Slashdot Mirror

http://www.sunfrost.com/refrigerator_models.html is likely the product. It has three inches of polyurethane.

Why does my refrigerator take heat out of the inside, and dump it into my house - requiring my A/C to then take it and again put it outside?

passive cooled refrigerators do exist. see here for some prototipes, but I remember I read they were easer to find in northern europe.

nother one is front opening refrigerators and freezers. Top opening is much more efficient because all the cold air isn't displaced by room temperature air every time you open it

If the door, opening, is on the top then where is the compressor, you know the thing that heats up? Heat rises so if it's on the bottom then the compressor has to work harder thus creating more heat. There are some manufacturers that place the compressors on top, such as Sun Frost.

Falcon

Lets say your house needs 5000 W. To get through an 8 h dark period, you need 40 kWhr

What are you running that that much power is used? Other than AC the frig may be the most power hungry appliance in the typical home. However "energy-efficient unit(s) made in the US is designed to run on 12 or 110 volts, and consumes about half a kilowatt-hour per day." The Sun Frost RF16 typically consumes 15 KWH per month[pdf]. And since storage is needed to supply power at night and it's cooler then both AC and refrig don't need to run as much.

Falcon

All electrical items with microelectronics use DC.
But that's not the point, is it? Very few electronic items use 110/220v directly?
If you tried connecting your laptop to 110v DC, bypassing the transformer/rectifier, you wouild end up with lots of magic blue smoke and quite probably a loud bang or two.

I think you're basically saying the same thing I did. Fact is is most if not all electronic equipment converts the AC they are fed into DC. Being true doesn't it make sense electricity should be delivered DC to those items that use DC and AC to those that use AC? Of course this requires buildings to be wired for both AC and DC. Many of those who build Off the Grid wire DC for many things but will include AC outlets where it is needed. For instance while some refrigerators like Sun Frost come in 12 and 24 VDC as well as 110 or 220 VAC a person may want to use an electric stove and oven or washer and dryer that uses AC.

Ok, he installed a $50K system, to save himself $1,100 a year.

Which after rebates only cost him $15,000, which at your 10% would only be $1500. And while today he may be loosing $400 per year, energy prices are only going up. With rising energy prices his payback period would be shorter than the 9 years TFA says. The price of oil today is above $90 a barrel, what will it be in 1 year? 2 years? 5 years? After that his effective income, revenue - expenses, increases.

Then there's the 'energy saving appliances', which is hard to rate as I don't know the details.

Yea, the lack of details here makes it hard to make a decision on whether it's good or not. For instance a Sun Frost refrigerator will beat many other refrigerators that are Energy Star rated in energy efficiency. A simple redesign of refrigerators can make them more efficient. Most frigs and freezers have the compressors on the bottom, however compressors create heat which rises making it work harder to cool the inside. However Sun Frost puts the compressor on top so there's less work and energy needed to cool the inside.

So, to make this system economical for a home user, the Government has to pay him $35k up front and $500/year? Not very economical on a large scale. When I look at this stuff, I try to look at it without subsidies. After all, we can't afford to have all these subsidies if everyone's doing it.

Subsidies for solar and energy efficiency only help to level out the playing field. If you want to get rid of subsidies then get rid on those for all the others as well. Stop giving oil companies hugh subsidies, along with coal, and the nuclear power industry. A Nuclear Loan Provision which would guaranty loans was slipped into a farm bill, what does nuclear power have to do with farming? I'm all for ending subsidies for solar but I want all subsidies eliminated, including those for big businesses.

My monthly electric bill is ~$90

How many live with you? Admittedly I live alone, but even living with others my electric bill wouldn't be much higher than it is now, and it's below $30. I may be able to cut it in half though, because I'm on disability and don't work I basically stay at home, if you look at the tymes of my posts you can see I'm logged into /. for a big chunk of the day. And half the tyme or more I also have the TV on while online. If I were to get out daily for at least a few hours that would cut my electrical usage quite a bit. But I stay home because it's cheaper for me, even with a higher electric bill. But I don't personally even have to pay the bill, I may pay it occasionally but then I'm reimbursed later. I also don't see why I should go out, other than for shopping. I don't have much to do and other than my sister and her family, which I might see once a month, I don't know anyone to do things with around here.

