By Vanessa Brown •
September 7, 2009
What counts for 25% of most households’ electricity consumption? Your refrigerator. So, of course, you are going to want to make sure you are running it the most efficient way that you can!
1. Be Organized–You waste time and energy with keeping the door open while trying to find something in your messy fridge. I have to admit that I am horrible with this, which is why I tidy up my fridge one day a week. If I didn’t, it would be scary! Up to 30% of the cool air in the fridge escapes every time you open the door, which is quite a bit! Be quick when you get something out!
By Max Lindberg •
September 22, 2008
Albert Einstein is probably most remembered by the public for his General Theory of Relativity, but how many remember his 1930 invention of a refrigerator that used no electricity? I wasn’t there when it was introduced, but I knew several people who had one, and they weren’t all that happy with it, primarily because it wasn’t that efficient.
The idea was great, it operated without electricity, using ammonia, butane and water. The principle being that water boils at a much lower temperature at high altitudes where air pressure is lower than it does when you’re at sea level, where air pressure is higher.
Malcom McCulloch, an electrical engineer at Oxford University in the U.K., is leading a team in a three year project to produce appliances that can be used in places without electricity. Or, for that matter, places with electricity, why not?. That’s when McCulloch latched on to Einstein’s fridge idea.
Einstein’s concept, shown in the image above, works thusly. At one side is the evaporator, a flask that contains butane. “If you introduce a new vapor above the butane, the liquid boiling temperature decreases and, as it boils off, it takes energy from the surroundings to do so,’ says McCulloch. ‘That’s what makes it cold.”
By Michael dEstries •
January 12, 2007
A company called Solar Chill has developed an award-winning refrigerator that runs completely off of solar energy. The idea behind the appliance is that perishable goods can now be transferred from location to location without spoiling. One such application of this tech would be the transfer of vaccines, which must be kept cool at all times.
