Refrigeration company hopes for a chilly reception

If you own a restaurant, a deli, a bakery or a pizza parlor, would you pay about $199 to install a device that's supposed to help save energy in your refrigerator?

A Hauppauge-based company, Refrigeratorsaver Inc., thinks you will, and is offering the device -- called a Tcube (as well as a thermometer) -- free, as long as you're willing to pay the installation fee.

Spencer Freedman, an Englishman now living on Long Island, heads up Refrigeratorsaver's efforts in the United States to promote the Tcube, which has been sold in Europe and Asia. The Tcube allows the thermostat to monitor food temperature rather than air temperature. The company says this "more accurate and stable temperature" causes the compressor to run fewer, but longer, cycles. The longer cycles create "thermal inertia," the company says, cooling food for a longer period of time, and increasing the efficiency of the unit.

Freedman says Refrigeratorsaver plans to give 5,000 Tcubes on a first-come, first-serve basis in the next six months. The Tcube and the thermometer would cost $379 if purchased, Freedman said.

He said the company has linked with several refrigeration servicing companies on the Island to install the device.