DIY fridge uses almost no energy
Photo: Frigidaire 
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Comments(9)
Posted By Rams - Sat, Aug 29 2009 at 1:02 AM ESTDIY fridge uses almost no energy
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/
Posted By Jill - Tue, Aug 25 2009 at 7:41 PM ESTThis isn't the whole story...
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
Posted By Anonymous - Mon, Aug 24 2009 at 9:53 PM ESTIs this like a 50 year old article?
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
Posted By GreenErinF - Mon, Aug 24 2009 at 5:03 PM ESTsmart!
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! :)
Posted By ninakat - Mon, Aug 24 2009 at 1:13 PM ESTExternal thermostat
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
Posted By V. Bruce Stenswick - Sun, Aug 23 2009 at 11:18 PM ESTpseudo smart grid
I put my chest freezer on a timer to take it off the grid 9 hours per day, noon to 9 pm.
Posted By George Myers - Sun, Aug 23 2009 at 6:43 PM ESTThey come smaller...
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
Posted By Faye - Fri, Aug 21 2009 at 7:14 PM ESTGreat Idea!
If you can do a little here and a little there, when it comes to saving energy, it all adds up.
Another DIY Option
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