Most people know that opening the fridge door and letting warm air in is a bad thing. Keeping a minimum amount of air in your fridge or freezer by keeping it full is one way to minimise the running costs. Another way is to defrost it regularly, or run a freezer that self-defrosts.

At the other end of the process though is the cooling grid at the back of the fridge. This grid is like a radiator. It gets rid of the heat that has been sucked out of the fridge and puts it back into your kitchen.

You should leave enough room behind and above the fridge that the heat expelled can escape into the kitchen.

In addition, in most kitchens this grid gets covered in dust.  That dust acts like a insulation blanket and prevents the fridge from getting rid of the excess heat efficiently. You can’t really help that but what you can do is pull the fridge out and vacuum all the dust off the cooling grid. Your fridge will work more efficiently and you’ll reduce your energy bills. If you make this part of your regular cleaning duties you’ll stop wasting so much energy on running your fridge or freezer.