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If you live in an area of the world where winter brings sub-freezing temperatures, you can leverage the chilly outside air to lower the cost of operating your refrigerator.
Photo by Jeremy 白杰瑞's photostream.
If you've cruised efficiency and green-oriented web sites to any degree, you've likely seen someone do a massive overhaul of their refrigerator to actually pipe in outside—and freezing!—air into their fridge. That's the kind of DIY project that can go terribly wrong and void your warranty.
Over at the home blog Re-Nest they highlight a much easier way to take advantage of the chilly weather and bring your refrigeration costs down to nearly zero without having to saw a hole in anything. One of their readers wrote in:
I was inspired this month to unplug my refrigerator and cool just with ice that I can make outdoors. I can keep the refrigerator at 45 degrees for about five days with a couple of big pot fulls of ice. It had occurred to me how wasteful it was to be cooling something in the winter in a northern climate! It takes more attention and effort than just having a plugged-in refrigerator, but perhaps there are others out there that might also try this if they were given the idea.
They were quick to point out something their reader had overlooked: your fridge compressor only kicks on if the thermostat inside triggers it. If you pack your fridge with a couple pots or milk jugs full of ice you don't need to unplug it—and risk the food spoiling if you forget to top off the ice! Even if you don't live in a freezing climate, filling the empty space of the fridge with jugs of water will help stabilize the refrigerator's temperature and cut down on temperature swings from the door being opened.
Have your own tips or tricks for increasing the efficiency of household appliances? Let's hear about them in the comments.
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For some (me), Twinkies are one of life's best indulgences—but the idea of ingesting something that could theoretically survive a nuclear winter is a little unnerving. Here's a preservative-free recipe for the yummy snack cakes you can feel good about.
The Daily Beast
