What are optimum refrigerator temperature settings for maintaining food quality as well as energy efficiency?
This is more difficult that you might think. Food quality aside, the optimum operating temperature of a refrigerator is very much a question of how it was designed. It is a bit like the optimal speed for a vehicle. if it is built to run at its best at 80 mph, well, it will probably run best that way. So unless the manufacturer is willing to give you that sort of detail, you will have to trust that the unit is reasonably efficient at any temperature you choose. From the food point of view: in a freezer, the colder the better. The temperature in a a refrigerator is more complicated. You usually do not want things to freeze in a refrigerator, but when the refrigerator is very full, there is often a large variation from place to place inside. So you want it to be at a temperature that is not so cold that parts freeze and not so warm that things get, say, near to 40 degrees. 36 – 38 is not a bad starting point, but given the inaccuracy of these thermometers, and the variations in usage, I w
