Deep Freezer on a Timer?

[Jim]

I have been enrolled in this program for three months now as so far it
has worked out very well for me with a savings of $65 over the three
month period.

The question that I have is has anyone tried putting an appliance
timer on their food deep freezer? I have two old small chest type
freezers that should be replaced by one larger unit that would
probably use less energy than one of the older units, but they cost
alot of money and I really don't want to spend it right now. I
thought that if I bought the appliance timers and set them so that the
freezer only runs in the evenings, nights and mornings I could save
alot of money and still not damage the food that is stored inside. My
freezers are in my basement and the temperature is cooler down there
even in the summer so I thought that I might be able to shut them off
for 4 or 5 hours maybe in the middle of the afternoon when the energy
prices are at there highest. I would be interested to know if anyone
has tried this and what their outcome was, were you able to keep it
off for the 4-5 hours like I thought? Thanks in advance for your help.

[sparky]

Interesting. However I suspect that by doing this, you will
eventually end up with food encased in solid blocks of ice.

Overall the amount of electricity saved would be very small. Is the
food damage worth the $1 to $2 per month saved?

[rexki]

My small chest freezer burns electricity for 9 min at 125.1 volts at
time of measurement , amps= 0.96 power factor=0.7 final watts at 120.1
- This is at the lowest setting possible before it would be off. Has
small red light near floor on front of cabinet, was not able to get
this to show up the other 51 min on the kill-o-watt meter. Standard
setting keeps it on for 29 minutes at the same burn rate. This was my
AhHA moment!! Everything has been good at the 9 min burn rate.

Startup spike is V=125. amps=9.5 PF= 0.7 Watts =1,188.5 but
this is just a second but noteworthy if on gas powered backup
generator.

It only burns (13/74) 20% of my 2001 GE profile 17 cubic foot freezer
on top - mainline refrigerator.

IMHO - I would try this first after consolidating to one freezer and
testing its lowest burn rate 24 * 7 before buying anything.