Here’s how you can do the same thing.

First, gather the materials:
1) love temperature switch TS-13010 – $50 $65 Cole-Palmer
b) 3 to 6 foot round extension cord – $6 Harbor Freight
c) push on connectors – $1.70 Home Depot
d) micro screwdriver – $1 Dollar Store or Harbor Freight
e) 7 cubic foot Whirlpool chest freezer – $200 Costco
or check craigslist for used chest freezers in your area.

WIRING
2) Cut a 6 inch section out of the middle of the extension cord. There need to be black, white and green wires that can be separated and stripped;
b) Complete the wiring with the push on connectors. This wiring diagram shows the proper connections, but it is better to have a 3 way push on connection prior to 8, to only have one wire go into the 8 socket, and the third wire to 10. The white wire can be set up the same way, with a 3 way connection prior to 7. The ground wire is spliced together with a 2 way push on connection.

PROGRAMMING
3) This is the programming that I use to keep the temperature an average of 37 degrees. The switch turns off at 38 and the temperature continues down to 33 degrees, then back up to 41, where the switch turns back on.

CHEST FRIDGE
4) Plug the chest freezer into the temperature switch, and plug the temperature switch into the wall. Verify that the chest fridge conversion is working as expected. Make any adjustments in programming. Move food from the old refrigerator to the new chest fridge conversion.

RESULTS
The Whirlpool chest fridge uses only 6 to 10 watts an hour ($.60 a month), compared to the old Frididaire fridge that averaged 100 watts an hour ($6.00 a month). The chest fridge runs 6 to 8 minutes, of 60 to 95 minute cycles, keeping an average temperature of 37 degrees (33 to 41). The fridge conversion uses less then 10% of the energy that was used by the fridge.

CHEST FREEZER COMPARISONS
1) Whirlpool 7cf eh070cfxcqoo Costco 200709 $220 with tax – yes
Uses 80 watts when running (107* energy meter); 3 amps; runs 8.5% of the time as a fridge conversion (and 10.1% of the time when used as a freezer); is quiet and cool; does not put out any significant heat. I wanted to get another one (to use as a freezer) but Costco doesn’t carry them any more.
2) Frigidaire 7.2cf ffco723dw19 Costco $250 with tax – no
Used 121 watts when running, 5 amps; ran 33% of the time, was loud and got extremely hot. I returned the freezer to Costco.
3) GE 7cf fcm7suww HomeDepot $218 with tax – no
The online rep said they do not stand by the freezer even if it fails the next day.
4) Beverage Air 2sf-13 Craigslist $120 – yes
Six year old 5.4 cf ice cream freezer. I have been happy with this freezer as it is much better than the Frigidaire for the price. However I’m going to sell it as I’ve decided that I don’t need a freezer.

I was nervous about a wheel breaking and being stuck 1/2 way home with the freezer, but all went well. I wore my running togs, and a Costco guy helped me to move the freezer to my dolly, after having me sign a waiver to not sue them if the freezer fell off the dolly on the freeway. There was not much chance of that happening.

I waited for cars to pass, made my way out of the parking lot and 1/2 way across the street, when a harried driver came whizzing around the corner aiming right at me. I stopped in the middle of the street as the car whizzed past, then proceeded, the dolly wheels clunking hard on the other side at the edge of a driveway. I quickly learned to stop and lift a front wheel over the edge, which was easy to do, but the freezer had shifted part way off the dolly and was leaning to the side. It took a minute to get the freezer back on center and all was well from then on.

Half way home a nice black man waited for me to cross the street. I motioned him on, and he motioned me on, so I went ahead and waved thanks. I got a lot of curious looks and friendly smiles while pushing the freezer along. My goal was to get the freezer home the 2 miles in an hour, and I made it in 34 minutes. Now I am inspired to use the dolly to move things.

Five time World Cross Country Champion and Olympic 5000m Champion John Ngugi had a nice long stride, and a relatively low stride rate for his speed, as can be seen in his amazing victory in the 1992 World XC Championships in Boston (unavailable), over a rough 7.5 mile course in the snow. Ngugi was dominant in cross country, the first ever five time World Champion. Ngugi moved up during part 2 of 5 of this exciting race, recommended to see from the start.

Lasse Viren had a shorter stride and made up for this with the high rate of 200 spm during his 1972 Olympic 10000m race, and up to 214 spm the last 800 meters. Viren again ran 200 spm in the 1976 Olympics 10000m.

After his 3:51.0 WR mile in Jamaica in 1975, Filbert Bayi continued around the track at 153 spm and 6:00 pace to warm down. Try this, it’s not easy, for me anyway! This demonstrates how the same runner has a different stride length and rate at different speeds.

Stride rate is easy to chech with a stop watch, by counting the strides, and converting the result to 1 minute. I use a the countdown function, counting every 3rd stride from 0 to 10 (30 strides). Doing these in 10.9 or 10 seconds, would be 165 or 180 strides per minute.

The Korg ma20 metronome has a convenient tap function. By tapping the metronome every 3rd stride and multiplying by three, the spm is determined for any moment of a run. Another way is to count the strides for 110 yards or 100 meters.

The easiest way is to set the metronome for the rate that you want, say 56 beeps for 168 spm, or 60 beeps for 180 spm, and adjust this to match the stride rate that you want. This way the metronome beeps on every 3rd stride. I’ve found this is to be a great way to keep my stride rate and pace very even.

The important thing is to find the most efficient cadence for you.

This morning I ran 4x a quarter mile at free rate to see what my cadence would be, by split timing several sets of 60 strides (3 steps x 20). My average stride rate was 160.5, with an average stride length 25 percent longer than it was at 150.

Update 12/01/11
I’ve not been checking the strides per minute (cadence) for a long time due to mostly running on dirt and cross country courses. However I’m planning to do this again soon. This time I will focus on getting the rate as high as possible for given times or distances, which I feel will help the relaxation and coordination of my stride.

First unplug every appliance in the house, easiest to do the first thing in the morning. Then turn on the appliances one at a time, and time or calculate one revolution of the wheel for each appliance at the meter. Wattage of each appliance is the result of [ (3600x7.2) / seconds = watts ]. The number 7.2 is not always the same and is usually listed on the meter.

One of my goals was to convert a chest freezer to a fridge, with a digital temperature controller. Doing this has reduced that use by more than 70 percent. I don’t use any air conditioning, and use a wood stove for heating in the winters. I am planning to use bubble wrap to insulate windows this winter, and radiant barrier to keep heat in the house, which should reduce the consumption of wood. Updates will be coming as I just got an energy meter from ebay.

Update September 18, 2010
I removed the freezer, and electricity use dropped by 40 percent. The total bill was $5.93 for last month.