I'm a little appalled that nobody has used the words "ecological" or "environmental" yet. But what are you gonna do?

You can do something about it, that's what. If you want geek cred, nothing's gonna do that better than a stack of PV panels in your roof supplementing your grid juice. Power outages in NOLA are frequent (I live there too). Coupling a nice, juicy array with a big battery bank and hefty inverter not only allows you to sell back juice to Entergy when you're producing more than you're using, it's also an instant UPS. FOR YOUR HOUSE.

Go beyond solar, for the other half of production is conservation (which everyone could do). Buy energy-efficient appliances. Go SunFrost for your refrigerator. Use only low-wattage energy efficient lighting. Think of everything you can do to cut power, water or gas consumption. Set an example for your neighbors.

Switches, routers, cabling are power-hungry. Go wireless! Get big antennas, do 802.11n, have repeaters on every floor, encrypt everything, hide the SSID, you know the drill here. How many geeks can claim their whole-house network uses under 200 watts or so? And who the hell wants to yank cabling out through conduit in the ten years when RJ-45 goes obsolete (and don't nitpick there, you know what I mean)? If that seems like a long way off, may I ask how long you're planning on owning the house?

Don't stop with electricity. Maximize airflow throughout the house by adding temperature-actuated circulating fans (more juicy programming here!). Be proud of the CFM through your living room, not your desktop case. Take pride in breathing.

Select carpeting from companies that don't use volatile, poisonous chemicals in their production. Choose low-odor latex paints. You'll be worlds healthier for it. Honest.

Do this, and every geek on the block will want to be you.

This will need quite a few nuclear reactors, solar panels + most of us will go to work by bicycle.

More nuclear power plants aren't really needed, as it is now there are techniques that will reduce the use of fossil fuels. A simple change in light bulbs reduces the electricity used in building. All of my bulbs are cfls, compact florence lights, that use 1/4 the power and provides the same amount of light as a regular incandescent light, of course the light from them has a different effect on film than incandescent lights. New appliances are also more energy efficient and can be made even more so. For instance look at refrigerators and freezers. On most the compressor and motor is in the back on the bottom. However both compressors and motors create heat and heat rises, so when they operate the heat goes through what is being cooled thus requiring more energy to be used. Some companies, like Sunfrost manufacture refrigerators and freezers with the compressor and motors on top, so they are more energy efficient. More energy efficient tips can be picked up through magazines like Solar Today , Home Power , and Natural Home and Garden as well as several others. Those who live off the grid by generating the power they use use these techniques as well as others. Many other things can be done commercially and industrially to reduce power needs as well. Natural Capitalism documents case studies of how different businesses have reduced their energy as well as raw material needs.

This method requires a lot of compressed air, and ultimately, a lot of energy. If electricity "is not an option," (presumeably because of remoteness from a reliable grid) then where is the energy to make the compressed air coming from?

Because it would be far more efficient to just hook the energy source right up to a conventional refrigeration compressor, surely.

All in all, it sounds to me like the Sun Frost people have a better plan, as far as sunny places go, at least.

America already has problems selling manufactured goods to the rest of the World. Many American brands are almost unknown in Europe and Japan because they are seen as energy inefficient, lacking features, poorly made and not tailored to that market - cars with steering circles the size of Rhode Island, suspension that Isambard Kingdom Brunel would have rejected and fuel economy that makes you wonder if there is a hole in the tank, top loading washing machines, *BIG* CRT televisions - that sort of thing.

Yeap, you're right. America's energy standards need to be improved a lot. Those top loading washing machines use more energy as well as water. And refirgerators/freezers are design wrong. Instead of the freezer in combo boxes being on top they should be on bottum. And the pumps and compressors, which generate heat should be on top. By having them on bottum as most models in the US do you're having to use more energy to cool off the inside seeing as how heat rises. That's why I like refrigs like Sunfrost, which are properly designed to be energy efficient.

*BIG* CRT televisions

I'd prefer a big flat screen that can be hanged on the wall.

Falcon

Oh, btw I realized I reversed the order when I talked about a strong currency. A strong dollar lowers the costs of imports and increases the costs of exports not the other way around as I previously said.

See:

Energy Smart $39.95 at home depot.

Or, if you need a new refrigerator.

Sun Frost refrigerators

Dastardly