Natures refrigerator

Mother nature provides us with refrigerated air every winter, right? So, why not use that free cold air to keep our food cold?

Ben Hewitt posted his energy efficient refrigerator idea on his webpage green homes to show everyone it can be done.

The only drawback is that you have to live in the frozen north country where winter temps hover around the ungodly lows of your electricity-chomping freezer.

The idea is to build an area against an outside wall and use small computer fans to suck in the outside air so it circulates through the insulated fridge. You can get the details on his webpage.

Sounds super easy, right? It is. Of course, he can only use it from mid-November to early-April, but this counts for a nice savings on his electricity bill. The temperature in the homemade box stays at 40F. And for the rest of the year the space can still be used as, oh, say a closet.

I wonder what he does with the fridge when he is not using it to keep his beer cold? I’ll bet he stores his empties there until it’s warm enough to take them to the recycle-bin. Maybe, Ben, you can come up with a DIY freezer for your frozen dinners.

Now, If only we can use the heat of Summer to keep food cold then we could toss our fridge for good. But then we wouldn’t be able to get water and ice from the door.

This is an ingenious idea to get off the grid, even for a short time. Every bit of electricity we don’t use keeps a few pennies in our pocket and lessens our carbon footprint. Kudos to you Ben for a truly green way to replace an everyday energy sucking appliance.