Vote for Craig Bergland

Refrigeration and the Sun

Added: Jun 5th, 2008
If you have a black-painted surface exposed to a cloudless night sky, the temperature drop can be as much as twenty-degrees. If it's 50 out at night, you can theoretically freeze stuff. There are refrigerators which can run off of one 50-watt solar panel. They cost more, but require zero energy from the power company. Solar coolers, refrigerators and freezers have been an esoteric solar item for centuries. Solar powered ammonia refrigerants have been around longer than anyone who is alive. The sun can provide cooling/freezing/distillation with NO petroleum inputs. It is used in 3rd world countries to preserve vaccines to prevent disease. And why do we spend so very much energy on keeping our food frozen? If we produced locally we'd save a bundle. It's frozen at the producer level, frozen via truck transport, frozen in our supermarkets, and frozen in our own freezers. What does that represent? That's stupid. Solar could even in theory power your house's evaporative cooler to keep you pleasant in summer months. The opposite of heat is cold. We can use heat to make cold.