[Greenbuilding] Refrigeration for Himatics (was Re: Pedaling vs. PV, was: heretical observation

[Frank Tettemer]

Thanks for that link, Reuben. It's a fascinating project.

That fourmileisland fridge runs on the same principles as your standard 
propane-burning fridge, (I think?), without burning any of the propane. 
It probably is slow to recover from the door being opened frequently, 
just like a gas fridge.

But the "cold store" of RT's
and the coils-outside idea of Reuben's .... well!

I've combined these two ideas with a twelve volt dc fridge/freezer, 
manufactured with the heat dissipation coils all mounted at the open top 
of the fridge. (Sunfrost)  I've metered our 10 cu.ft. fridge and our 5 
cu.ft. freezer, and the two units consumed 230 KwH for a year's total 
for both combined.  That's pretty darned good, and it's a lot of because 
of our Ontario climate:

I built the entire fridge into the exterior wall, surrounded by a 
well-ventilated exterior cabinet, clad with the wood house siding.. The 
Outdoor Ambient air temperature surrounds the fridge cabinet on five 
sides, leaving just the door on the inside of the kitchen touched by 
interior conditioned space. Here in Ontario, the fridge nor the freezer 
rarely run from November to March, corresponding to our worst 
solar-electric input months. . And it's rare to hear it run during those 
months. If we hear a compressor running, we know there's a thaw going on 
outdoors!

It's been operating over a decade now, and is a great relief to the 
off-grid batteries for the series of cloudy months.
Lot's of extra work installing them, as a built-in-with-ventilation, but 
it's been well paid off by now.

The whole cabinet has two drawers under the fridge unit, that slide into 
a styrofoam cabinet, that stays ambiently cool during the winter, to 
keep carrots, potatoes in one drawer, and onions and leeks in the 
other.  The fridge unit in this photo is the two white doors, directly 
above the potato/onion drawers with hardwood fronts.

Here's a photo of the installation:
http://www.livingsol.com/index.php/home-energy-systems/solar-domestic-hot-water

Frank

Frank Tettemer
Living Sol ~ Building and Design
www.livingsol.com
613 756 3884


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yep. And this fellow did it one better. http://fourmileisland.com/IceBox.htm

I think the trouble is
(a) we think that 40F is a maximum for refrigerated space, and
(b) the average outdoor temperature for much of the year is well above 
that in my latitude.

For the winter months this could work, however, but my version - 
sticking the fridge coils on the outside but keeping the fridge as the 
storage vessel and not compromising the insulation envelope--also seems 
promising.

On Wed, Jun 6, 2012 at 1:39 PM, RT <archilogic at yahoo.ca 
<mailto:archilogic at yahoo.ca>> wrote:


    I may be jumping in too late in this thread to offer anything of
    relevance but...

    There's an idea that was called a "Cold Store" ... basically an
    insulated compartment off of something like a doorway or window
    opening, accessible from the kitchen or walk-in pantry which could
    serve as a natural "refrigerator" in winter. Temperature control
    would be a manually-operated vent which let's more or less heat out
    (or if you prefer, cold in). No electricity required. Good
    weatherstripping and effective closure mechanism on the
    well-insulated door are about the only real requirements. And cold
    outdoor winter temps of course. ie Wouldn't work in Florida.

    I have something like that on my home, except it's just a piece of
    cabinetry (1.2 x 1.2 x .5 metres) with big drawers, out on a side porch.


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