A Refrigerator that Runs Without Electricity
Sometimes there are simple solutions to universal needs that don’t require coal fired electricity, fossil fuels, or even solar panels or wind turbines.
Around a third of the world’s population have no access to electricity. If you’re like me, you’ve spent your entire life being able to plug in. Do we ever give a thought to what life would be like if the various appliances we’ve come to rely on were to suddenly stop working? One of the most energy guzzling appliances in our carbon footprint portfolio is the refrigerator. But, unplug it, and the quality of your life will suddenly deteriorate. Take that thought, and imagine living in a hot dry city like chennai, without electricity, where food quickly wilts and rots in the sun, aided by onslaughts of flies.
A refrigerator that doesn’t require electricity!
Here’s how it works.
You take two earthen pots, both being the same shape but different sizes, and put one within the other. Then, fill the space between the two pots with sand before pouring water into the same cavity to make the sand wet. Then, place food items into the inner pot, and cover with a lid or damp cloth. You only need to ensure the pot-in-pot refrigerator is kept in a dry, well-ventilated space; the laws of thermodynamics does the rest. As the moisture in the sand evaporates, it draws heat away from the inner pot, cooling its contents. The only maintenance required is the addition of more water, around twice a day.
To give an idea of its performance, spinach that would normally wilt within hours in the hot weather will last around twelve days in the pot, and items like tomatoes that normally struggle to survive a few days, now last three weeks. Aubergines(Brinjal) (eggplants) get a life extension from just a few days to almost a month.
Sometimes there are simple solutions to universal needs that don’t require coal fired electricity, fossil fuels, or even solar panels or wind turbines.
Around a third of the world’s population have no access to electricity. If you’re like me, you’ve spent your entire life being able to plug in. Do we ever give a thought to what life would be like if the various appliances we’ve come to rely on were to suddenly stop working? One of the most energy guzzling appliances in our carbon footprint portfolio is the refrigerator. But, unplug it, and the quality of your life will suddenly deteriorate. Take that thought, and imagine living in a hot dry city like chennai, without electricity, where food quickly wilts and rots in the sun, aided by onslaughts of flies.
A refrigerator that doesn’t require electricity!
Here’s how it works.
You take two earthen pots, both being the same shape but different sizes, and put one within the other. Then, fill the space between the two pots with sand before pouring water into the same cavity to make the sand wet. Then, place food items into the inner pot, and cover with a lid or damp cloth. You only need to ensure the pot-in-pot refrigerator is kept in a dry, well-ventilated space; the laws of thermodynamics does the rest. As the moisture in the sand evaporates, it draws heat away from the inner pot, cooling its contents. The only maintenance required is the addition of more water, around twice a day.
To give an idea of its performance, spinach that would normally wilt within hours in the hot weather will last around twelve days in the pot, and items like tomatoes that normally struggle to survive a few days, now last three weeks. Aubergines(Brinjal) (eggplants) get a life extension from just a few days to almost a month.
