How Much Does a Commercial Fridge Cost to Run? Real kWh Figures from Our Range

Every commercial fridges listing shows a price, but the number that keeps costing you arrives on the power bill. The good news: working out what a fridge costs to run takes two minutes, and most of the makers we stock publish the one figure you need. Below is the sum, ten real fridges from our range side by side, and the everyday things that push a running cost up or down.

The sum: kWh a day × 365 × your rate

Makers test their fridges under set conditions and publish the energy used in 24 hours, in kilowatt-hours (kWh/24h). On our product pages it's in the spec list, usually labelled "Total Energy Consumption" or "Energy consumption". Then:

1. kWh a day × 365 = kWh a year
2. kWh a year × your rate = cost a year

Take the Thermaster LG-580BP two-door drinks fridge. Thermaster rates it at 3.82 kWh/24h, so it uses about 1,394 kWh a year. At 30c per kWh, that's about $418 a year, or roughly $1.15 a day.

We use 30c per kWh as an example only. Business tariffs vary by retailer, state and time of day, so take the rate from your own bill and swap it in.

Ten real fridges, side by side

Every figure below is the maker's own, taken from the product's spec list. The yearly cost uses an example rate of 30c per kWh.

Each maker tests under its own conditions, and your real use will move with the room, the door and the load. Treat the table as a fair guide to how the types compare, not a promise of your exact bill.

Glass door vs solid door vs open deck

The cleanest comparisons are pairs where a maker builds the same cabinet two ways.

Glass vs solid. Bromic makes its 138-litre under bench fridge with a glass door (UBC0140GD-NR) and a stainless steel door (UBC0140SD-NR). Same size, same 32°C room rating, same climate class. The glass door model uses 1.396 kWh a day and the solid door model 0.98, so glass uses about 42% more. At 30c that's roughly $46 a year. Glass earns that back when it sells what's inside, which is why it belongs out the front: browse our glass door fridges for front of house and our solid door fridges for the kitchen.

Open vs doors. Bromic's 938 mm full height multideck comes open (FHM1000-NR) or with doors (FHM1000HD-NR). Same 611 litres, same 25°C room rating. Open, it's rated at 10.77 kWh a day. With doors, 3.18. The doors cut the daily figure by about 70%, from roughly $1,179 a year to $348 at 30c. The open model has a night blind for out-of-hours, which helps when staff remember to pull it down.

Open decks win on grab-and-go speed, and they cost the most to run. If customers need to serve themselves quickly, compare the open deck fridges with the doored cabinets in our supermarket fridges before you choose.

What pushes the bill up

The maker's figure is measured under controlled conditions. In a real business, these add to it:

• A hotter room. A fridge in a 35°C kitchen works harder than the same fridge in a 25°C test room.
• Door openings. Every opening lets cold air spill out. Self-closing doors help, and a glass door lets staff check stock without opening it.
• Overfilling and blocked airflow. Stock packed against the fan or the back wall makes the system run longer to reach every corner.
• No room to breathe. The condenser has to dump heat into the room. Polar, for one, asks for a 20 cm gap between its counter fridges and the wall.
• A dusty condenser. Clean it as the maker's manual says. A clogged condenser makes the compressor run longer to do the same work.
• Worn door seals. A seal that doesn't grip lets warm air in all day long.
• Setting it colder than you need. Hold the food at 5°C or below, as our guide to the 5°C rule explains, rather than running the fridge as cold as it will go.

GEMS, star ratings and natural refrigerants

GEMS is the Australian Government's Greenhouse and Energy Minimum Standards program for appliances and equipment, and registered models can be looked up on energyrating.gov.au. Many listings in our range say "GEMS compliant" (the Polar DM076-A and GL012-A do), and some give a star rating.

Stars compare efficiency, not the total bill. A big cabinet with lots of stars can still use more power than a small one with fewer, so compare stars between similar fridges and use kWh a day to work out what you'll pay. The Bromic pairs show how stars track the doors: the solid door UBC0140SD-NR is rated 8 stars and its glass twin 6, while Bromic describes the multideck with doors as 10-star and the open one as 5-star.

Many of the fridges in the table run on natural hydrocarbon refrigerants: R600a (isobutane) in the Polar DM076-A and GL012-A and the Bromic UC0374SDW-NR, and R290 (propane) in the Thermaster LG-580BP and the Bromic UF0374SDS-NR freezer. Both have a very low global warming potential. Polar lists R600a at a GWP of 3.

Cheaper to buy or cheaper to run? The five-year view

A commercial fridge runs every hour of every day, so small daily differences add up. Polar publishes a five-year running cost on many of its G-Series listings. For the DM076-A it's $1,682.80 over five years at $0.34 per kWh, which is exactly 2.712 kWh × 365 days × 5 years × $0.34.

You can do the same for any two fridges you're weighing up:

(kWh a day of fridge A − kWh a day of fridge B) × 365 × 5 × your rate = the five-year difference

• The Bromic 138-litre pair: (1.396 − 0.98) × 365 × 5 × $0.30 = about $228. If the solid door model suits the job, it saves about $228 over five years at that rate.
• The Bromic multideck pair: (10.77 − 3.18) × 365 × 5 × $0.30 = about $4,156 over five years.

Put that next to the price difference on the two product pages and the better buy is usually obvious. And when you've picked your model, our price promise covers the delivered price.

Ready to compare? Many listings in our display fridges and upright fridges include the maker's energy figure in the specs, including the Polar and Bromic ranges used above.

Frequently asked questions

How many kWh does a commercial fridge use a day?
Across the ten models above, from 0.98 kWh (a 138-litre under bench fridge) to 10.77 kWh (an open multideck). Seven of the ten sit between 1.5 and 4 kWh a day, which covers most single and double door storage and display fridges in the table.

How much does it cost to run a commercial fridge for a year?
At an example rate of 30c per kWh, the fridges with doors in our table cost from about $107 to $418 a year. The open deck and the open multideck cost about $731 and $1,179. Multiply the maker's kWh a day by 365 and by your own rate for an exact figure.

Where do I find a fridge's energy use?
In the spec list on each product page, usually as "Total Energy Consumption" or "Energy consumption" in kWh/24h. GEMS-registered models can also be looked up on energyrating.gov.au. If a listing doesn't show a figure, the maker's spec sheet may have it.

Sources: each model's maker figure in its product listing; the GEMS register at energyrating.gov.au.