The Modern Luddite

A long time ago, a friend of mine emailed me about a chap in Australia who started wondering why all domestic refrigerators are vertically constructed. You may have spotted the obvious side-effect of this design if you’ve ever opened the fridge while in bare feet: all the cold air falls out. Consequently the fridge fills up with warm air, which it has to cool again when the door is closed. This wastes plenty of electricity.

So this clever chap decided to buy an old chest freezer, and convert it into a refrigerator. Chest freezers have the door mounted in the top, so when opened, the cold air inside remains relatively undisturbed. He was amazed at the reduction in energy consumption; it dropped from approximately 1 kilo-Watt hour per day to nearly 0.1 kWh per day. That’s a 90% reduction in energy - and expense.

He’s even offering the service to people in Australia if they don’t feel they could do the handiwork themselves.

Even if this doesn’t directly loosen the shackles of technological dependence, it certainly makes them a lot more comfortable.

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