> Note that the seal around the door is also leaking (slightly) 
> on an ongoing basis when the 'fridge is vertical and not 
> leaking (as much) on a horizontal unit. I'm not sure how much 
> of a difference that actually makes, but the point has not 
> been considered in this thread so far.
> 
> I'll pay $50 for a well documented (pictures, description and 
> data) study comparing energy use on upright 'fridges when the 
> door is being opened and closed and when it is not. One 
> fridge should do it, just check energy use over a few hours 
> with the door close and then open and close the door every
> 15 minutes for a few hours and done.
> 
> Another interesting study would be the temperature under the 
> lower door seal compared with ambient.


You'd also have to do it in a climate controlled area to make sure ambient
temperature was constant, an air-conditioned office would do.

I wouldn't be a bit surprised to see huge losses thru a faulty seal, it's
alarming to see how much coolth you can lose in a tiny gap.

After extensive whining ('too hot!' 'too cold!') at an old job, I placed a
number of temperature dataloggers around the office, including one in the
server room with it's own air-conditioners.

FWIW, the server room area was originally where a mainframe was, so we
already had a raised floor.  Nice.  We only needed 1/3 of the area, so that
bit was walled off, the remainder was left empty and christened the dance
floor*, complete with railing, disco ball and blinkenlights from the server
room hardware.  Anyway, we left the old labelled fuse box, the idea that a
printer would need 40 amps and a hard drive some ungodly number was
fascinating to those of us who started on Apple IIs and the like.

The server door had keypad entry, and this was a PITA.  We were a small
company then, so we used to wedge it open by dropping a tile lifter (those
vacuum things) in it.  This only cracked the door open a few millimetres
(say 1/8th to less enlightened folk), but had the effect of making the
server room temperature the same as the general office.  Hmmm.  As a bonus,
you could see when the first person came in, and when the last person left
by noting the sudden temperature change as the door was initally opened and
then eventually closed properly.  So that's why our air-conditioners kept
blowing up.  Oops.

We later realised we could brew beer in there, and lowered the temperature.
This was stopped not because we realised it was a bad-ish idea, but one guy
pointed out he was tired of turning blue after spending long periods in
there.

Tony


* We eventually lost the dance floor when the number of staff went up, at
that point keeping the server door locked became a really good idea too.
Yes, we did use it for parties.

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