🍃[FESTIVAL] Cooling Monster vs Methuselah🍃

[Quincy]

This topic is part of the Community Center Festival of Sustainability

The original topic was posted in the German-speaking Community Center by @Till-and-Jutta0 and we have translated it below.

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Hosts sometimes tell me how they throw the bed out at the end of the season and buy a new one at a cheap furniture shop. They want to make sure next season's guests have a great stay.

The thinking is right, but disposable furniture is anything but sustainable.

That's why we're constantly looking for more sustainable ways of refurbishing homes. Our latest project involved remodelling the kitchen to accommodate a new fridge-freezer.

Our kitchen is over 40 years old, but the furniture is made of sturdy wood – a branded kitchen “to make women's lives more beautiful” (we found the label on the back of the cabinet – unlike the kitchen itself, a little past its best-before date). I don't think the manufacturer exists anymore, but its products are certainly long-lasting; sometimes all you need to do is swap a hinge:

Photo (1) Label

The fridge and separate freezer are just as old and were basically still in working order (another well-known brand), but they weren't energy-efficient enough for our new power generator on the balcony.

I'd therefore been working on a new fridge for quite a while. The problem: there was enough space for two fridges, but that would be inefficient in terms of storage space and power consumption. And there was no room for a combined fridge-freezer (the previous models were about 70 cm deep):

Photo (2) Test

The matter was tormenting us, however, so we consulted a specialist shop, where we found a new combined fridge-freezer that's only 66 cm deep, and, with an annual energy consumption of 129 kWh, it's the first to achieve energy efficiency class B (in the new European system with updated labels). To put that into perspective, our old fridge consumed 189 kWh/year – and the freezer then came on top of that. Of course, you could argue that you should wait for old appliances to reach the end of their working life instead of just throwing them away. But since we get our weekly batch of Demeter-certified vegetables from community-supported agriculture, we already simply didn't have enough space. I didn't really trust the freezer door, either.

The €150 subsidy offered by our city to exchange appliances did the rest. We still had our space problem, though. So, we rebuilt the kitchen in just a few days. And, thanks to a more clever arrangement (exploiting the previously unused corner), we've even gained space. Of course, it takes a bit of courage, a good saw, and Jutta's meticulous planning:

Photo (3) Before

A chunky wall was robbing us of half a centimetre, so we needed a belt sander and a new vacuum cleaner: 

Photo (4) Conversion

Now our cooling monster fits perfectly in its new home:

Photo (5) After

Photo (5) After

The annual measured and projected consumption so far is 109 kWh (but we haven't got to summer yet). No Frost technology plus two separately controlled cooling circuits contribute to efficient operation, and the spacious crisper drawer for vegetables is fantastic:

Photo (6) Forecast

In summary, this project's sustainability boils down to three points:

1. Space was created to store directly sourced organic vegetables
2. The power consumption was permanently reduced
3. The kitchen was remodelled in a way that saved resources

[Jennifer3225]

@Till-and-Jutta0  This made me chuckle knowing you and how you had to make your fridge fit. Great article, and thank you @Quincy for translating.

When you were on the HAB, you spoke often of the energy crisis which is eye opening for all hosts globally who may not be experiencing this. I think I told you I hosted Germans, who were basically living in the dark last weekend, for fear of wasting electricty.

This is very real.

Jennifer

[Laurelle3]

@Quincy thank you for bringing us @Till-and-Jutta0 topic of Cooling Monster vs Methuselah. In hosts throwing out last year's bed. I think they have more money than sense and bad economic planning.

It is amazing how you can change a space like the Till and Jutta's kitchen to fit the new fridge. Great work!