How to make ‘power hungry’ fridge freezers 25 percent more efficient

Britons have been braced for another tough winter with energy bills expected to increase again in January.

To cope with the prospect of paying even more for gas and electricity, many households have turned to making small changes in a bid to cut costs – which is something technology journalist Georgie Barrat knows a thing or two about.

Speaking on BBC’s Morning Live, she claimed that the golden rule for saving energy at home is to switch off “vampire” appliances that drain lots of power.

These include things like game consoles, TVs, set-top boxes and even microwaves which use energy all the time that they’re plugged in – even without actually being in use.

That said, the gadget expert revealed that it is also possible to save money on appliances that can’t be easily switched on and off.

She said: “Fridge freezers are pretty power hungry – they use up about £143 of electricity per year.

“So I do have some tips on making a fridge-freezer the most efficient it can be.”

One of the lesser-known hacks she revealed to hosts Helen Skelton and Gethin Jones was to fill the fridge with water to optimise its energy performance.

She said: “Both with your fridge and your freezer, you basically want to keep it about two-thirds full. So not too full, because otherwise, it has to work really hard to cool everything down.

“But also not too empty. So if you’re maybe getting towards the end of your food shop, you can fill up some jugs of water and put them in your fridge – and then that just takes up a bit more space because basically, the air uses energy to cool it down.”

The same can be done in the freezer too, this time using bottled water to avoid any spillages.

Cleaning was another tip for maximising the performance of this staple appliance, specifically when it comes to the coils.

Georgie said that dusting these parts, which can be found at the very back of the appliance, is “quite a job”, but can make the fridge freezer “perform 25 percent more efficiently”.

Leaving a 5cm gap between the back of the appliance and the wall to prevent overheating, and checking the door seals are all in order were other must-know tricks shared by the journalist.