Can you live with out a fridge? Can they be that ignorant?

Photowhit
Photowhit Solar Expert Posts: 6,006 ✭✭✭✭✭
in Energy Use & Conservation #1
So I saw this thread on my igoogle, Can you live with out a Fridge?
At least 3 questions are just wrong, They assume your vehicle gets 23 mpg, They think a gas asorbsion fridge uses no energy, though of course it needs a heat source. They say use a dryer as something that uses more energy than a fridge, but don't spec time of use, also any energy source could run a fridge, but they don't include methaine from composting....

Sorry just had to grip, got my first electric bill 78kwh in 23 days for $7.50 + $20 user fee. Not too bad, all electric winter is coming though...
Home system 4000 watt (Evergreen) array standing, with 2 Midnite Classic Lites,  Midnite E-panel, Magnum MS4024, Prosine 1800(now backup) and Exeltech 1100(former backup...lol), 660 ah 24v Forklift battery(now 10 years old). Off grid for 20 years (if I include 8 months on a bicycle).
- Assorted other systems, pieces and to many panels in the closet to not do more projects.
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  • waynefromnscanada
    waynefromnscanada Solar Expert Posts: 3,009 ✭✭✭✭
    #2
    Re: Can you live with out a fridge? Can they be that ignorant?

    "all electric Winter coming", I assume you mean electric heat. Have you considered an air source heat pump? Most high quality units will hand you 2 to 3 times the heat per watt of pure electric heat, at least until the outside temps drop too low for the heat pump to operate efficiently, at which time you switch to straight electric heat. I've loving mine. far cheaper to run than oil heat, and far cheaper to run than electric heat.
    Just something to think about. :D
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  • Photowhit
    Photowhit Solar Expert Posts: 6,006 ✭✭✭✭✭
    #3
    Re: Can you live with out a fridge? Can they be that ignorant?
    waynefromnscanada wrote: »
    "all electric Winter coming", I assume you mean electric heat. Have you considered an air source heat pump?

    It's a good idea, but likely not cost effective to switch out, I suspect this will become a rental, though perhaps I'll keep it at least through next year to add a "solar guest house" then rent out the 16x60 modular. I can't get a rebate if it is a rental, though I could change my mind afterward. Since I have county water, they would want a airator(?) added to the septic and perhaps a larger septic, if I put a second house on it.

    I would use wood heat for a tight 16x24 guest house/room.
    Home system 4000 watt (Evergreen) array standing, with 2 Midnite Classic Lites,  Midnite E-panel, Magnum MS4024, Prosine 1800(now backup) and Exeltech 1100(former backup...lol), 660 ah 24v Forklift battery(now 10 years old). Off grid for 20 years (if I include 8 months on a bicycle).
    - Assorted other systems, pieces and to many panels in the closet to not do more projects.
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  • solarvic
    solarvic Solar Expert Posts: 1,071 ✭✭✭✭
    #4
    Re: Can you live with out a fridge? Can they be that ignorant?

    Whit, Hows your forktruck battery system doing. Did you receive my email I sent to you? Don,t want to take over your thread here so I think maybe you might be able to give me some pointers I need to know. I got a price on a crown battery and made a posting about it but so far no one has replyed. I hope it wasn,t that boreing. Actually I figured that buying a forktruck battery is cheaper than buying regular deep cell batterys after you figure the cost of all the battery cables ect. :Dsolarvic:D
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  • abrockca
    abrockca Solar Expert Posts: 72 ✭✭✭✭
    #5
    Re: Can you live with out a fridge? Can they be that ignorant?

    Oddly, I did have a friend who lived without a refrigerator for awhile. But it was winter in Kansas City, MO; she worked full time and was doing a lot of sports and other stuff after work. Also, she was single, no kids. So she was mostly eating out. She stuck the few things she had in her frig out on the porch and turned off the frig.

    But that was a pretty specialized situation.

    Another woman here in California manages with a cooler. She's single as well. Gets a bag of ice from the place she works and brings it home each night, so it's not costing her to get the ice.

    So it can be done. I had to live out of a cooler for a bit when our frig broke until I could borrow a small frig from a friend (dorm room type). I wouldn't do it long term!
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  • chevenstein
    chevenstein Solar Expert Posts: 100 ✭✭
    #6
    Re: Can you live with out a fridge? Can they be that ignorant?

    These sorts of articles (correction: articles and associated content, like this quiz) are really counter productive and frustrating to me (and I'd imagine many others of the type who frequent a forum like this). The lack of attention to the big picture (from the impact of recycling appliances that you replace for the sake of efficiency to the impacts related to building a battery powered or hybrid car) to the assumptions about people's life styles (that you have to have air conditioning everywhere you go). Disgusting.

    As a very technical person I find that I want to educate people about complete product life cycles and where energy really comes from and they use it, but find it difficult to do so in a way that someone without an engineering degree can understand. The closest I've gotten is with a concrete example that they can see, like putting an appliance on a kill-a-watt meter and walking them through some simple math or taking them to a scrap yard where they have aluminum sweat furnaces and showing them what it really takes to recycle some metal.

    I guess it's a societal thing to some extent, too, but my goal with this reply is more about technical communication and reacting to the OP's article than opening a broader can of worms :)
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  • jagec
    jagec Solar Expert Posts: 157 ✭✭
    #7
    Re: Can you live with out a fridge? Can they be that ignorant?
    Photowhit wrote: »
    So I saw this thread on my igoogle, Can you live with out a Fridge?
    At least 3 questions are just wrong, They assume your vehicle gets 23 mpg, They think a gas asorbsion fridge uses no energy, though of course it needs a heat source. They say use a dryer as something that uses more energy than a fridge, but don't spec time of use, also any energy source could run a fridge, but they don't include methaine from composting....

    Sorry just had to grip, got my first electric bill 78kwh in 23 days for $7.50 + $20 user fee. Not too bad, all electric winter is coming though...

    That's not quite right, though...they say that a gas adsorption fridge uses no ELECTRICITY, which is true. That might imply to the uneducated that it doesn't take any energy at all (untrue), but the way that they wrote it is correct.

    As for the vehicle and dryer assumptions, they are probably correct for your average American, but would indeed vary depending on each person's circumstances.

    However, they also say that Freon is toxic, which is completely false. In fact, the inventor of Freon demonstrated the non-toxic and non-flammable properties of Freon (different from the other refrigerants of the day!) by inhaling a lungful of the stuff and blowing out a candle with it. It's only toxic if you're an ozone molecule.
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