides the frige we have, because now I have a vegetable garden and want to freeze some of it (I do not like canned food). Is it going to add much to energy bill?
Do older freezers take more energy or the same amount as new ones?
Thanks for any input. |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: will having freezer make my energy bill much higher?
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| Older freezers will indeed use a lot more energy than new ones. And if your freezer is in an un-heated/cooled area like a garage and you are in a climate with extreme temps, it will take more to run it, too. But a new freezer in a temperature controlled location will not use a lot of energy, certainly you can make up for the expense by savings on your food expenses by buying sales, etc. |
RE: will having freezer make my energy bill much higher?
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| I second what sushipup says. I'd suggest buying a new freezer and buying an upright one, not a chest freezer. New freezers have energy guides on them now, so you can compare and choose for energy efficiency. Actually a freezer is better at keeping it's temperature than a fridge because it is not beimg opened all the time. Once the contents are frozen it doesn't take too much to keep it that way. An upright one is better. Things tend to get lost in a chest freezer and they are very hard to organize. What you save in having a freezer may be lost on wasted food. I wouldn't be without mine. Not only for garden produce but for saving money when meat goes on sale. Hints for a freezer. Repackage meat from the store into zipper bags and mark the date and contents on it. Store wrapping lets meat get freezer burn. When you are doing veggies from the garden. Blanch and then spread on cookie sheets and freeze. The next day you can scrape them off the sheets with a flipper( if they don't just roll off) and put in a big zipper bag then you can take out just what you need at a time |
RE: will having freezer make my energy bill much higher?
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| I agree that a freezer although raising your bill can be a money saver but before you invest a large amount of time freezing your own vegetables I would suggest purchasing a small amount, blanching and freezing, then testing them on your family to see what they will eat before growing. I love most frozen vegetables but frozen green beans to me are just something that tastes like straw and is full of fiber. If you like frozen peas it is better to look for them on sale rather than growing your own as it takes an amazing amount of pods to make a pound. Keep fresh ones as a seasonal treat and use the frozen the rest of the year. |
RE: will having freezer make my energy bill much higher?
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| mailflier: You can keep your store bought produce for testing because it is not a good test. Supermarket vegetables can't hold a candle to garden ones even when frozen. Shelling peas is something the whole family can do and I wouldn't be without them. For the first time in a long time we ran out this year and bought some frozen ones. 3/4 of the package sits in my freezer and will probably end up in the garbage--nobody likes them. |
RE: will having freezer make my energy bill much higher?
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Energy efficient new freezers add very little to your energy bill. We bought an upright freezer about a year ago, and I have kept track of the energy cost vs. savings on food. The freezer is well on the way to paying for itself.
We have two large vegetable gardens, and I freeze most of our vegetables. I buy meat on sale, and that is where most of the savings come. Also, buying freezing supplies like re-usable containers on sale helps. I'm so frugal (tight) that I don't use freezer bags since I can't reuse them easily. |
RE: will having freezer make my energy bill much higher?
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| If you get a new energy star freezer, it will say on the label how much energy it uses and give an estimated cost to operate it. Most I've seen will be less than $10 per month. Also, I'm sure there are some people who use extra freezers to save money, but I think the majority of people lose money on the total deal. They buy more food than they can reasonably use (it's so cheap!) and then some of it gets wasted. In your case, it sounds like you are more interested in just having garden veggies available and don't want to spend too much to do it. It sounds like a reasonable expense to keep your family eating healthy foods year round. |
RE: will having freezer make my energy bill much higher?
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| I consider a free-standing freezer a convenience, and you should get it for just that, not a money saver. If it's an older energy hog sitting half the year in a hot garage (which is NOT a recommended use of a refrigerator or a freezer - they are designed to be used at room temperature, not 115°F), you'll end up paying more for the additional energy than the total sum of the food bargains we tend to stuff in them. We gave our 3/4-size, up-right, free-standing freezer to hubby's sister and upgraded our older refrigerator to a larger, energy efficient refrigerator/freezer without any "bells and whistles" - NO ice maker or water dispenser which tend to use more energy. We couldn't believe the amount of energy we saved. Because our freezer was a 3/4-size model, the amount of freezer space on the new refrigerator is nearly the same. So that may be an option for you if you have an older refrigerator. When we checked the energy use with a Kill-A-Watt meter, our new refrigerator/freezer used even less energy than most refrigerators. We are also very conservative with door opening, which is also another reason for less energy use. You can dehydrate a lot of your garden produce, as an inexpensive method for preservation. With limited freezer space, that's what I do. You can put an amazing amount of tomatoes in a quart jar if you dehydrate them. I also freeze homegrown tomatoes in FoodSaver bags (takes up less space), as well as mixtures of onions and peppers out of the garden to use for stir-fry and other things. I even dehydrate commercial frozen food when I find it on sale. -Grainlady |
Here is a link that might be useful: Appliance Energy Useage
RE: will having freezer make my energy bill much higher?
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| No one has mentioned this, but if your utility has regular seasonal storm outages like ours, then you could loose your frozen and refrigerated foods. Of course, there are backup systems for electricity and good old ice will help for short outages. Frozen food losses are usually not as bad as refrigerated losses for most short periods like 1-3 hours in the summer. We have had outages of up to 8 hours for bad warm season storms and several days for ice storms. Winter is easier, just throw the food in coolers and put is on the outside deck. |
RE: will having freezer make my energy bill much higher?
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| I've been through three different ice storms. During the first two, the ice stuck around. During the last one, we got the initial ice and then the temps started warming up the next day. Several people lost the food in both their freezers and fridges. We've also lost the food in the freezer because the kids would get in there to get ice cream out and not close the door. We've changed our habits and no longer store ice cream in the freezer. We're still working on the kids. |
RE: will having freezer make my energy bill much higher?
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| When you think of how long food sits out at most family gatherings power outages of less than 5 hours should have little effect on the safety of the food in a refrig. In a freezer for future reference keep a clean stack of newspaper on hand. Take a wet sheet, wring it dry, put on top of frozen food trying to push in holes arround food. Then place several, at least 5 layers of newspaper on top of the wet sheet. Leave door closed. This should keep every thing solidly frozen until the next day. A suggest for longer periods is that you and your neighbors have a get together and cook the food on grills and over open fires. You can all have a friendly feed and what is left over you can then get rid of. Better in my mind than just having to throw everything out. |
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