some times I really wonder if some of you have even the slightest experience in this matter.
We have altosack's comment that duty cycle will somehow dammage the fridge. Next is spinningmagnets' comment that refridgerators are not capable of running continously, but industrial units are.
most of you all commented that the idea is stupid, because you assumed the user is actually going to open the door, and let it sit there...
A few things here...
Where I work, we have approximately 200 dehumidifiers, most were bought in the 90's, and aside from the ones that don't work, the rest have been running 24/7/365 since they were plugged in. about 50% of them do not work, but appear to function as if there is no freon in them, a bunch ice up, but still put out about half or so what the others do. The 100 or so that do work, still condense about 2 gallons of water a day, (when it rains outside, its a really dry environment normally), operating in an ambient temp around 75 degrees Fahrenheit. (btw they are made by whirlpool)
I should also mention the thousand or so air conditioners, most with a manufacture date of 1976-1980.
electrically they have had everything replaced, at least once, maybe 30% had a compressor replaced, these also operate 6-10 hours a day 7 days a week, 5 months out of the year.
The most reliable part is the heat/cool switch solenoid, the least is the two 1/2 hp 3 phase fan motors.
Last time I was in home depot, I calculated the COP of a few different brands of dehumidifiers from the stated pints of water per day, against the stated amperage draw. on my cellphone btw, but since it is impossible to assume the compressor operates continuously or not, the COP of 1.8-2.3 means nothing to me, but i suspect it is a little higher than that not including the temperature difference, also an unknown.
If we wish to breakdown a fridge compressor operating for say 20-30 minutes every 2 hours, as my maytag does, we can assume that the oil is 100% cycled through the system, if we assume that the compressor also reaches it's max temperature 10 minutes after it turns on, then the refrigerator is operating in continuous mode for about half the time the compressor is on.
This provides some interesting observations, first, the mechanical wear might be equally divided between static and non static conditions, this could even be planned this way, to maximize life...i dunno.
Electrically...well, who has ever seen a coil burned out, when exposed to an oxygen free environment, also, how many of you have tore apart a "burned out" compressor?
I am not in a position to do this, but I know some of you are. Go to the local recycling center, acquire a few broken refrigerators, fix one or more of them, (chances are it's no freon [leak], a clogged capillary [return to the recycling center], or the thermostat)
Benchmark the cooling performance, make it run 24/7 for a month, then do the same again...
I understand refrigerators aren't the same as heat pumps nor dehumidifiers, but those are just as easy to get as well, and would be more suted to opertion in the desired temp ranges.
one more thing, a friend of mine has a GE fridge, and it still works after 50+ years, I'll have to ask him how many or those years it was in use, but they number at least 25. A 5 minute google search found numerous reports of working antique fridges, granted a lot used sulfur dioxide....
In response to those saying this is not a good idea for insulative, cooling coil area, condenser proximity to the cold area, fridge with door open wtf, Why on earth would you want to do that type of responses...
This is not rocket science.
how much more effort does it take to destroy the shell surrounding condenser/evaporator and remove the fridge from the cooling system. if you ask me, the answer be 2 hours with some sheet metal sheers.
Use whatever you have available, but let it run for a week beforehand.
This is in no way intended to offend anybody, furthermore arguing on the internet..well you know. a photo of someone's burned out fridge is worth it's kilobytes in gold, and logbooks speak louder than what someone though they remembered.