Boxing in fridges & freezers? Also reliable energy-efficient brands of same?

[YodhrinForge]

It has been Decreed that once I finish retrofitting the new place for energy efficiency and comfort, it must be decorated in "simplified Victorian with periodesque kitchen" style to match the restored original exterior of the building. Can't say I'm upset, never much cared for modernist minimalism anyway. That said, pinterest is a curse from the devil, because now I'm expected to create a ****ing wooden icebox cabinet-styled fridge-freezer setup for the kitchen. No way in buggery am I paying for a restored antique with modern innards, so it'll have to be faked - a narrow freestanding freezer, freestanding under-counter fridge, and a minifridge would actually replicate the door layout on some of the examples of the originals I've seen if arranged bigfridge over littlefridge one side, freezer the other, so my two questions are: 1; am I right in thinking that as long as the heat exchanger coils are on the back of the units and I maintain adequate ventilation at the rear of the cabinet, boxing them all in should be okay? and 2; I know there was a refactoring of energy efficiency ratings a wee while ago because everything was being rated some variety of A and several pluses, but now everything just seems to be rated E instead so I'm not sure how that's helping people choose between specific units, can anyone recommend actually-efficient versions of what I mention above?

[JohnMo]

Why are doing free standing and then building in?

 

Other than that I am lost with your explanation.

[Russell griffiths]

As above just buy built in fridge and freezer and build cabinets to suit. 
all mine are built in and I have cut large holes in the service void that comes on the cabinets to allow more airflow than is required. (I hope ) 

ps, Pinterest is a ba##ard, cost me thousands. 

[YodhrinForge]

  On 22/02/2025 at 16:35, JohnMo said:

Why are doing free standing and then building in?

 

Other than that I am lost with your explanation.

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  On 22/02/2025 at 17:29, Russell griffiths said:

As above just buy built in fridge and freezer and build cabinets to suit. 
all mine are built in and I have cut large holes in the service void that comes on the cabinets to allow more airflow than is required. (I hope ) 

ps, Pinterest is a ba##ard, cost me thousands. 

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The job spec from The Boss is to try and replicate this kind of thing:

 

Originally the upper left from the photo's perspective would have been filled with a big honkin' block of ice and that would have cooled the other compartments. The reason I was hoping to bodge it using freestanding units is simply that we're going to need appliances for the next god knows how many months while I do the retrofit that was the original point of buying the house, and I baulk at the notion of buying perfectly good appliances only to probably give them away in a few months and buy even more. With free standing units they can be used in the meantime and then when the time comes to deal with the decor I just have to figure out remounting the doors so they look right while still closing properly.

[Russell griffiths]

I think you will need to forget the small fridge, maybe turn that into just storage, the fridge and freezer could just be off the shelf built in units, and then you need to get busy with your carpentry skills. 

[JohnMo]

  On 23/02/2025 at 04:27, YodhrinForge said:

The job spec from The Boss is to try and replicate this kind of thing:

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That is tiny amount of space inside - loads of work and possibly money, that will get skipped in a years time because it's so small.

[YodhrinForge]

  On 23/02/2025 at 09:19, JohnMo said:

That is tiny amount of space inside - loads of work and possibly money, that will get skipped in a years time because it's so small.

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I have to replicate the appearance, not the exact scale. There were bigger iceboxes and smaller ones, that one just happened to have the right layout and relative proportions to illustrate the point. Also, it's not a massive household, if we could manage with a regular freestanding fridgefreezer - and we could - I'm pretty sure we'd be fine with a larger freezer, a slightly smaller fridge, and an extra minifridge. It might end up rivalling one of those American style monstrosities in size once the cabinet is built but we have no need of that kind of capacity.

 

Could we maybe possibly start with the assumption that I'm not a total numpty with no idea how much space he needs and circle back to the questions asked?

[Alan Ambrose]

You want BH members to keep to the point? Ha ha ha.

>>> boxing them all in should be okay? 

 

Built in ones are built for ‘boxing in’ of course and I believe they specify their ventilation requirements in the manuals.

[Russell griffiths]

You can buy built in fridge and freezer and use them perfectly now, they just don’t have a pretty white door on them.