I've actually done the conversion, but not for research purposes... I redid the 
kitchen, and rather than pay $10k+ for a nice large built in fridge/freezer, I 
bought 2 25 cu in upright freezers (blown air, light, door shelves too) and 
changed the thermostat on one so it operated in the proper range. Less than 
$1500 total, plus they are plain white and no exterior coils. I can face the 
doors with the matching veneer of the kitchen too, as well as "build them in".

I have a digital thermometer on one (my own doing) and have observed 2 things:

- the temperature in the fridge doesn't vary but a couple of degrees with door 
open and recovers almost immediately

- They stay very full all the time, which probably contributes to the thermal 
mass which helps the item above, as well as worries me whenever we go to 
someone else's house and I look at their teeny fridge and wonder how they can 
live that way... :O

;)


Apptech wrote:
> It would be interesting to do some energy measurements (and 
> some formal calculations) and determine whether door opening 
> or decent freezer insulation predominates as the main power 
> saver. The results from converting a vertical freezer to 
> fridge use would be interesting.
> 
>             Russell
> 
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