Is 14 degrees too warm for a freezer?

MN Renovator · 07-31-12, 09:49 AM

I've recently gone through a bit of thought of ditching my refrigerator/freezer combination and going straight to using a freezer only.
[Skip to 'The plan' if you don't want to read a bunch]

The interesting part of this thought process came about when I was removing the dust from the bottom of my current side-by-side fridge/freezer and then realized that I really might not need a refrigerator.

Background: I haven't had any milk in the house for about a month because I generally go through the gallon of milk in exactly the time it takes for it to go bad. Usually with me drinking a few extra glasses once the milk is a week past the sell-by date and normally I buy the stuff and rake through the grocery store shelves for the milk with the date that extends out the farthest. I also realized I usually buy and consume eggs in the same way. I don't like cooking them because it heats up the house in the summer quite a bit. I just got my June-July electric bill. 30 days and 266kwh($40) of usage and quite a bit of this is from reducing the electric load through the dew point control and running the a/c at the most efficient points of the day.

So basically I buy milk for those occasions that I need to cook with it and generally don't drink from the cow teat much more than that and drink the rest so it doesn't go to waste. I've been going on vacations and don't buy milk if it means that it will go bad and currently that's where I am now between two vacations where I will be gone enough to where that milk, if bought, would basically go to waste or I'll drink it just to get rid of it before it goes bad.

Current fridge contents: A whole bunch of water in various jugs, open wine bottles, sports drink bottles, etc as thermal mass the fridge ballasted and cycles as long as possible. There are some pickkes, maple syrup and some ketchup in there but I don't use many pickles and ketchup lasts a long time. There's also a little bit of butter and cheese in there too.

The plan: Finish off the ketchup, pickles, butter and cheese. Take the three loaves of bread out of the freezer and make plans to eat it before it molds, eat some of the hamburger that has been in the freezer for over a year and consolidate the freezer contents. Then I want to load the freezer contents into a mini-fridge set at its coldest temperature, which happens to get quite cold, it holds at 14 degrees F and unplug the refrigerator upstairs. The refrigerator is usually hanging out where its often 80 degrees and downstairs is always about 70 degrees. The runtime is much shorter for the mini-fridge(especially when the mini-fridge is in a colder area) and they both consume 150 watts when running.

The question: Can the frozen food handle being at 14f for a long time? In the winter my refrigerator/freezer can only hang around roughly this temperature with the fridge damper closed and the contents of the refrigerator on the brink of freezing which makes me think this is okay.
What do you guys think? Would this conservation plan work out? The bonus is that this frankenfridge doesn't defrost, no matter what the circumstances, every 10 hours for 23 minutes like the fridge does. I also won't be opening the fridge every time I feel hungry just to see, every time, that I never store food in it. I'm really not sure what food people put in their fridge or why a refrigerator is bigger than a freezer because I've always had a challenge with trying to cram food in the freezer but never have anything to put in the fridge. I stopped drinking sugar water in its various forms and drink water and beer but I've come to enjoy my favorite imported beers warm, which is the intent in many countries outside the US where this stuff is made.

07-31-12, 09:49 AM	#1
MN Renovator Less usage=Cheaper bills Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Minneapolis, MN Posts: 939 Thanks: 41 Thanked 116 Times in 90 Posts	Is 14 degrees too warm for a freezer? I've recently gone through a bit of thought of ditching my refrigerator/freezer combination and going straight to using a freezer only. [Skip to 'The plan' if you don't want to read a bunch] The interesting part of this thought process came about when I was removing the dust from the bottom of my current side-by-side fridge/freezer and then realized that I really might not need a refrigerator. Background: I haven't had any milk in the house for about a month because I generally go through the gallon of milk in exactly the time it takes for it to go bad. Usually with me drinking a few extra glasses once the milk is a week past the sell-by date and normally I buy the stuff and rake through the grocery store shelves for the milk with the date that extends out the farthest. I also realized I usually buy and consume eggs in the same way. I don't like cooking them because it heats up the house in the summer quite a bit. I just got my June-July electric bill. 30 days and 266kwh($40) of usage and quite a bit of this is from reducing the electric load through the dew point control and running the a/c at the most efficient points of the day. So basically I buy milk for those occasions that I need to cook with it and generally don't drink from the cow teat much more than that and drink the rest so it doesn't go to waste. I've been going on vacations and don't buy milk if it means that it will go bad and currently that's where I am now between two vacations where I will be gone enough to where that milk, if bought, would basically go to waste or I'll drink it just to get rid of it before it goes bad. Current fridge contents: A whole bunch of water in various jugs, open wine bottles, sports drink bottles, etc as thermal mass the fridge ballasted and cycles as long as possible. There are some pickkes, maple syrup and some ketchup in there but I don't use many pickles and ketchup lasts a long time. There's also a little bit of butter and cheese in there too. The plan: Finish off the ketchup, pickles, butter and cheese. Take the three loaves of bread out of the freezer and make plans to eat it before it molds, eat some of the hamburger that has been in the freezer for over a year and consolidate the freezer contents. Then I want to load the freezer contents into a mini-fridge set at its coldest temperature, which happens to get quite cold, it holds at 14 degrees F and unplug the refrigerator upstairs. The refrigerator is usually hanging out where its often 80 degrees and downstairs is always about 70 degrees. The runtime is much shorter for the mini-fridge(especially when the mini-fridge is in a colder area) and they both consume 150 watts when running. The question: Can the frozen food handle being at 14f for a long time? In the winter my refrigerator/freezer can only hang around roughly this temperature with the fridge damper closed and the contents of the refrigerator on the brink of freezing which makes me think this is okay. What do you guys think? Would this conservation plan work out? The bonus is that this frankenfridge doesn't defrost, no matter what the circumstances, every 10 hours for 23 minutes like the fridge does. I also won't be opening the fridge every time I feel hungry just to see, every time, that I never store food in it. I'm really not sure what food people put in their fridge or why a refrigerator is bigger than a freezer because I've always had a challenge with trying to cram food in the freezer but never have anything to put in the fridge. I stopped drinking sugar water in its various forms and drink water and beer but I've come to enjoy my favorite imported beers warm, which is the intent in many countries outside the US where this stuff is made.