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One thing that always bothered me about energy waste are fridges in the cold winter. Outside the house is cold, so we heat the house. Outside the fridge (house

One thing that always bothered me about energy waste are fridges in the cold winter. Outside the house is cold, so we heat the house. Outside the fridge (house) is hot, so we cool inside fridge. Is there no option for fridges/freezers to get cold air from outside the house? Or is the overcomplication not worth it?

LaurensBER 5y ago
I imagine that the challenge is maintaining a constant temperature. If you want to use cool air from outside to cool the food you either need a way to stop doing that when it gets too cold or include a heating element. Both options will probably get expensive quite fast. If you want to save energy buying a coolbox and storing some stuff outside during the winter is probably far easier and cheaper ;)
oxplot 5y ago
Fridges with top doors tend to lose lot less cool air when opened than the regular front door ones.
- DocTomoe 5y ago
  I know freezers with a top door, but no fridges - and frankly, I imagine a top-loaded fridge to be impractical in kitchen use unless there is some way to reach the bottom more easily. Do you have a link to a fridge like that so I can imagine the concept better?
  - oxplot 5y ago
    > Do you have a link to a fridge like that so I can imagine the concept better? Large camping fridges are as close as I have seen, but I'm sure someone's thought of one for domestic use. As for practicality in the kitchen, I can imagine a design where you have multiple medium sized fridge drawers. Once pulled out, you can open their top lid and access the content. This way, you don't have one deep container, but rather, multiple shallower containers. For efficiency, a single compressor can feed all of them. EDIT: actually I've seen freezer drawers - you just need to dial the cooling down a bit. Another idea: Vertically long rectangular compartments that can be pulled out individually. Essentially a whole bunch of vertical drawers of different sizes, with meshed walls to allow air to pass through them. Another silly idea: a horizontally mounted ferris wheel
ciphol 5y ago
You'd have to put a vent through the wall. People do this for clothes dryers. But for fridges it's probably not worth it - worthless in summer, and in winter the bad insulation around the vent likely cancels out the electricity savings.

LaurensBER 5y ago

I imagine that the challenge is maintaining a constant temperature. If you want to use cool air from outside to cool the food you either need a way to stop doing that when it gets too cold or include a heating element. Both options will probably get expensive quite fast. If you want to save energy buying a coolbox and storing some stuff outside during the winter is probably far easier and cheaper ;)

oxplot 5y ago

Fridges with top doors tend to lose lot less cool air when opened than the regular front door ones.

DocTomoe 5y ago
I know freezers with a top door, but no fridges - and frankly, I imagine a top-loaded fridge to be impractical in kitchen use unless there is some way to reach the bottom more easily. Do you have a link to a fridge like that so I can imagine the concept better?
- oxplot 5y ago
  > Do you have a link to a fridge like that so I can imagine the concept better? Large camping fridges are as close as I have seen, but I'm sure someone's thought of one for domestic use. As for practicality in the kitchen, I can imagine a design where you have multiple medium sized fridge drawers. Once pulled out, you can open their top lid and access the content. This way, you don't have one deep container, but rather, multiple shallower containers. For efficiency, a single compressor can feed all of them. EDIT: actually I've seen freezer drawers - you just need to dial the cooling down a bit. Another idea: Vertically long rectangular compartments that can be pulled out individually. Essentially a whole bunch of vertical drawers of different sizes, with meshed walls to allow air to pass through them. Another silly idea: a horizontally mounted ferris wheel

ciphol 5y ago

You'd have to put a vent through the wall. People do this for clothes dryers. But for fridges it's probably not worth it - worthless in summer, and in winter the bad insulation around the vent likely cancels out the electricity savings.