powering fridge and freezer independently

This is kind of a dumb question, but Is there a way to power a fridge and freezer independently? I just got a freezer top fridge. I would like to make this my fermentation fridge and I would like to keep my yeast and hops in the freezer section. Is there any way to do this?

Freezer top fridges use cold air from the freezer to cool the fridge. They don't cool independently.

i haven't disected a lot of refrigerators, but I'm fairly certain that in many models, both top and bottom run off the same coils. some may use fans to direct more air to the freezer vs refrigerator, so there may be a way to use that, but usually there's only one compressor for the whole unit.

You could do it. You would need to separate the sections. There is normally a "channel" down the back that the fan blows cold air from the freezer section down to the fridge section. Move the original thermostat up into the freezer section and put in a small fan to blow air around in the freezer section. I would put another hole from the top section through to the bottom section. Put a damper on each hole and control their opening/closing and the fan by a thermostat with the probe mounted about 2/3 up the side of the fridge section and adjusted for the temp in the fermentation section.
I think this would do it. Any refridgeration peeps out there. Let us know if you do it. - Dwain

Frost-free Refrigerator/freezers already have a thermostatically controlled damper controlling the flow of air through the fresh food (refrigerator) compartment. As others mentioned above, there is only one actual refrigeration circuit (compressor, condenser, refrigerant control and evaporator, and the evaporator and fan are located in the freezer section back wall.

Attempts to modify the way these units work (other than an exterior override t-stat) is asking for trouble.

I played with this a little since I turned my bar fridge into my fermenation chamber. I was hoping to use the freezer section for beer storage. With the fridge being controlled at 62*F, the freezer section now stays between 35-40*F, depending on how often the doors are opened.

Like the others have said, these are not independently controlled, so you basically just have to control the fridge side and see what the freezer side stays at. A lot of refrigerator have manual dampers that control how much of the air flow goes to the fridge, so if yours is this way you can close this damper down to restrict flow to the fridge.