

Gravity to Save 90% Energy When Using a Fridge - onreact-com
http://www.homedesignfind.com/appliances/green-fridge-invention-uses-almost-no-electricity/

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JunkDNA
From the article:"I wonder why no company has thought of this easy way to cut
energy use in fridges?"

I suspect they probably have thought of this. But to me, this is one of those
ideas that looks good on paper. The obvious main problem here is usability.
Freezers work in this configuration because everything you put in them roughly
turns into bricks that stack on each other without damage. This fridge would
need all kinds of little compartments and shelves to keep things like produce
from going to the bottom and getting squashed.

In order to have a fridge with the same capacity as an upright fridge, I
suspect you would need quite a bit of floor space. There are practical limits
on how deep you can make a fridge without it being difficult to use. It's
probably fine if you're a single person and don't have a lot of stuff. But
what about for a family? Finally, many kitchens have a "spot" for a fridge,
and anything that doesn't fit there, needs to go somewhere else. It's likely
there likely isn't going to be enough floor space.

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beza1e1
I'd think of a design like a file cabinet with every drawer being its own
fridge. This way you can even set different temperatures. The stacking is
variable so suitable models for every kitchen should be possible.

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swombat
That's a smart idea, but wouldn't that require several compressors instead of
one? (one per fridge)

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a-priori
You could probably get away with one if you duct the cold air into each
compartment, with a valve on each one. The valves would be opened and closed
as needed to maintain the temperature in each compartment. When at least one
is open, the compressor turns on; when all are closed, it shuts off.

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swombat
Here's a crazy idea: could you design a house this way?

Perhaps, for very hot climates, houses should be designed so that the air can
only escape upwards, which would severely reduce cooling costs?

(most likely, they already are...)

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MaMa
It's a converted chest type freezer. Freezers also have a lot thicker
insulation on the walls that also helps improve the efficiency a lot.

It also takes a lot of floor space. On the other hand it could be usable as a
secondary refridgerator to hold cold drinks, vegetables etc. that you don't
want taking space in your main fridge.

And btw where is my aerogel-insulated fridge? I want one for my flying car!

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tamas
Am I the only one who sees a usability problem with this? With freezers this
layout is acceptable, as you don't browse around for stuff many times a day,
just dump them in the box and forget about it till next spring.

Even if it has shelves, just by thinking about how one gets the jar of jelly
out from the back of lowest shelf makes my back hurt.

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catch23
What it needs is a rotating shelf, it would be less space efficient, but then
you could just spin the wheel to get something at the bottom.

Also, it doesn't have to be a wheel, maybe just a bunch of hanging shelves on
a movable track. If it were a track, you also wouldn't need such a large
cover, you could get by with a cover just large enough to access 1 compartment
on the movable shelf. Advanced fridge shelves could operate like tape backup
systems -- type in "milk" and it rotates the milk compartment to the access
cover.

With the microcomputer, it could also keep track of access times of each
compartment and ping you when it thinks a compartment has food past the
expiration date. With the rotating fridge compartments, you could also have
weird fridge layouts that still maintain energy efficiency -- maybe a tall and
skinny one, but there is a loading bay at the user's height level.

Maybe I'm overthinking this...

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dugmartin
Why not just add those plastic strip drapes they use in super markets to your
existing fridge? That would do a lot to minimize the cold air dumping out when
you opened the door wouldn't it?

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m_eiman
"I wonder why no company has thought of this easy way to cut energy use in
fridges?"

<http://www.prisjakt.nu/kategori.php?k=533>

The link is in Swedish, but it's a list of freezers just like his readily
available for purchase. Mouse-over an item in the list to see an image. The
columns: divide the price by ten to get an approximate USD price; energy use
per year; freezing capacity per 24h; volume.

[edit] My in-laws have a freezer like this and use it for long term storage.
And yes, there are usability problems.

[edit2] Freezer != fride, of course. I shouldn't comment with a baby on my
lap, and I also blame it on language barriers! :)

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yannis
Usability and shape is the biggest problem with this idea. However, if you had
something in the fridge that would minimize the amount of air in the fridge
that could work i.e a spring loaded mechanism of some sort that pushes back to
allow for goods to be inserted in the fridge. If no goods are on the shelf
then the spring pushes to the front thus allowing less air to be in the
fridge. Hey? Can I get VC funding for this?

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ramchip
_using only about 100 watts of power a day_

A little confusion in the units there... It would appear the author means 100
watts for one hour, so 0.1 kWh per day or 3 kWh per month. Compared to the
regular's fridge 30 kWh/month.

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jrockway
I was just about to mention this.

100 Joules per second per day? So it uses more energy as time goes on? :)

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boredguy8
Our new fridge works this way on the bottom, for the freezer. It's a 'pull
out' freezer.
[http://www.kenmore.com/shc/s/dap_10154_12604_DAP_Large+Capac...](http://www.kenmore.com/shc/s/dap_10154_12604_DAP_Large+Capacity?adCell=W2)

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jasonkester
Here we have the classic case of a trade-off between energy efficiency and
pain in the ass.

Personally, I'll happily pay an extra $2/month in electricity bills not to
have to pick the milk up off the floor every single morning.

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onreact-com
Hey, for all those who complain about the poor usability: This is a low budget
DIY hack!

In case you want to solve the same problem with a usable product on a big
budget you can too, using horizontal compartments:

[http://www.appliancist.com/appliance_trends_2008/electrolux-...](http://www.appliancist.com/appliance_trends_2008/electrolux-
design-lab-2008-winners-finalists.html)

[http://www.yankodesign.com/2008/04/09/your-fridge-sucks-
this...](http://www.yankodesign.com/2008/04/09/your-fridge-sucks-this-ones-
better/)

