Folks - I'd like to partition my chest freezer into two spaces:
One partition would hold items I would use in the short term and would
contain prepared/sealed meals and produce that, should the power go
off for an extended period of time, we'd eat until the stuff starts to
thaw.
The other partition would hold things I won't need to get to, but
would like to protect them in hopes the power would be restored in a
reasonable period of time.

Can anyone suggest how I can insulate the second partition in hopes
of extending the life of its contents? - Mike

On Sun, 04 Jan 2004 16:04:49 -0500, Michael Horowitz
> wrote:

>Folks - I'd like to partition my chest freezer into two spaces:
>One partition would hold items I would use in the short term and would
>contain prepared/sealed meals and produce that, should the power go
>off for an extended period of time, we'd eat until the stuff starts to
>thaw.
>The other partition would hold things I won't need to get to, but
>would like to protect them in hopes the power would be restored in a
>reasonable period of time.
>
>Can anyone suggest how I can insulate the second partition in hopes
>of extending the life of its contents? - Mike

There are a few variations in the replies that can be combined.

Our chest freezer has a 2" piece of rigid foam that sits over the top
of the lid. It adds to the insulating value there. If you lift it up
and feel the top steel it is very cold - this was the heat that was
getting in there without the insulation being there.

We put it on the outside, because then when you lift the lid it gets
lifted with lid at the same time. If it is inside there is the issue
of having to lift the thing out everytime you want to access the
freezer, and I think that ther are more air disturbances inside the
freezer cavity from lifting the lid, then the inner bit than just the
lid on its own.

There is a similar piece of 2" rigid foam insulation on the back of
the freezer as well, since I cannot detect that there are any cooling
pipe in contact with the outside wall of the freezer on the back wall.

I do not put any insulation on the inside freeze vertical walls, since
this could interfere with the ability of the refridgeration system to
remove heat of items that are placed in the freezer.

I don't think that there is any reason not to put insulation in the
bottom of the freezer, inside or out, but since I have started the
inuslation upgrades it has never been empty enough to attempt
placeemnt of either measure.

Most of the outer three walls, other than the back of the chest
freezer (at least in mine) have cooling piping attachd to the inside
of the metal, and use the exterior to radiate heat that has been
extracted from the inside cavity. To insulate there, again, would
compromise the operation of the refrigeration system.

There are pieces of rigid styrofam cut and sitting nearby, however.
When the power fails they are put into position on the three exterior
walls. When not doing duty at the freezer they are part of the
insualtion that we put in the basement wall recesses at windows to
cut heat loss/gain in the winter/summer.

We keep the freezer spare space filled with otherwise empty 2l pop
bottles filled 3/4 with water. This increases the thremal mass of
cold stuff when the power fails. As the freezer empties as the winter
waers on a few more pop bottles get added. Then summer comes, and
they are taken out one by one to act as cooler ice blocks went we
have/go to bbq's.

We try to freeze things in the fridge freezer. This way we can
separate bulk things into usable portions before freezing. It also
minimises the number of times that the chest freezer is openned in the
week We usually shop on Saturday or Monday.

On Wednesday or Thursday or so we try to plan what we are going to
cook on the weekend as big meals, and what then forms the basis for
the weeknight core of 'planned leftover' meals This allows things
to be pulled out to thaw in the fridge/on the counter so that a lot of
power isn't wasted defrosting things in the microwave. So we usually
put things into the freezer and pull out on a one or twice a week
basis only.

We also can a lot of stews, etc. in the summer when veg are able to be
bought at market in a 'b' grade in terms of how they look, rather than
the beautiful stuff that gets sold at the supermarket. Meat sales are
also a big factor. When the first round of Mad Cow pushed ground beef
prices down then 9l of chili and 21l of spagetti suace were the
outcome. No need to worry about openning the freezer or trying to
cook a roast if the power is out. Just open a jar, put it in a pot on
the Coleman stove in the open garage, and bring in dinner to serve
during power failures.