Produzione e trasformazione di energia primaria 
Produzione e distribuzione di elettricità e calore 
Tecnologie per i trasporti 
Tecnologie per il residenziale e i servizi 
Tecnologie per l'industria e l'agricoltura Tecnologie per il residenziale e i servizi
Freezers
Autors: Chiara Boccaletti, Stefano Elia, Simonetta Fumagalli
From the last available data by ISTAT the presence of freezers in Italian homes is relatively small, equal to 25.3%. Again according to ISTAT, the total number of appliances in Italian households was estimated in 6,726,000 units of which 6,320,000 units in main homes (those defined by ISTAT as occupied by resident people) and 406,000 in second homes.
From the data it results that freezers have a penetration rate in Italian homes corresponding to 5% of large household appliances.
The market of cold appliances is characterized by a high rate of replacement of old appliances, and not by an increase of the existing stock.
The market of freezers, that suffered a reduction from the diffusion of combi appliances, since many years has stabilized and can be considered as having the same characteristics of that of domestic refrigerators, although with smaller volumes.
Based on the last available data of annual report 2019, in 2018, 346,000 refrigerators have been manufactured and introduced in the market; a number very similar to that of 2017 and 2016, indicating a stagnation of the market. With respect to the previous years, when about 52,000 units were produced yearly, a certain decrease occurred. However, in 2020 there was a significant increase in freezers sales, equal to +37% with respect to the previous year.
In the last few years, the substitution rate in main homes has been around 4.4%.
In the freezers, because of their function of long-term conservation, the frequency of door openings is much lower than for refrigerators, and as a consequence the life duration is longer, being the temperature nearly constant. Also the formation of frost is reduced with respect to a refrigerator. The mean life cycle of a freezer before disposal is more than 20 years.
From data by ISTAT, it results that the sector of cold appliances and food conservation is the second most important cost item for appliances in Italian families with an expense of 2 Euros per month, if compared with the washing appliances, with about 3.3 Euros per month per family, and the cooking appliances with about 1 Euros per month per family. These data have been nearly constant in 2017, 2018 e 2019.