Can I Unplug My Refrigerator At Home?

The refrigerator is very much considered to be a "must-have" appliance at home and on average, it accounts for more than 20% of the energy consumption per household per month.

A crazy thought came to mind today exploring the possibility of doing without one at home.

I am thinking for a second - it might not be as crazy as it sounds, and could well work for me.

Assumptions:

• I live in a city with 24-hours convenience stores just round the corner (cold drinks and frozen food easily within reach)
  
• I consume raw, perishable food (supposedly no overnight storage needed)
• I can survive without the indulgence of high saturated fat (such as butter, mayonnaise, peanut butter, cheesecakes, ice cream)
• I can live without the need to entertain guests (with chilled wine/ice wine/champaign)

This act is by no means in an attempt to conserve the environment nor save up elec bill. I just think this piece of under-utilised appliance is actually taking up too much of a space in my flat.

When you think about it, almost all other electrical appliances have some sort of technological advancement in the past decade that changes your life and somehow refrigerators remain as refrigerator and nothing more than a refrigerator.

I would hope to see some network attached to it and intelligence built-in in the near future, so I can abandon the thought of abandoning the poor thing.