Comments on: Yes, its true what they say about Chest Freezers

By: rice with flour « Vegetararianism for the Poor

rice with flour « Vegetararianism for the Poor — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 00:43:46 +0000

[...] down to steaming. I am fond of sweet rice. I use open coffee mugs and soak hard sweet rice in the fridge over night. But that time it has become as easy to cook as instant rice. Also interesting [...]

By: Preservation Blocking « Blocking People Out

Preservation Blocking « Blocking People Out — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 07:11:24 +0000

[...] I got rid of my fridge in order to block the fridge people out that I was connecting to. I made a special fridge that doesnt let my mind escape out of my skull. It keeps the cold air in by being top opening and [...]

By: No More Home « Your home Is Vulgar

No More Home « Your home Is Vulgar — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 22:21:44 +0000

[...] I made into a fridge with a plug timer by setting it to run only 10 minutes every 2 hours (Australian idea, uses almost no electricity). They say most accidents occur in the home, accidents like Afghanistan. My chairs are only the [...]

By: No Home = No Oil « Sheep be not Shocked Again

No Home = No Oil « Sheep be not Shocked Again — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 19:21:29 +0000

By: Hacked Home « Some Uhh…Thoughts…

Hacked Home « Some Uhh…Thoughts… — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 09:17:08 +0000

[...] I hack my computers by putting Linux on it and removing windows or building my own. I hacked a chest freezer by running it on a plug timer to maintain a normal refrigerator temperature instead of freezing. [...]

By: chest fridge « A Blog on Minimalism

chest fridge « A Blog on Minimalism — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 09:08:54 +0000

[...] Concerning chest fridge, I only run mine 2 hours out of every 24 hours. That’s 10 minutes for every two hours. I [...]

By: Slacking in the Home « The Zen Slack

Slacking in the Home « The Zen Slack — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 22:02:19 +0000

[...] in china and western chairs that have backs at the same time. Through complete slacking off, I no longer have a fridge or access to ice (frozen water). But I am not so uptight that II can deal without a fridge. Only the truly uptight no how to [...]

By: Family Cloth « Disparaging Thoughts

Family Cloth « Disparaging Thoughts — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:38:04 +0000

[...] have already given up most of my appliances and have very few things plugged in. I have the Australian chest freezer converted to a fridge. And really only have my computer plugged in with 13 watt bulbs in all lights. [...]

By: Stove « Disparaging Thoughts

Stove « Disparaging Thoughts — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 17:46:43 +0000

[...] Posted in American Bullshit, Cooking, Health and Home, Saving Money and the Environment at 5:46 pm by anonymous man In the USA, whenever you rent a home or apartment, there is nothing in it but 2 appliances: stove and fridge. I got rid of my fridge. I felt like going one step beyond and doing things the difficult, really “pulling teeth” and being very particular, so I requested to remove my old fridge and bought a chest freezer that I converted to a fridge with a plug timer. [...]

By: Jared

Jared — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 05:38:29 +0000

The power consumption claim of 0.2 kwh in 24 hours is very achievable. I am currently using a chest freezer as a refrigerator and have measured similar power consumption. Instead of using a timer to control the compressor I hooked up a new thermostat and relay switch so that the unti holds a temperature of 4 degrees celsius. You could figure out a time interval for the compressor that would get you a fairly consistent temperature I suppose as suggested in an earlier comment and this would be a bit easier to set up but I wanted a system I could always trust even as my house temperature changes. I have posted the details of my modifications here: http://practicallyoffthegrid.com/2010/02/how-to-make-your-own-high-efficiency-refrigerator/
The changes are pretty straight forward and cheap! This is a great way to take a huge chunk out of your energy consumption so your energy generation requirements for off grid living can be lowered substantially.

By: Australian Fridge « Disparaging Thoughts

Australian Fridge « Disparaging Thoughts — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 23:39:48 +0000

[...] http://www.off-grid.net/2009/05/23/yes-its-true-what-the-say-about-chest-freezers/ [...]

By: jan snyder

jan snyder — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 00:29:01 +0000

Hi I am an American and I made one of these. Here is a photo diagram:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/17636723@N05/4330749705/sizes/o/

By: Ryan

Ryan — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 15:53:56 +0000

Wow! Great article. Thanks so much for posting this here. I finally have the solution I’ve been waiting for!

By: Lornkanaga

Lornkanaga — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 19:04:24 +0000

Is it possible to turn a chest freezer into half freezer, half refrigerator?

If so, which would be the best way to divide it — side by side split or horizontal split?

I just see regular refrigerator-freezers as so inefficient because anytime you open the door you lose a good deal of cold air, and forget getting anything out during a power outage (sigh).

By: kim

kim — Sat, 30 May 2009 01:57:17 +0000

I have been using a 270lt chest freezer as my fridge for about 10 years now. All of my power comes from a small solar system with a small 240V sine wave inverter. I have made no conversion to the chest freezer and don’t use a temperature controller; all I have is a $5 wall timer which can be set to turn on in any 15min intervals during the day. Usually in the summer months I have it set to turn on the fridge (formerly known as freezer) at 15min and 30min intervals for a total of 3hr. In the cooler months its probably more like 2hrs total but I rarely get too pedantic about it because it is so low. The compressor motor will always run during these intervals as the fridge is always below the nominal freezer temperatures and so the freezer thermostat never functions. It may sound a little crude but the temperature in the fridge does not vary a great deal, I have monitored this. The beauty of this system is that you can control when you use energy to cool the fridge and how much which is beneficial on a small solar system. I run the compressor sufficiently during the sunny hours to cool the fridge down so that during the night I rarely ever have the compressor set to run and it stays cold all through the night. This makes a huge difference to your storage battery requirements and effectively you are using your fridge itself to store energy harvested in the daytime. I have never had any spoiled food and weaned myself off the pleasures of frozen treats many many years ago. I am also a vegetarian and so I don’t have a need to have frozen animals in a freezer.
The chest freezers are certainly better insulated but importantly they also have the condenser tubes wrapped all around the outside of the cabinet so there is not the problem of condensation and the need for mullion heaters as found in conventional fridge/freezers as heat is dissipated all over the cabinet.
The only drawback might be the convenience of access and the ease of cleaning and draining accumulated water at the bottom which you might have to do every few months.