Quick answer: Chest freezer cost per month runs $3.07 to $5.29 on every model holding current certification at the US average rate, or £4.37 to £7.53. That is the whole market: only nine models are certified. The largest of them costs $63.46 a year — less than a space heater costs in one month of nights.
A chest freezer is the rare entry in our appliance wattage chart where the honest answer is precise. It runs continuously, so there is no usage pattern to guess at; its consumption is certified rather than estimated; and the entire market is nine models. We listed all nine, with their daily figures, in how many watts a chest freezer uses per day. This article is what those numbers cost.
Three things turn out to matter more than which freezer you buy: where you live, whether it is a chest or an upright, and how little the ENERGY STAR badge is actually worth. All three come out of the same certified database, queried on 3 September 2026.
Chest freezer cost per month, every certified unit
| Model | Capacity | kWh/year | Per month US | Per month UK | Per year US |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Whirlpool WZC3209LW | 9.0 cu ft | 201 | $3.07 | £4.37 | $36.86 |
| Danby DCF100A5WDB | 10.0 cu ft | 211 | $3.22 | £4.59 | $38.70 |
| Frigidaire EFRF1005 | 10.1 cu ft | 213 | $3.26 | £4.63 | $39.06 |
| GE FCM11PH | 10.6 cu ft | 218 | $3.33 | £4.74 | $39.98 |
| GE FCM16DL | 15.7 cu ft | 277 | $4.23 | £6.03 | $50.80 |
| GE FCM22DL, Crosley XCM22DM, Hotpoint HCM22QW | 21.7 cu ft | 346 | $5.29 | £7.53 | $63.46 |
Your postcode moves this more than your model does
The spread across the nine models is $3.07 to $5.29, a factor of 1.7. The spread across American residential rates is a factor of four. Take the smallest freezer on the list and move it: $2.20 a month in Nevada, $8.83 in Hawaii. Take the largest and it is $3.78 against $15.20. The cheap freezer in the expensive state costs more than twice the expensive freezer in the cheap state.
That is the same arithmetic as what it costs to run a space heater for eight hours, and it is worth internalising before shopping: the appliance choice is worth a couple of dollars a month, and the rate is worth ten.
ENERGY STAR is worth about forty cents
The certified database publishes something most people never look at: the federal standard for each model’s class and size, next to what the model actually uses. For chest freezers the gap is 10 to 11 per cent — between 23 and 40 kWh a year, or 35 to 61 cents a month.
That is what the badge buys. The reason a modern chest freezer is cheap to run is not the certification; it is the federal minimum standard, which every new freezer sold in the United States has to meet whether or not it carries a logo. If you are choosing between a certified model and an uncertified one of the same size, the electricity difference is roughly half a dollar a month. Buy on price, noise and where the drain plug is.
Chest against upright, and it is not close
The certified list holds 490 usable upright freezers against those nine chests. Not one upright uses less electricity than the smallest chest, and 472 of the 490 use more than the largest chest freezer sold — a 21.7 cubic foot cabinet. The median upright is 17.0 cu ft and 438 kWh a year: $6.69 a month against $5.29 for a chest with a quarter more space in it.
The physics is not mysterious. Cold air is dense and stays in a chest when you open the lid; it falls out of an upright the moment the door swings. An upright also needs automatic defrost to keep its shelves clear, and that heater runs on the same meter. What you buy with the extra money is not capacity but convenience, and the site’s job is to price it: about $17 a year at the median, every year the machine lasts.
One caveat on the data. Six of the 496 certified uprights record an adjusted volume identical to their cabinet volume, which cannot be right for a freezer and makes the federal-standard column derived from it wrong. We excluded those six rather than let a data-entry slip look like six freezers exceeding the federal standard. It is the same call we made about the router reported at 0.00 W.
What the money is actually buying
Put $63.46 a year next to the rest of this silo. It is less than a 1,500 W space heater costs in a single month of eight-hour nights, and about five times what a router costs in a year. For a full-size freezer running every hour of every day, it is a small number. It is also less than the fridge standing beside it: the median certified refrigerator uses 461 kWh a year, more than twice what the 9.0 cu ft chest above uses.
It also buys something the meter cannot see. A chest freezer holds its temperature through an outage far longer than the reading suggests, which is why our answer to “what do I do about the freezer when the power goes” is usually keep the lid shut and do nothing. The running cost and the outage behaviour come from the same property: a well-insulated box that does not spill its cold.
Certified figures are laboratory figures. They are measured at a controlled ambient temperature. A freezer in an unheated garage in August, or one with a failing door seal, will use more than its label says, and the label is not the place to find out. A plug-in energy meter is.
Food safety is not an electricity question. If the power has been off, judge the food by the USDA’s guidance rather than by how long the freezer looked cold. If you are preparing before the power goes, a freezer is one of the easiest loads to protect. And a generator lives outside, well away from windows and doors, because carbon monoxide is odourless and kills quickly.
Frequently asked questions
How much electricity does a chest freezer use per month?
Between 17 and 29 kWh, which is $3.07 to $5.29 at the US average and £4.37 to £7.53 in Britain. Those are the only nine models holding current certification, so it is the whole certified market rather than a sample.
Is a chest freezer cheaper to run than an upright?
Yes, and by more than most people expect. Not one certified upright uses less than the smallest chest, and 472 of 490 use more than the largest chest sold. At the median the difference is about $17 a year.
Is an ENERGY STAR freezer worth paying more for?
On electricity alone, it saves 35 to 61 cents a month against the federal minimum every new freezer must already meet. Over ten years that is $42 to $73. Whether the price difference clears that is a question about the price, not about the electricity.
Does a full freezer cost less to run than an empty one?
Not in any way the certified figures capture. The energy goes on heat leaking through the walls and lid, which does not care what is inside. A full freezer holds its temperature longer once the power stops, which matters in an outage, but that is a different question from the monthly bill.
Why is my old freezer more expensive than these figures?
Because these are current models meeting the current federal standard. An older cabinet was built to an older standard, and seals, insulation and compressors all degrade. The certified numbers here are what a new freezer uses, not what yours does; only a plug-in meter answers that.
This article is general information, not an installation guide and not a substitute for a licensed electrician. Electrical work on a service panel, a transfer switch or a utility connection is regulated in most jurisdictions and normally requires a permit and an inspection. Fuel-burning equipment produces carbon monoxide and must never be run indoors, in a garage or near an opening into the home.
