Anyone done the research to find the most energy efficient chest freezer?

Looking for a rather small one too.

Todd,

We just purchased the Frigidaire 7.2 c/f model chest freezer. Not sure how small you want to go, but in this size range there did not appear to be any Energy Star models to choose from. The energy efficiency card clained it should cost about $35 per year to run, which seemed fine to me.

It's certainly made keeping food around the house much easier. We took delivery of a share in a steer last week, and it's comfortably frozen right now. The freezer on the top of our fridge is now freed up for ice, open containers, and leftovers.

If anything, I probably should have gone with a larger size. 7 c/f freezers seemed to be +-$200 at big box stores in this neck of the woods.

Hope this helps.

Jesselp

Edited to add:

Forgot to mention - I got a manual defrost model. All the reviews said they use less energy, and were much less prone to killing your food with freezer burn.

I figure once a year during the winter I'll choose a cold day, move the food out to the deck, and defrost the freezer. No biggie.

I don't have current research, but did look into this a few years ago. At the time, frost-free freezers used quite a bit more energy than the ones you have to manual defrost. FWIW.

My chest freezer just "went" with Mom and Dad's house - I never ran mine, just piggy backed (I have a vertical in the basement)

Ran like a dream, and was very effecient - BUT (BIG but) it was an OLD freezer, where they had a side area for a BIG condenser, was not auto defrost, and was (I kid you not) USED when Dad brought it home 57 years ago (and then he repaired it - was in the business)

Sigh

If you can get the Vestfrost SE255 in the US then this is regarded as a very efficient chest freezer (A++ rating) being rated by the solar power project crowd. It is a favorite for Solar Power Freezer projects using a mains AC powered chest freezer rather the than DC powered chest freezers costing 2 or 3 times as much.

A good article on using the Vestfrost SE255 as a chest fridge (operating around 2-5 Celsius )which will consume only 0.1 KWhrs per day with the use of an additional external controller.

http://mtbest.net/chest_fridge.pdf

The VE255 can also be used of course as a Freezer using the mains electricity.

Yah, I've been interested in the chest fridge thing too. While I suppose I could build the control circuit if motivated, it is probably easier just to buy one.

-john