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This is what I got for $50 used and is 3.5 cubic feet. It actually held everything from my old GE double door refrigerator with room for a little more.

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So far it seems to use about 15 cents in electricity for 0.5 kwh a day but that will probably change as I get a longer sample time. 56 watts is so low it seems like a good candidate to go off grid.

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Then I found a 5 cubic foot chest freezer that is designed to be switched to refrigeration. This one was new open box for $70.

I noticed on some off grid forums these have bad air circulation so I added a PC fan to even things out. Still the lowest refrigerator temperature range is barely below 40. If you turn the dial farther it clicks to a new range that is maybe 10 degrees Fahrenheit.

The upper end of the refrigerator temperature range is quite high. This sort of chest freezer might be good for storing vegetables in summer with very little energy.

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This setup obviously takes up more floor space than a combination freezer refrigerator.

>>2975402
doesn't look very practical unless your purpose is to store a dead body

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>she saw the off grid refrigerator and hasn't called me back

The biggest savings is the switch to the smaller appliance.
My 3 whatever cuft mini fridge uses roughly the same watts running, only difference is it runs a little more often than a chest freezer would.
The problem no one brings up is what happens in the summer months when it's 40c the fuckers run all damn day and night nonstop because they are shit.
You didn't have to go with the cuckbucket, any modern fridge that DOES NOT use r600a will be about the same efficiency and support higher operating temperatures.

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Is there a temperature data logger that doesn't use proprietary software? Like one that just puts out a CSV file?

>>2975410
>I noticed on some off grid forums these have bad air circulation so I added a PC fan to even things out.
the point of a chest freezer is that when you open the lid the cold air doesn't fall out all over the floor
so you adding a fan in to blow all the stagnant freezing cold air at the bottom up and out and replace it with hot room air seems like a pretty fucking retarded thing to have done.
>>2975412
the best thing for me was when my mum decided to get a chest freezer for her fruit/veg from the garden, the freezer is in the same room as the washer and drier and they dry clothes in there too. so when you opened the door of the larder all the warm wet air would get sucked in and it would frost over in a couple months.
doesn't happen with the chest freezer because the air doesn't move when you open the door.

>>2975410
Yeah, anon, all that is kind of the point. These old school machines have some drawbacks, meaning you have to circulate the goods every once in awhile by taking stuff from the bottom and putting them on top and vice versa. That's if you want to use it as a freezer.

On the other hand, you can just keep things that don't necessarily have to be super cold (butter, etc) and keep it on the top but frozen meat, frozen veggies on the bottom.

So far after running the watt meter for a day it looks like the freezer as a refrigerator uses about 6 cents of electricity a day.

>>2975402
Old fridges actually have more efficient coolers. They use older, now banned refrigerants which work better.
They are not as efficient overall because the insulation is thinner.
If you simply add cheap insulation to an old fridge or freezer, you get the best of both worlds, best cooler efficiency and best insulation and it costs very little.

Compressor technology in these hasnt changed in decades in terms of efficiency.

>>2975402
>26 year old GE refrigerator was running very frequently and pulling over 200 watts.
Of course you checked the defroster. And cleaned the dust bunnies off the condensor coils.

>>2975987
right!

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>>2975987
>cleaned the dust bunnies off the condensor coils.
I did that a few times a year. I checked the evaporator coil a few months ago when I first noticed it using more power and there was no frost buildup. Sometimes on startup my fridge would max out my watt meter which makes me think there was high head pressure but maybe that was from frequent cycling. It wouldn't do that every time it started.

Anyway I just don't need that big of a refrigerator for one person. I don't think its that efficient of a design anyway. Stuff just goes bad before I can work my way through it. I need a small fridge and a big freezer. The ice maker isn't that well insulated anyway.

My fridge is old and fucked too, it makes me angry to have this inefficient shit in my life
>>2975751
I want it too

>>2975655
>The biggest savings is the switch to the smaller appliance.
False. Chest freezers are a much more efficient orientation (cold air is heavier) and don't have defrost cycles, which burn tons of energy.

>>2975760
>have a switch on the door to turn the fan off when open
Wow, that was difficult

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>>2977833
>defrost cycles, which burn tons of energy.
It's really absurd when you think about it how you would have a heating element inside the freezer. At that point it doesn't matter how much insulation you have when you're introducing a 300 watt heater several times a day no matter what level of frost there is. I think defrosting is not necessary very often in certain environments with low humidity.

>>2975751
>>2977647
Yeah, anything with HASS, or just grab an esp32 and plop a temp sensor on it and have it write data wherever. Some of the easiest shit to /diy/. HASS with Zigbee is the most convenient and cheapest, provided you already have a server.

