Frugal Green Living: Freezer Sales are Way Up
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto 
on 10.30.08
There is nothing in our freezer but martini glasses; we shop every day. But lots of people are buying freezers now to sock away bargains. Consumers Reports says that annualized sales of upright freezers sales jumped 17%, chest freezers 10%.
This is great if they are packing in vegetables and healthy foods, not so great if it is the frozen stuff that is full of fat and calories. One shopper told the Wall Street Journal about her stockpiling of discounted frozen foods: "In the past, if it was a killer sale, I'd buy a few. Now, when they're on sale, I'll buy a lot." Consumers Reports did another story on how appliances can make you fat that is worth reading.
They quote Marion Nestle:
More room for food means, well, more food. And not necessarily healthy fruits and vegetables, but rather stuff that tends to be high in calories, fat, sugar, and salt. “A much healthier lifestyle is the little European refrigerator that forces you to go shopping every day,” says Marion Nestle, Ph.D., professor of nutrition, food studies, and public health at New York University and author of What to Eat: An Aisle-by-Aisle Guide to Savvy Food Choices and Good Eating. “It forces you to buy fresh foods over ones that are packaged or prepared.”
However, If you are going to get a freezer for more than martini glasses, get a chest model rather than an upright. The Energuide numbers don't take into account that when you open an upright freezer door all the cold air pours out onto the floor, whereas in a chest freezer it stays there since it is heavier than the warm air. if there is a leak in the seal in a vertical door it causes a lot more heat gain in the freezer than it does in a chest, which also puts gravity to work to make the seal even better.
We even reported a few years ago about converting chest freezers into fridges to get incredible efficiency.
Consumer Reports via PSFK
More Freezers in TreeHugger:
Man Retrofits Freezer to Make an Ultra-Efficient Fridge
Is Your Fridge Running (Efficiently)?
GE Reinvents the Fridge
Follow @TreeHugger on Twitter & get our headlines with @TH_rss!
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What's this about martini glasses in the freezer? I hope nobody thinks that a mostly empty freezer is using any less energy than a full one.
An empty freezer probably is using more energy than a full one. Each time you open it, more air escapes and is replaced by warm air that the unit needs to work to cool.
Personally, when my fridge and freezer are relatively empty, I filled them with empty, but sealed, tupperware. Less loss of air
An empty freezer probably is using more energy than a full one. Each time you open it, more air escapes and is replaced by warm air that the unit needs to work to cool."
I imagine the average person opens their freezer more often than the writer drinks martini's.
an empty freezer that is rarely opened or never opened doesn't use lmore energy than a full one. It's the opening that is an issue, full or empty, just that there is less air to escape if it's full.
People may be buying freezers with the idea that they will preserve extra food against rising food prices and general economic upheaval. It's a perfectly reasonable response to food insecurity, although, as you say, a freezer full of Lean Cuisine is not exactly a great backup plan.
I must say, the idea that having a large freezer will lead to poor eating habits is ridiculous.
My husband and I have a large chest freezer, and it's full of grass-fed beef from a local farmer (they give significant savings if you buy a quarter of beef or more), frozen organic produce from our summer vegetable garden, and homeade raw food to feed our 2 cats.
I also regularly cook huge amounts of made-from-scratch soups and stews, and freeze leftovers for easy weeknight meals.
There are many advantages to having a chest freezer--and you don't need to fill them with crap food!
The 'little european fridge' would be a disaster for us--since we would have nowhere to store all our surplus garden veggies into winter. Not to mention if I had to shop everyday, I'd be less inclined to cook every day.
I preserve the veggies fruit from the summer but i get scared when it hink of an electrical outage that would cause me to loose all the summer harvest...canning is more secure