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Refigerators commonly have a compressor to cool the freezer, and then a heat exchanger to equalize between the freezer and the fridge.

So the freezer can store energy by working extra hard bringing things down from -5C to -20C whenever it's expedient, and the equalizer keeps the fridge in its usual temperature range. Nothing spoils, and you don't even have to notice.

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It still isn't controlled by a timer or switch, though. That's the point I was opposing.

But there's no reason it can't be. So far there just wasn't a reason

Food safety dictates a minimum chilling temperature, we can't override that without sacrificing health. We can make fridges/freezers more efficient and insulated though. My deep freezer (according to Energy Star) takes $24 a year to freeze my food. That already seems extremely efficient.

Yes, but it's not going to be retrofitted onto existing fridges. You'd need to replace most of the fridges in the system.

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