refrigeration without power - the cool box

[paul wheaton]

Marina and Robert of Dell Artimus Farm take a general electric 1930's
refrigerator, strip out the motor and add in ....  spring water.
Refrigeration without any electricity.   Easy peazy.

They call it the cool box.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOAm0p0BuKM

[Ernest T. Bass]

Pretty neat! I've thought about doing something similar, except we don't have a spring.. If we just ran our incoming water through a cool-exchanger before heading to our fixtures, I wonder how well it would work.. We use several hundred gallons of water in a day between many kids and animals, so it would cycle pretty regularly.

[glenn kangiser]

We have the same refrigerator.... about a 1934 GE Monitor Top, but it is still working so we just plug it in to our solar power and run it at about 35 degrees...

As built, this refrigerator is one of the most efficient ever invented using around 4 times less power than its modern day equivalent.  Obviously not all of the features though.

That works well for us.

Working and restored this refrigerator is worth between $2500 and $4000.....if you can get it... but the restorers do.