[Greenbuilding] finding coils inside (new) chest freezer

[Reuben Deumling]

On Sun, Dec 5, 2010 at 3:02 PM, Frank Tettemer <frank at livingsol.com> wrote:

>
> However, two neighbours have used the "kits" made at the E-Z Kold shop in
> Ontario, Canada.
>
Frank, I so enjoyed your post. Lots of good ideas. I'm curious if you know
roughly how much these kits/this effort cost your neighbors. I am happy
spending real money on projects like these, but I'll say right off the bat
that the Sundanzer prices listed on their website are well outside of my
budget.

If a person bought a used/dead freezer, about ten cubic feet, and lined it
> with another 3" of polystyrene, then lined it with fiberglass & resin, or,
> aluminum flat stock, and placed two of the E-Z Kold cold plates in either
> end, then they would have about 5 1/2 cubic feet of freezer space. super
> well insulated, and run by the most efficient small compressors in the
> business.
>
I like this a lot. I may not go down this route for this particular project
as my ability to remove projects from the growing list is not as successful
as my inclination to add new ones.
One piece of good news is that my conversation with the technical staff at
Danby this morning yielded some useful insights. The coils on their chest
freezers are found on the two sides and the back of the freezers. The
evaporator is only on the right (inside) side of the freezer. This leads me
to think it would be worth trying the following with one of their models:

* add rigid PUR panels to the *exterior *(top, front, lid)
* add rigid PUR panels to the *interior *(back, left side)

This would seem to avoid all the concerns about potentially
counterproductive modifications, and improve the insulation levels on five
of the six sides of the box. I can get this shipped for <$400. My instincts
are to go with one of your ideas, Frank, but as mentioned above I'm already
spread way too thin to be quite ready to tackle the DIY version with
components from E-Z Kold. I also don't have any DC supply, which isn't
insurmountable, but I am planning on squeezing half of the rated annual
test-consumption with this extra insulation. At that point I'm within
shouting distance of the tested values of the Sundanzer. All speculation at
this point, but I've successfully done this with my refrigerator, which has
been running with the extra insulation (four of six exterior surfaces) for a
good ten years at this point. 120-150 kWh/yr vs the rated 413 kWh/yr.

Thanks everyone for your great ideas and suggestions.

Reuben Deumling
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