Chest freezers are dramatically more efficient than their upright counterparts, simply because cold sinks and heat rises. When you open a chest freezer, the cold air stays inside. When you open an upright freezer, the cold air flows out like lava.
So why hasn't anyone applied this idea to refrigerators? Refrigerators use up to 1/3 of all household electricity (!!), so changing your fridge's efficiency can drastically impact your electricity bill.
One Australian got tired of waiting for a commercial product to be made and decided to modify a chest freezer into a chest fridge him/herself. The site sells kits to do this, although unfortunately they are designed for 220/240 volts.
Alternately, you could do the same thing with a refrigerator thermostat (often sold for turning chest freezers into beer keg coolers). I might just have to try this...
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
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5 comments:
I'm guessing it's mainly b/c of space constraints. Most people don't have the floor space to essentially turn a normal fridge on its side. It also seems like it might be more logical to build upright fridges with the freezer on the bottom - that way if either part leaks any heat, it'll be less of an issue on the bottom.
My parents have always had upright fridges with the freezer on the bottom, I never liked mine with the freezer on top!
I'd think even upright fridges could be built with more individual drawers (instead of opening one huge door and having the drawers inside). That way you could open only a small drawer - e.g. the vegetable drawer - and conserve a lot of energy.
My main concern about a chest fridge would be how to store stuff in it. An upright fridge has shelves and drawers, which aren't really feasible in a chest fridge. How do you keep it from becoming one big jumble of foodstuffs?
Good point, Caroline!
I've always been intrigued by undercounter drawer fridges. They look prettier than the large fridges, too.
If I had kids, I might not be as enamored with them! As it is, I probably don't need that much room in a fridge.
regarding organization in chest fridges, i don't think it would be that difficult to design some kind of way to organize more efficiently. off the top of my head, you could have bins that slide around and/or pull out.
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