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Subject: TWL: RE: small freezers
From: Mike Schooley (schooley@XXX.XXX)
Date: Sun Sep 01 2002 - 20:14:23 EDT
Dennis wrote, "Hello Mike. Congrats on getting back to grad school. I'm sure
you will be busy so I better get my question in now. Whats available in
smaller off the shelf freezers?
I'd like to be able to make our own ice when we put in long days and would
have enough time to be able to freeze gallon jugs of water, perhaps with an
additive to reduce the freeze/melt temperature a bit. We would use those in
our ice box instead of buying ice which is both messy and never in uniform
size containers.
My thought was that two or three containers in a chest would keep the chest
cold even when one is taken out to chill the ice box. We did try a small
Sunbeam fridge unit from Wal-Mart on sale at only $65, but it would not
freeze water even overnight."
Hi Dennis;
That's an interesting question. I hope you don't mind me posting your
question and my answer to the list, but I thought other list members might
be interested.
If you mainly ran the freezer when you have shore power or are underway, you
would be using power when it is economically available.
When I lived in the high desert I had two problems. 1 The best prices on
groceries was to drive down to Palm Springs, but in the 125F temperatures
and a 45 mile drive it was impossible to get frozen food home. 2 Our
electrical power was unreliable and would sometimes go off for a few hours
at a time, although this eliminated the need to defrost the freezer, I got
tired of hauling our frozen food to the dump, before we eat it!
I used saltwater in two liter bottles and adjusted the mixture until it
froze in my freezer. I THINK I used 3/4 cup of salt per two liter bottle. I
think this gave me a freezing point of 28F. When we went to Palm Springs,
I'd put two or three saltwater ice bottles in a cooler and they would keep
our frozen goods frozen all the way home. I would return the saltwater ice
bottles to the freezer and they would be ready for the next trip. With about
8 bottles of saltwater ice we could keep our food frozen on the hottest day
of the year for a day without power (it was an 24 ft^3 chest freezer). We
also kept several bottles of fresh water in the freezer. When the power went
off, we would move the fresh water ice to the refrigerator.
If you have a freezer to freeze the ice bottles, you might as well use it to
store them in also. After all, it is a well insulated box, all you need to
do is shut it off. I'd get the most efficient unit I could because they are
insulated better. Here is a the URL for the California Energy Commission
with lots of useful info. If you click on the Energy StarR link you can
download an Excel spreadsheet of all the consumer models available and their
energy star ratings and how much they exceed the federal requirements. As
you can see, the chest type units are significantly more efficient that
front opening, but not so much more that you couldn't get a front opening if
the Admiral really wants it. Here is a cheep chest type
http://www.bestbuy.com/Appliances/Freezers/Chests.asp?m=1596&cat=1609&scat=1
610. You might also want to consider the high efficiency that the Solar
System suppliers sell to the "off-grid" world. Here are a few links
http://www.solardyne.com/efref.html,
http://www.ark-solar-power.com/conserve.html &
http://www.perfectpower.net/acrefrigfreezersframes.htm.
As an example, the Wood's 5.3 cu. ft. Chest Freezer is $189.99 at Best while
the Danby Model 520 110VAC 5.3 cu. ft. Freezer is $352.41 at Perfect Power.
So is the Danby worth $162.42 more? It is higher efficiency, designed to run
off an inverter (the Wood's might not work) and it comes with a better
warranty.
Cheers;
Mike Schooley
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