Green Options

[Creative Commons photo by sarae]

Your dishwasher is spic and span, and it’s starting to make your cluttered refrigerator look a little bit…well…gross. Don’t despair! We’ve got you covered with some Earth-friendly fridge-cleaning tips. Not only does cleaning out the fridge keep things sanitary, you can do your part to make it more energy efficient!

Australian researchers have figured out a cool new way to tackle the threat of global warming, by setting up a network of ‘talking’ fridges.

But wait, the idea isn’t as crazy as it might sound. The fridges feature cutting-edge technology enabling them to communicate with each other via a network to share and store energy from renewable energy sources such as solar panels or wind turbines.

According to inventor, Sam West, “The fridges are designed to talk to each other, negotiating when it’s a good time to consume electricity and when it’s better not to.”

A British college student has invented a new type of solar-powered fridge that can be built entirely from household materials. According to 21 year old Emily Cummins, the fridge works with the help of evaporation.  The fridge stays at a comfortable 6° C without using any power, and can keep perishables cool for days.

Live in the UK? You may be the lucky recipient of a free “intelligent” refrigerator. 3,000 fridges that adapt power usage based on the demands of the electrical grid will be given away by the government next year. According to a report from the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change, the dynamic demand fridges could potentially save 2 million tons of carbon each year and £222m.

The evaporating clay fridge is clever, cheap and does no harm to nature. Why can't more technology these days follow its example?

This smart preservation device for foodstuffs was invented in 1995 by Nigerian engineer Mohammed Bah Abba. The Pot-in-pot cooler consists of a small earthenware pot nestling inside a larger one with wet sand filling the space in between. As the water in the wet sand evaporates, it extracts heat from contents of

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We can't keep from using energy completely, but it is important to make sure everything is running as efficiently as possible. Today what we're referring to is your refrigerator.

Always plugged in, it's one of those appliances that you can never shut off. That makes it even more important an item to make sure it is pulling as little electricity as possible.

In order to see if you are letting money flow right out

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