I don't know--we bought the most energy-efficient fridge Sears sold a few years ago, and it's my understanding that this uses less electricity than other appliances (DVRs, computers, etc) that are on 24/7. If you've got one of those mammoth Sub-Zeros, or an old fridge, then I can see it being a bigger issue.

Also, changing out all your incandescents to CFLs or other high-efficiency lighting is going to save a lot more energy than the refrigerator, and also reduce the cooling load on your domicile, which will make the fridge more efficient as well.

Potatoes?? Who refrigerates potatoes?

Yeesh, how nonsensical. I mean really, this is just as bad as the no toilet paper thing.

Now, if you want to be efficient about how you refrigerate, and are an apartment dweller, simply get a small chest freezer and modify it like this:

http://mtbest.net/chest_fridge.html

Remember, the chest format keeps all the cold air in when you open it, and since it was originally a freezer, the insulation is even thicker.

Since you only have a few items to keep cool, no worries about the form factor.

It seems to me that there must be at least *some* efficiencies to keeping the fridge (albeit having one tailored to your needs). Living alone makes it all too tempting to grab over-packaged takeout, especially with no fridge. With a fridge you can cook up large batches to be reheated efficiently in the microwave later in the week. Also buying perishable items in larger quantities takes the pinch out of buying local/organic items that are often more expensive. I Live alone and buy 4-litres of organic milk at a time and freeze two of the bags - without a fridge/freeze I don't think I could afford to buy the good stuff. Considering all these factors and the amount of food I'd waste otherwise, I think I'm keeping my fridge.

Apples in the fridge? Potatoes? PRESERVES?

What on earth is wrong with people? What next? Canned goods kept in the fridge?

(Sighs in despair).

Hmm.. I agree with the idea of buying as much fresh veg etc as possible but how does the energy requiremeant of that increased packaging of all those smaller quantities compare to the reduction through turning the fridge off?

This is just as bad as the no toilet paper thing.

It would be easier to buy fresh often if food was sold in quantities that a single person could actually eat in just a day or two, rather than in huge packages.

Holy moly,

OK folks, let me just say, I wouldn't have done this if it meant consuming more packaging, more take-out or eating less healthy (healthily?). And I would invest in a cooler but I'm broke and don't have much room in my apartment for it unless I get rid of my fridge altogether (which I won't as I'll probably plug it back in when my challenge is over).

Anyway, I believe in using fridges, but they're only really efficient if they're full, and because I'm not exactly a family of four, I just felt like it was going to wate.

I live in a studio apartment with a 3/4-size fridge. It's big enough for all I need and rarely kicks on since I am not in and out of it that often. Even with everything else I run, my average electricity bill is $11 a month, which is mostly taxes. I don't refrigerate my 'tatoes either.

When my old, old frig died, I spent about a year without a refrigerator. Survived fine.

Then I bought a Danish Vestfrost small frig which uses about a third of the energy as a comparable US frig. It's designed without coils, the heat transfer is handled through the walls, and has a freezer compartment on the bottom. Still surviving.

For those who want to go without a frig altogether, there's a technique that our pre-electric forebears used. They'd take the northernmost window and build an insulated cupboard around it. Open the bottom and top of the window, screen it against insects, and you have a closed cupboard which is consistently cooler than any other place in the house.

Why has no one thought about pumping cold air from outside into your fridge in the winter? In cold climates, this would save a lot of energy.

I am thinking of gaining counter space by replacing a regular fridge with a undercounter one (with no freezer) and a same size undercounter freezer. Would people have less of these fridge space issue if they had a larger freezer?

Willy Bio:

Thanks for that link. That's a very interesting article! Cheers!

Andrew said:
"Why has no one thought about pumping cold air from outside into your fridge in the winter? In cold climates, this would save a lot of energy."

I know I've thought about that too! And about the absurdity of heating up a big box (the room), and cooling down a smaller box (the refrigerator) within the big box!

I did look into it a while back; I found a few companies that sell some kind of air transfer system like that, but if I recall correctly, it was rather involved, due to having to stop condensation from forming within the duct work, etc.It wasn't "plug and play" (at the time) from what I saw.

Now, if say, most of the refrigerator extended outside of the house (into the cold), like an exterior "closet", then you wouldn't need to pump any air at all. Just open a door into an (uninsulated) cold room so to speak. I've considered setting up something like that, but doubted whether it would be consistently cold enough to work without some kind of crazy cooling-assist contraption for warmer days.

I like the idea in the article that Willy Bio linked to though! Sounds much easier to set up. Very interesting!

Lots of good points. I'm shopping for a smaller, more energy-efficient fridge too, and wondering what my alternatives are.
Here in coastal California, houses used to be built with "California coolers" -- a kitchen cabinet that vented to the outside on a shady wall, and had slotted shelves. The butter stayed cool and sliceable. Opened jams and jellies lasted for months without going moldy. The potatoes didn't sprout. Of course everyone ripped these energy-efficient wonders out in remodels after the 1950s.
I'm sure there were other regional adaptations in other climates. In "Food In England" Dorothy Hartley describes digging cellars of successive depths, so each one was cooler than the last.
I can see the holes where our 1946 house once had the cooler, and am tempted to create a modern one.

Gee thanks TH, for your wonderful censorship. That's 5 comment's I've left now over a period of about a month (on 5 different stories), and NONE got posted. And that's WITH a typekey account.

My latest comment was very similar to what the last comment (jul23/2008 6:39pm) is. And I submitted it earlier than that one. Not the first time it's happened either.

I think I'll go read elsewhere where there's a little less of the censorship mentality going on.

LA: we do not censor comments unless there is swearing or something really vile. With a typekey account we have to consciously go in and delete it. If you put in your email we might discuss this.

Lloyd Alter said: "...If you put in your email we might discuss this."

Fair enough Lloyd, I've set my typekey account to send my email address to TH in the hopes of avoiding the technical snags that I seem to have been caught up in.

p.s. A suggestion: the "contact us" link could be more prominent rather than buried in the site. I would have preferred to use it rather than distracting everyone reading these comments, but at the time I couldn't find it. Sorry for taking this off topic.

Going without refrigeration isnt as difficult as you might think, it's not really as bad as going without toilet paper. I terminated my frig about 8 years ago and what it really came down to was retraining myself on the logistics of food: acquisition, preparation, and storage. Previously, I drove my car to and shopped en masse at a mega grocery store and prepared dishes that could be refrigerated and consumed over many days. Today, I bike to either the public market or local organic co-op for daily food preparation. I purchase only what I need to consume today. There are a lot of healthy food choices that do not require refrigeration for storage ( beans, grains, etc.). The unit cost of meals does increase as does the frequency to market, I will admit, but the upsides: fresh, healthy meals, no leftovers to spoil, no frig to clean, to buy, to energize, and an improved environmental equation. It's not an option to some, but to many it is.