Refrigerators are, despite advances in their design, terribly inefficient. Every time you open the door, the cold air comes cascading right out onto the floor. Chest freezers don't suffer from this draft effect, and can be converted into super-efficient refrigerators.

How super-efficient? Energy usage with a chest-freezer-turned-fridge is barely 0.1kWh a day. Modern stand-up refrigerators use around 1kWh a day.

Tom Chalko, an extremely energy-conscious Australian, modified a chest freezer into a refrigerator to cut down on the pull a standard refrigerator would place on the solar/wind system that runs his home. He started off with a simple thermostat to control the on/off cycle of his chest refrigerator, but after becoming dissatisfied with the cheap—and sometimes dangerous—quality of the products, he built his own thermostat timer.

For more information about his journey towards an ultra-efficient, off-the-grid refrigerator, check out his website here.

10 Simple Freezer Tricks to Save You Time and Money (part 2)

It's that time of year again, when our freezers are filled with the summer's bounty in preparation for the long winter months ahead. Get the most out of your freezer, and learn a few of its other uses, with these great tricks.

Freezers are hard working appliances that can do more than just keep your bagged veggies chilled. Try on one of these 10 ideas below and see if you can make it pull double duty, or at least keep it running a little more efficiently:

6. Save Your Hard Drive in the Freezer

A hard drive that is left in the freezer for 24 hours and then quickly inserted back into your machine can make a recovery. Or at least long enough to back things up before it says adios forever. 

7. Tame Freezer Burn to Keep Food Tasty

Freezer burn can get the best of everything in your freezer. To make sure it doesn't happen as frequently, try keeping your freezer at a more steady temperature and keeping out as much air as possible.

8. Make Freezer Jam as an Easy Alternative to Canning

Freezer Jam is an easy way to use up remaindered fruits and doesn't even require a waterbath or any other canning know-how. Just a little pectin. 

9. Convert a Chest Freezer into a Super-Efficient Refrigerator

Chest freezers use 1/10th of the energy that an upright refrigerator does. With the addition of a thermostat, a chest freezer can end up being the ideal place to keep things cool, without freezing them.

10. Frost-Proof Meat with "Drugstore Wrap"

Zip top bags and Seal-a-Meal systems can be time consuming and inefficient. Try kicking it old school and wrap your meats in freezer paper for a frost free freezer experience. 

10 Simple Freezer Tricks to Save You Time and Money (part 1)

It's that time of year again, when our freezers are filled with the summer's bounty in preparation for the long winter months ahead. Get the most out of your freezer, and learn a few of its other uses, with these great tricks.

Freezers are hard working appliances that can do more than just keep your bagged veggies chilled. Try on one of these 10 ideas below and see if you can make it pull double duty, or at least keep it running a little more efficiently:

1. Can I freeze that?

More often than not things can be saved from expiration date, mold or for a later use, by freezing them. But how do you know what can be frozen and how long it keeps? The National Center for Home Food Preservation has done the dirty work for you and made a list!

2. Unstick Plastic Wrap in the Freezer

Plastic Wrap loses it's static cling when placed in the freezer. It will attach to any bowl or plate that needs covering, but eliminates it sticking back on itself.

3. Freeze Ground Meat in Small Portions with a Chopstick

The extra 10 minutes it takes to thaw ground meat in the microwave is time you could have spent doing something else. Eliminate it by pressing a chopstick into the meat on the outside of a zip top bag. It will allow you to break off as much as you need without thawing the entire amount.

4. Preserve Surplus Summer Herbs for Winter Use

Fresh herbs bought from your local grocer can cost more than buying an entire plant. Try chopping and covering them with water, stock or oil before freezing. They'll be ready for any dish, all winter long.

5. Make Your Freezer More Efficient

Freezing used plastic bottles or jugs (milk and orange juice work great) full of water will help keep your freezer at a level temperature and use less energy to maintain it.

How to use your Dishwasher Effectively

Clean your Dryer Duct

While its warm now, its gonna start getting cold soon! Make sure you clean out your dryer duct before it gets too chilly!

Call us at 208-371-8676 and we'll help you do it!