Residential Freezers
ENERGY STAR certified residential freezers, with capacity, annual energy use, and how far each model beats the US federal standard.
648 models · 94 brands
- Best
- 137kWh/yr
- Median
- 404kWh/yr
- Worst
- 649kWh/yr
Annual Energy across 648 models that report it.
Residential freezers are rated by annual energy use and total volume. Chest freezers are more efficient than upright freezers of the same size because cold air sinks — opening a chest lid loses less cold air than opening an upright door. The trade-off is access: uprights have shelves, chests require stacking.
Manual-defrost freezers use 30–40% less energy than auto-defrost models because they do not periodically heat the interior to melt frost. The trade-off is maintenance: manual defrost requires emptying and defrosting once or twice a year.
Most efficient
Ranked by annual energy per cu ft, not raw consumption — otherwise this list would simply be the smallest units in the category.
| Model | Brand | Capacity | Annual Energy |
|---|---|---|---|
| XCM22DM**** | Crosley | 21.7cu ft | 346kWh/yr |
| FCM22DL**** | GE | 21.7cu ft | 346kWh/yr |
| HCM22QW*WW | Hotpoint | 21.7cu ft | 346kWh/yr |
| FCM16DL**** | GE | 15.7cu ft | 277kWh/yr |
| FCM11PH**** | GE | 10.6cu ft | 218kWh/yr |
| EFRF1005-BLACK-ID-6COM | Frigidaire | 10.1cu ft | 213kWh/yr |
| EFRF1005-D-ID-6COM | Frigidaire | 10.1cu ft | 213kWh/yr |
| DCF100A5WDB | Danby | 10cu ft | 211kWh/yr |