>>2977834
>Checks title
>”Extreme energy efficiency autism”
>haha, just add a fan and a toggle switch to a 70 year old design that no manufacturer does for chest freezers haha, BIG SAVINGS
Are you retarded?

>>2977865
Its not being used as a freezer.

>>2975760
>you adding a fan in to blow all the stagnant freezing cold air at the bottom up and out and replace it with hot room air seems like a pretty fucking retarded thing to have done.
Just add a door switch like on commercial freezers.

>>2977833
No, jt isn't much more efficient. It's slightly more efficient.
And I have never seen a mini fridge with a defrost.
If you don't ever open the door of each, similar capacities only differ a few percent of efficiency. If you are opening them quite often then there is slightly more gain with a vertical fridge.
Do whatever lmao, the main problem you are going to face with smaller appliances and especially chest freezers is their condenser is GIGA cucked and will heat soak in hot summer environments and have ass efficiency which results in them running nonstop for like 10 hours a day and cycling normally at night.

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These are both 5 cubic foot freezers according to the manufacturer. I sense some fuckery.
GLF50CWED01
MERCO5C2BAWW

>>2978022
They are the capacity, not the external dimensions, homie. The bigger one could have a larger compressor and more insulation, for example.

>>2975971
Can you just wrap an old freezer in mineral wool or foam to increase theirs energy efficiency

>>2975402
I have a chest freezer, a small freezer with 4 drawers the size of a small frisge, a small fridge, and a micro fridge. My electricity costs about 20p an hour unless im boiling the kettle or air fryer for dinner.

>>2975410
Where's the ice?

>>2978022
Open the lids on both

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>>2978635

which refrigerator/freezer should i get if I'm building an off grid solar system (for a house not a rv or anything like that). Should I bother with the 12v or 24v dc ones or just use a normal fridge through an inverter, and what kind of fridge has the lowest real world power consumption

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>>2978664
>Should I bother with the 12v or 24v dc ones or just use a normal fridge through an inverter,

The DC models cost a lot more. I watched this one off grid hippy that likes the LG inverter refrigerators because it runs around 75 watts at most but I've heard the control boards on those break down a lot.

I've been testing three different brands of chest freezers this month from 3.5 cubic foot to 5 and they all seem to run around 60 watt with a start up around 600ish. Very simple machine, no circuit boards of defrost heaters.

Integrated charger inverters seem to be all the rage now.

>>2978668
>I've been testing three different brands of chest freezers this month from 3.5 cubic foot to 5 and they all seem to run around 60 watt with a start up around 600ish. Very simple machine, no circuit boards of defrost heaters.
Ah I see, if the start up is about 600 then I should be fine. I'm going to have a 1500w/3000w inverter, which idles at about 10w, running at all times for lights, PC, fans etc. so that's probably what I'm going to go for.
>Integrated charger inverters seem to be all the rage now.
Yeah I don't really trust those desu. I already have separate inverters which I know are good, so I'm just going to repurpose those.

>>2975405
>>2975412
Those things are definitely not designed to last. Both Insignia and Midea are pretty garbage brands and I wouldn't expect either of these to last more than a few years from when they were made. If you're lucky. Unfortunately, this also applies to major brands now that used to produce quality products like 20 years ago. Like GE, Whirlpool, Amana, etc. Everything is engineered to fail now. That's our reality.

I bought 2 GE dehumidifiers. The first died 3 months after I bought it, got it replaced under warranty, the replacement died about a month after the 1 year warranty expired. Replaced it with a Midea one, it died after 5 months. Went back to the old GE one I put in storage, it's probably near 2 decades old and still working like a champ. It's just noisy as fuck.

>>2978022
The Galanz looks like it has significantly thicker walls, it also may have a larger box around the compressor area.

>>2978716
All the parts come from the same factory in China doesn't matter what brand you buy. They just don't make shitty parts for one brand. The price difference from the different brands is the warranty you are buying.

Do you think Sears had a lawn mower and a wrench factory?

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I just bought two 7 cubic foot chest freezers. Omedia and Insignia. They are identical. Same compressor. Same wall thickness at about 60mm. My 5 cubic foot Galanz freezer has thicker walls ~70mm.

I am going to run the Insignia on a kill-a-watt and compare to my Galanz. There were virtually no difference between the power consumption of my 5 and 3.5 cubic foot chest freezers.

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I have now collected 4 chest freezers from craigslist. The Galanz is my favorite so far and I've converted it to a refrigerator. This didn't require any new hardware, there is an adjustment screw on the the thermostat that changes the range of the dial.

After 48 hours it uses around .25 kwh. I'll keep the meter on it for a week a get a better average.