I was reading the Off-Grid website recently and came across an article about using a chest freezer in place of a standard refrigerator. The author's contention is that a chest freezer uses a fraction of the electricity of a refrigerator. How? Because when you open it, the cold air doesn't just fall out, requiring the unit to run more to cool the interior back down. Who knows, doing this I might even be able to save enough on electricity that I could buy a new tuxedo for Son to wear to Daughter's wedding next spring!
I have to tell you, it makes sense to me. I already have one small chest freezer and the recent power outage really brought this point home to me. The fridge lost cool air pretty quickly and by the next morning, the food in it was warm and unsafe. The chest freezer, on the other hand, has kept the food nicely frozen during the entire time - from Friday at around 1 PM to Sunday at around 7 PM.
I only opened each appliance once during the weekend without power but lost everything in the fridge and nothing in the freezer. The trick with using a chest freezer for a fridge is to not let the temperature get low enough to freeze the contents.
I'll probably need to purchase a switch that will turn the freezer off if it drops below a certain temperature. I'm thinking that if I can keep it at around 36 to 38 degrees, food will be safe without worry. (I haven't tried it yet, but I may be able to accomplish this simply by turning the freezer temperature all the way up to its highest setting.)
Locally, I can buy a new chest freezer just like the one I already have for around $150 - far less than a new fridge and the capacity is about the same. These little freezers will fit into the space allocated for the fridge in my house. I've already measured.
