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Old 09-13-17, 01:53 AM   #8
Piwoslaw
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Thank you all for your feedback

I am aware that the freezer design is already pretty efficient, so I am not expecting 30 or 50% improvement. But even if I get 5-10%, it will still count. My goal would be get the freezer to turn on only 1-2 times per day, to reduce wear on the compressor. If I can do that, then I can easily time it run only at night.

To relate to some of the things which came up:
  • No autodefrost, only manual
  • Also, I will defrost when the outdoor temps are very low (mid-winter), so that the food does not heat up too much during the few hours when it is out of the freezer.
  • This freezer will be only for extras (we will still use the smaller freezer compartment in the kitchen fridge on a daily basis). Hopefully it won't be opened for days at a time.
  • I would not want to vent the heat from the coils to the outdoors. Our basement is cool and adding some heat will only reduce the heat loss of the upstairs floor. Anyhow, it is mostly heat which came from the basement anyway, so moving the heat outdoors would be like installing A/C in the basement. Pumping the heat to a hot water tank would be good for summer, but a bit too complicated for the expected savings.
  • I am not worried about the 15W light when the lid is open, I am worried about it sticking in 'ON' when the lid is closed, pumping almost 15W of heat into the freezer continuously.
  • I may freeze a few liters of water just for thermal mass, but I could also look into some material which changes phases at freezer temps. Any ideas?
  • Insulation will be added only to the outside, not inside.
  • There is a drain plug at the bottom, I could use that opening to see how well the lid seal holds (pressure test). I will also use my IR thermometer to check whether I am gaining heat through that drain.
  • To increase efficiency I could wire a small fan to run with the compressor, blowing over the coils to increase heat transfer (and blow it away from the freezer's back wall), but since it will be on only 1-2 times per day, probably not worth the extra watts the fan would use.
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