DIY fridge uses almost no energy
Who would've thought? Convert your energy-hogging freezer to a fridge and save 90% on energy consumption. This beats EnergyStar.
Fri, Aug 21 2009 at 1:25 AM EST
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Photo: Frigidaire With all the recent advancements in energy-efficient appliances and electronics, manufacturers have been lauded for their progress in reducing the energy impacts of a typical household.
And it is deserved. Take for instance the refrigerator. Just 20 years ago a typical fridge would burn 800 or more kilowatt's per year. 10 years ago that got cut down to 500. Now 350 kWh is par for the course.
But every now and then, someone comes along with an innovation so simple, and so brilliant (in that hidden-under-your-nose kind of way) that it makes all the hard-earned advancements seem moot. For the refrigerator, that someone is Australian inventor Tom Chalko (PDF).
He had the idea to convert an old chest freezer (a known energy hog) into a SUPER high-efficiency refrigerator using nothing more than an internal thermostat hacked into the compressor. The result is a almost nonexistent 100 watts per day (the equivalent of a 100 watt light bulb going for an hour). That is about 1/10th the energy use of the most energy efficient (standard size) refrigerator currently on the market.
Here's why it works. The horizontal top-lid layout of the chest freezer is perfect for conserving cooling. Even opening the lid releases very little cooling because of the fact that cooling sinks straight down. Opening up a standard fridge, on the other hand, means that some of the cooler air at the bottom of the fridge will inevitably escape, which is why the same volume on an upright fridge takes so much more energy to keep cold.
Simple physics that pays off big time. One added benefit ... absolute silence. According to the inventor, the fan goes on for about two minutes per day.
That is some serious DIY innovation. Now all we need are some special drawers that slide up and down so the chest refrigerator can become as convenient as an upright.
via: Home Design Find
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Comments
Saffer
10/25/2010 08:41 AM
Some upright freezers (in the 160- 560 litre range) in South Africa incorporate a variable or 3-position thermostat in the front panel , seems to be a selling point as it can be used as a classic chest freezer, as a large chiller for drinks (entertaining) or a fridge.
Whether it's as energy efficient as Tom Chalko's design is hard to say, considering these brands are at the bottom end of the market - manufacturing costs, profit margins etc take precedence over anything else...which is ironic.... More
Bill
10/11/2010 23:22 PM
For more convenient accessability how about using an upright with drawers like a chest of drawers!?!
dwindle
07/02/2010 12:46 PM
that these things make terrible and inconvenient refrigerators. We use the inefficient stand up versions for a reason.
Stephane
06/18/2010 03:36 AM
Form the maker of the fridge: "It only works 90 seconds or so every hour."
That will be much more than 2 minutes a day as you wrote.
Also, the plural of Kilowatt is Kilowatts not Kilowatt's
Uncle B
06/17/2010 08:08 AM
Totally Solar powered fridges are possible at these low consumption levels! Bravo for the off-grid folks, the survivors of the next predictable, natural downturn in the economic cycle! We should all be so lucky! Sustainability must become and American goal if we are to survive the Corporatist grip on our democracy!
Jared
02/21/2010 23:49 PM
The custom thermostat Tom uses looks pretty tricky to put together. I managed to achieve efficiencies of the same order using a chest freezer with a heating thermostat and relay switch. I've explained everything you would need to try it yourself here: http://practicallyoffthegrid.com/2010/02/how-to-make-your-own-high-effic...
Try it out yourself. This modification has been working great for me for a few years.... More
Rams
08/29/2009 01:02 AM
Terrific idea. The entire world should benefit from this idea. it would be better if someone commercializes this.
regards,
Rams
http://www.lyco.co.uk/
Jill
08/25/2009 19:41 PM
Part of the reason this setup is more efficient is that the chest freezers are usually manual defrost models. Your typical refrigerator has an auto-defrost freezer attached to it. The defrosting cycle works by quickly heating up the walls of the freezer to melt the ice, then cooling it back down before the food thaws. It takes extra energy to perform this cycle. So, I would argue that the refrigerator side wasn't the biggest problem to begin with (assuming you keep it pretty full). You've.... More
Anonymous
08/24/2009 21:53 PM
Am I missing something? Chest style, thus more energy efficient, refrigerators have been around a long time.
I almost purchased one of these like 10 years ago; http://www.sundanzer.com/Home.html
erin.p.fielding
08/24/2009 17:03 PM
Why didn't I think of this?! Very smart, and I agree - can't wait for them to be more like refrigerators shelves so we can enjoy them like refrigerators! :)
ninakat
08/24/2009 13:13 PM
I bought a freezer from Back Woods Solar last year, and they had an option for an external thermostat for converting it to a refrigerator. This would be an option for those of us who aren't quite as handy "under the hood." http://backwoodssolar.com/catalog/refrigerators.htm#External_thermostat
V. Bruce Stenswick
08/23/2009 23:18 PM
I put my chest freezer on a timer to take it off the grid 9 hours per day, noon to 9 pm.
George Myers
08/23/2009 18:43 PM
Deliveries of small upright apartment size ones used to be numerous as they were popular years ago, made in Europe mostly when I was a helper for A&S. I also recall an astronaut built a regulator for refrigerators that saved energy but at the small piece-lot production were about $50 to make, and a difficult sell to consumers though saved energy. Einsteins refrigerator invention should or could be looked at and perhaps integrated into a variety of scenarios, homes, spacecraft, hypersonic.... More
Faye
08/21/2009 19:14 PM
If you can do a little here and a little there, when it comes to saving energy, it all adds up.
