Wayne Boatwright wrote:

How cold do you plan on keeping the kitchen?

I kept it 36 F one year.

That's beyond my comprehension.

It's easy to do with the kitchen off the back of my house. With 2' stone
walls (C ~ 50 Btu/F-ft^2) inside R10 insulation and RC = 500 hours,
the kitchen temp changes slowly.

Starting at 36 F, it would cool to 30+(36-30)e^-(24h/500h) = 35.7 over
an average 30 F January day. Leaving the kitchen door to the rest of
the house open for a few minutes a day makes up for that cooling.

At that temperature, you don't even need a refrigerator, just a freezer.

Right, but then spring happens. Maybe the freezer needs a thermostat
that turns on a 15 watt bulb in the fridge box when the freezer temp
rises to 10 F. Where can I find one of those?

Nick