Your Old Fridge Is Costing You. Here’s How Much Energy a New Model Saves Each Year

New, extra energy-efficient home equipment might value you on the register, however the financial savings are inclined to catch up over time. Most individuals consider heat pumps or solar panels once they hear “long-term energy-saving funding,” however your fridge quietly makes the identical case. 

Newer fashions use significantly much less electrical energy than these from even 10 years in the past, and that hole in vitality use interprets straight into lower utility bills.

I needed to place an precise quantity on it, so I did a ton of math, analyzing 2,630 fridges and their Power Star knowledge to match right this moment’s fashions to these from 2016. (Whereas I did not calculate the vitality delta for fridges older than 2016, it is nearly definitely larger.) 

Here is how a lot vitality and cash you possibly can save by making the change.

The place my fridge knowledge comes from

For my 2025 samples, I analyzed vitality utilization in fashionable Energy Star-certified models. For 2016, I could not depend on Power Star knowledge as a result of it lists solely fashions that meet the latest requirements, not earlier ones.

As an alternative, I sourced my 2016 knowledge from the California Power Fee’s Modernized Appliance Efficiency Database System. Somewhat than cowl 42 fridge courses individually, I grouped them into the next broad classes:

I did not have a look at standalone fridges as a result of there wasn’t sufficient knowledge from both pattern group to carry out a significant comparability. Standalone freezers are a distinct Energy Star dataset that I did not embrace.

It was important to exclude older merchandise from the trendy knowledge

The present slate of Power Star-qualified fridges contains fashions relationship again to January 2014, so I narrowed my record of candidates to merchandise that hit the market in 2021 or later — the final time Power Star up to date its criteria. Whereas this technically signifies that this is not a one-to-one comparability of 2025 and 2016, it displays necessary particulars:

• Shops do not completely carry fridges from the present calendar yr, so the info ought to a minimum of mirror what’s accessible at retail.
• Lots of the most effective fridges have been launched earlier than 2025.
• It is totally potential {that a} fridge rolled off the manufacturing unit line a month in the past, regardless of incomes a certification in 2021.

Evaluating your present fridge

I counsel utilizing Power Star’s Flip Your Fridge Calculator to match your present fridge with this evaluation. It offers a tough estimate primarily based in your fridge’s age, measurement, configuration and native electrical energy value. For extra present electrical energy costs, examine your current billing assertion.

Likewise, you possibly can search for an Energy Guide Label along with your fridge’s mannequin quantity for an actual yearly electrical energy use determine. I exploit the newest Energy Information Administration knowledge from 2024 for my calculations — 2025’s knowledge is not finalized as of the publishing of this text. It lists the residential nationwide common at $0.1648 per kilowatt-hour.

The magic quantity for every kind of fridge

As a result of all of it boils all the way down to a fridge’s class and quantity, I can not offer you a common quantity that applies to each fridge. As an alternative, I will break down the highlights and common stats in every class. Discovering retail pricing from 2016 (and 2025) proved to be a way more troublesome process than I might resolve within the time I had for this evaluation. As an alternative, I used the info to create easy vitality financial savings tips beneath.

Fridges with essentially the most potential financial savings over 10 years

If the added value of upgrading to a brand new fridge (in contrast with shopping for or repairing a used one) is decrease than the numbers beneath, the brand new fridge will probably offset that value distinction via vitality financial savings alone over the subsequent 10 years:

• Facet-by-side fridges: $340
• Backside freezers: $272
• High freezers: $83
• Compact fridges: $0 (common vitality effectivity stays largely unchanged since 2016)

If a brand new fridge prices greater than this effectivity premium, it should take longer to interrupt even. Keep in mind that whereas averages can provide you a very good rule of thumb, essentially the most environment friendly home equipment will save much more in vitality prices. These numbers additionally do not account for potential rebates out of your utility firm, so precise financial savings could also be even larger.

Crucially, these numbers assume you are not switching to a distinct fridge kind. For instance, you will probably see even larger vitality financial savings when changing a side-by-side fridge with a bottom-freezer fridge.

Key takeaways

• New side-by-side fridges will, on common, lower your vitality prices greater than every other kind of fridge, although backside freezers additionally noticed some good enhancements during the last 10 years. Upgrading both kind of fridge to a contemporary model might be value it.
• The $83 in vitality financial savings for prime freezers over 10 years most likely will not be sufficient to justify an improve in case your present prime freezer nonetheless works.
• Trendy compact fridge know-how is basically equivalent to that of 2016. You do not have to be choosy with most fashions.

High-mounted freezers

• Over 10 years, a brand new top-mounted freezer saves an estimated $83 in electrical energy payments in contrast with a 2016 mannequin.
• I could not discover a single instance from the pattern knowledge (together with the 2016 MAEDBS knowledge) that does not already meet the necessities for Power Star Most Environment friendly 2025.
• The typical effectivity of recent Power Star-rated prime freezers is nearly triple that of 2016.
• High freezers use much less vitality per cubic foot, on common, than backside freezers and side-by-sides. They’re additionally the smallest full-size fridges.

