A freezer that is too small fills up after one trip to the warehouse store; one that is too large costs more to buy and runs half empty. This calculator sizes a chest or upright freezer for your household.
How much freezer space per person?
A common rule of thumb is about 1.5 cubic feet per person for a typical household that keeps frozen vegetables, some meat and leftovers. Add more if you:
- cook in batches and freeze meals, or freeze garden produce: about 2.5 cu ft per person;
- hunt, raise animals or buy meat in bulk: 3.5 cu ft per person or more.
The refrigerator’s top or bottom freezer, usually 4 to 6 cu ft, counts toward this. A separate freezer makes sense when that space is always full.
Bulk meat
Frozen food packs at roughly 35 lb per cubic foot, depending on the cuts and packaging. A quarter of beef gives about 100 lb of packaged meat and needs about 3 cu ft on its own; half a beef needs 6 to 7 cu ft. Enter the bulk meat you plan to store at once and the calculator adds the space.
capacity = people × space per person + bulk meat ÷ 35
For 4 people at 1.5 cu ft: 6 cu ft, which holds about 210 lb of food when full.
Chest or upright?
- Chest freezers hold more for their size, stay cold longer in a power outage and use less energy, but items at the bottom are hard to reach. Baskets and a written inventory help.
- Upright freezers take less floor space and are easy to organize with shelves and door bins. Frost-free models need no defrosting but use more electricity.
Usable space is always a bit less than the rated capacity, especially in uprights with shelves.
Running cost
The yellow EnergyGuide label gives the estimated yearly use in kWh. A 7 cu ft chest freezer often uses about 200 to 250 kWh a year:
yearly cost = kWh per year × price per kWh
At 250 kWh and $0.17, that is about $43 a year. An older freezer can use twice as much, so replacing it may pay off over its life.
Tips
- A full freezer runs more efficiently than an empty one; fill gaps with jugs of water.
- Keep it at 0 °F (−18 °C).
- Leave a few inches of space around the coils for air flow, and avoid unheated garages in very cold climates unless the model is rated for it.
- Label and date packages, and use the oldest first.