State of the Art ... Refrigerator?
 

Our refrigerator is now 21 years old, and it has been pretty darn good. The one day that I measured it's power consumption, it was 1.6kWh / day. Which is pretty good considering that it is 27 cubic feet (20 cu ft refrigerator and 7 cu ft freezer up top). The heat radiator is on the bottom which is generally a good thing, but it does collect dust and cat hair, etc.

So, I can put LED light bulbs in there, and I can cross my fingers that the new noises it is making are not an issue BUT - it will need to be replaced, maybe soon or maybe in a couple of years.

I want to buy the best refrigerator I can to replace it. It doesn't have to be so big, and the freezer in particular could be just for ice cubes and ice cream. We now have a 12.5 cu ft deep chest freezer in the basement to do the lion's share of that work.

I'm hoping for less than 0.5kWh / day and a very sturdy design and materials that could last 50+ years. The heat radiator ideally would be remote and could be put down in the basement or even underground. Is there anything out there like this?

I haven't heard of anything like this. Sounds like a good diy project though. Create your own fridge. It wouldn't be horribly complex. Rip the guts out of an older machine. Reuse the inside and doors, but remove the skin. Remote mount your heat exhanger, add as much insulation as you want and face it with whatever you want (wood would be relatively easy). Can't wait to see your finished product! :)

Yes, it is called Sun Frost. They are made in the USA, they are designed with extreme performance for wing nuts like us, and people who live off grid.


And LOOK HERE...


They are essentially hand built, so don't expect them to be cheap.

How strong is your commitment?

Best,

-AC

The diy guys have found that hacking a deep-freeze to run at fridge temps is ultra-efficient as all get out. The secret is that the top opens, keeping the cold inside the box. Remoting the heat source is near useless, as there is very little heat generated at all. Typical usage is 100 to 200 watt hours per day.

For a conventional, front-opening fridge with a freezer compartment, look at Bosch and Whirlpool.
Bosch has a euro-market line called the SmartCool. It uses like 60% less energy than regular fridges of comparable size. All the USA-market fridges have at least some of the SmartCool technology built into them. The SmartCool fridges are smaller than American models, because europeans in general have smaller appliances across the board.
Whirlpool won a 30 Million dollar prize for bringing a super efficient refrigerator line to market around a decade ago. They still get the best energy ratings. Check it out:
Best Refrigerator Comparison | Save Energy and Money at Enervee

But here's the punch line: none of these super efficient fridges are anywhere near cheap. As always, you get what you pay for.

Yeah, the front opening SunFrost R10 uses 170 watts per day...

Part of their secret is ultra insulation, another is that the compressor & coil are on top, so the refrigerator is not bathed in its own waste heat.

I'm really surprised that nobody on this forum has actually built a converted chest freezer/refrigerator. It's pretty cheap, it is known to work really well.

There have been avalanches of posts about putting bottles of water in refrigerators and carefully monitoring results looking unsuccessfully for some sign of reduced energy... but no conversion.

-AC

I hacked a freezer into a fridge. All you have to do is buy a controller. My Belkin Conserve Insight Energy-Use Monitor says it will cost me $27.91(@0.16Kw) a year to run, 2.3 to 2.4 KW.. The freezer is a Frigidaire Model # LFCH13M2MWO. 13-cu-ft-chest-freezer

Control Products TC-9102D-HV Dual Stage High Voltage Digital Temperature Controller
The controller is set to 39* & is half deep in the freezer.
Water starts to freeze in the bottom of freezer.

I hope I got everything right.
I tried to post links to all the stuff involved, but short on posts.

I'm the only one in the house.

Thanks for all the info - I'll keep my eyes open and we'll see how long the unit we have keeps going.

Check out the Energy Star list of qualified refrigerators - Refrigerators : ENERGY STAR

If you download the spreadsheet version you can sort to find the fridge that meets your size and efficiency requirements. Most on the list won't be as efficient as the fridges mentioned above, but at least you can compare purchase and operating costs.

FWIW,
Tim

fridge-freezer KGE39AI40 from Bosch, available only in Europe. Energy use 167 kw/yr.
Bosch fridge freezer in NA. 554 kw/yr. admittedly a much larger fridge.

lets hope that the new regulations for 2014 mean actual reductions in electricity use.

Why do you need a freezer in your fridge? my parents and I both have fridges that are only fridges, no freezer and it's great! their chest freezer is in the basement, mine is in my laundry room, people come over and notice that my fridge is smaller then they are used to then they look inside and ask what the deal is because they see it has a ton of space inside, all at eye level and it looks huge inside, all because I don't have all this space wasted at eye level with freezer that I only use every few days.
Mine is a Danby and my parents have a Crosley, mine used 338kwh per year.