• A brand new bottom-mounted freezer ought to save an estimated $272 in electrical energy payments over 10 years in comparison with a 2016 mannequin.
• Backside freezer fridges earn larger effectivity scores on common than different full-size fridges, however their effectivity enhancements since 2016 aren’t as pronounced as these of prime freezers and side-by-sides.
• Roughly 1 in 6 backside freezers qualify for Power Star Most Environment friendly 2025 — solely three fashions from 2016 meet this normal.

• A  new side-by-side fridge saves a mean of $340 in electrical energy payments in contrast with a 2016 mannequin, the most important financial savings on this evaluation.
• Whereas 5 side-by-side fridge fashions (7%) from 2016 nonetheless meet fashionable Power Star standards, two of those additionally qualify for Power Star Most Environment friendly 2025 — versus a single product within the fashionable group.

• New compact fridges have roughly the identical vitality effectivity as their 2016 counterparts. In actual fact, the typical 2016 mannequin makes use of much less vitality.
• Whereas compact fridges use much less vitality general than full-size fridges, they use extra electrical energy per cubic foot.
• 121 minifridge fashions (81%) from 2016 meet fashionable Power Star standards.
• Roughly 5% of fashions from each pattern teams qualify for Power Star Most Environment friendly 2025.

The place you reside additionally performs a task

Electricity costs differ broadly relying on the state and area you reside in. For instance, North Dakota’s common value in 2024 was simply 11.51 cents per kilowatt-hour (the bottom within the US), whereas Hawaii’s was a whopping 42.86 cents.

The upper your electrical fee, the extra you will save on vitality with a brand new fridge. In contrast with the nationwide common, residents of Hawaii, California, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Alaska will see further vitality financial savings of 51% to 160% when shopping for a brand new Power Star fridge.

Conversely, financial savings can be a lot decrease in states with comparatively low-cost electrical energy, resembling North Dakota, Idaho, Nebraska, Louisiana and Washington, which common lower than 12 cents per kilowatt-hour. In North Dakota’s case, that is simply $237.51 in financial savings on a side-by-side fridge — $102.56 lower than the nationwide common.

Effectivity math would not add up for sensible fridges

Whereas I do not explicitly discover it on this evaluation, smart fridges aren’t usually a very good funding in case your predominant objective is saving vitality over time. It has nothing to do with vitality effectivity and all the things to do with the premium you are paying for sensible residence tech.

For instance, Samsung’s sensible fridge fashions value a minimum of $700 greater than their conventional counterparts — this simply obliterates any long-term vitality financial savings. That stated, sensible fridges aren’t going away, and it is OK to splurge in case your price range permits.

How I did the maths: Calculating effectivity knowledge for fridges from 2016

After I began this evaluation, I had no thought how bewildering refrigerator-efficiency regulations are within the US. However I wanted to know them to precisely calculate 2025 energy-efficiency values for all of the 2016 fashions.

The only strategy to clarify that is that each potential fridge configuration makes use of a novel method decided by effectivity variables, the fridge’s adjusted quantity, and anticipated base vitality consumption.

For instance, Class 3 Fridges have a top-mounted freezer, automated defrost, and do not embrace an automated icemaker. As a result of the freezer is on prime, the equipment’s fan can benefit from the truth that chilly air sinks to tug air from the freezer into the fridge compartment. The sort of passive cooling will all the time be extra environment friendly than pumping chilly air up from a bottom-mounted freezer.

Likewise, the adjusted quantity accounts for the freezer compartment, which takes extra vitality to achieve a goal temperature than the recent meals compartment. Adjusted quantity is all the time bigger than the linear quantity of a fridge — a minimum of when the equipment has each a freezer and a fridge.

Lastly, all the parts of a fridge have a baseline vitality degree (base load) decided by the legal guidelines of physics. Since fridges cannot use lower than this a lot vitality, it is added to the ultimate calculation:

(Effectivity variable X Adjusted Quantity) + Base Load = Most Allowable Power Use

When you understand that just about all the things — from defrost kind to freezer location to built-in versus freestanding — impacts effectivity, it is sensible that there are 42 courses of fridges and freezers with totally different vitality effectivity requirements.

Power Star standards are extra easy

It is a lot simpler to calculate the vitality degree a fridge must qualify for an Energy Star Certification. It merely wants to make use of 10% much less vitality than the federal normal — I excluded fashionable fridges that fall beneath this threshold. The final wrinkle is the Power Star Most Environment friendly standing, which modifications yearly. Listed below are the 2025 standards (PDF):

• High-mounted freezers will need to have an annual vitality consumption of 637 kWh or much less.
• Backside-mounted freezers and side-by-side items have to be a minimum of 27% extra environment friendly than the federal normal.
• Compact fridges have to be a minimum of 30% extra environment friendly than the federal normal.

As soon as I discovered the calculations for every fridge class, it was merely a matter of including the formulation to my spreadsheet, calculating common vitality prices and figuring out the financial savings.