Chest Fridge – Great Idea From an Innovative Thinker
(image courtesy of mtbest.net)
Recently came across a very interesting website all about living more sustainably. The author, Tom Chalko, has dedicated much of the site to his own property in southern Australia – demonstrating all the fantastic eco-conscious features he has created.
One of his inventions is a ‘chest fridge’ - a very simple concept, but one that makes total sense! Consider the fact that cold air sinks, and as such whenever you open your fridge you end up losing a lot of cold air which of course leads to more power required to keep it cool.
To overcome this shortcoming of standard refrigerators Chalko decided to convert a chest freezer into a fridge by creating a special thermostat for it. Since the unit opens from the top, only a fraction of the cold air escapes when it is opened.
Incredibly, his system only consumes about 0.1 kWh per day (he mentions 1 kWh as a standard figure for a normal fridge), thus putting very little burden on his alternative energy system.
He actually provides all the specifications, parts list, diagrams etc for anyone to build the thermostat themselves, or alternatively you can also buy a ready-built unit (thermostat) from him!
Be sure to check out the rest of the site! Its absolutely chock-full of innovative green-contruction ideas. (I of course especially like his ‘worm farm’ )
Here is the link for the main site: Mt-Best Australia
Technorati Tags: chest fridge, refrigerator, off the grid, sustainable living, green construction, solar, geothermal
Written by Bentley on November 2nd, 2006 with
1 comment.
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#1. September 18th, 2007, at 8:40 PM.
Hi I find your article very interesting and i am at present building an eco fridge have dug down 2.5 meters of clay in the basement kitchen floor the temperature i have been told should remain at a constant 5c acces is by lowing items down or starway access. This use to be the prefered method before electricty to keep food fresh.Any idears on how to line the fridge area.The clay is solid but moist and can be cut with a knife.
regards peter