Energy Matters Forums

[karlajensen]

Spray adhesive and most contact adhesives EAT
foam insulation faster that you can put more foam in place.

Silastic works but if the foam is brittle, the next time round is a disaster.

My cats got to like climbing the med density blue foam I used on the door
(I figured it needed to be rugged as well as insualting or it would end up all over the house)

after a while its insualting properties improved as it got hairy from the chunks the cats were
pulling out for fun

[Smurf1976]

And a little fan would do wonders BUT you never see it or look at it and mice get chopped up in them
hence for the long term not viable for the manufacturers of domestic fridges.

Fans and mice are not a good combination, though it's not impossible for a mouse to get through a running fan without harm (I've seen it happen).

[karlajensen]

did I mention my two F&P 440 L fridges use 580KWhrs EACH!
under current star ratings they get a 1.5
price was right.... I gave the previous owner $1800 the pair and they were ~2 years old
my last fridge looked stupidly small in the hole

[Nige]

I have an old fridge / freezer that come from Russia. So I have taken Vlad the fridge and insulated the inside of the fridge and freezer door with expanding foam.
If you tap the inside plastic of the fridge door you will soon discover they are hollow no insulation inside.
Once you fill with foam the difference is amazing... As it's a beer fridge it does not have to be pretty.
quick simple and effective I will drink to that.

[Gordon-Loomberah]

Good work Nige Did you happen to measure the difference in power usage with a power meter? You could probably dramatically cut the power usage again by adding polystyrene insulation to the outside if there is room for it.

[Nige]

I can't add polystyrene to the outside it would cover up all of the stickers!

No I didn't measure power useage as a beer fridge all useful information / practicality is thrown out of the window in favor of a nice cold beverage and a failry large part of a cow cut in to suitably large steak sized morsels for future consumption in the freezer bit.

[lantern]

I like the idea about the chest freezer as a fridge, will look into it further.

^^ Been tried and didn't work that well. Freezers are designed to be well below zero (-18c) 100% of the time.
A fridge should be around 3 to 5 deg c.
Some parts of a freezer used as a fridge will rust due to it being out of it's designed temp range.

Now having said that, there does seem to be a good few articles on the net suggesting it could be done.
Maybe some things have changed, in the 30 years, since a friend of mine did his experiments.

[Gordon-Loomberah]

I think quite a bit has changed, they are mostly lined with plastic these days, so not a lot of rusting potential there!

[bashworth]

As i started this thread I thought I would update my trials......... I have been running my standard fridge between 11.00pm and 7.00am for the past couple of months typically the temperature is around 8 degrees at 6.00pm which is fine (I am a pom and a lot of my beers are ales so that temp is fine.) I might plan some extra insulation when spring comes around.

Regards

[karlajensen]

my vastly undersized battery (6AH) has been destroyed by the fridge and overpowered solar panel.
hence been fridge is currently the indoor one

Nice work only question now is it better to just run it for a few hours prior to beer consumption time