Dick,
Have you thought about using two small chest freezers? (electric)
What you do is add a thermostat to one of them to make it a refrigerator instead of a freezer. The nature of it being a top open instead of a front open helps maintain it's temp 1000 times better than a front open.
It would reduce power consumption to aprox. 0.1 kWH / day. It works only about 2 minutes per hour. At all other times it is perfectly quiet and consumes no power whatsoever.
The other chest freezer just use normally. and it'll consume less than 300kwh/year. Maybe less since your average temps in Hawaii will be around 72 deg.
You could also add some extra insulation and silver Mylar heat shield to boost the efficiency.
And the initial cost is cheap as dirt. Sears puts these puppies on sale for 195 bux.
This is what I’m gonna do.
Oh, other things that help are:
When ever you thaw something out, put it in the fridge. Not only is it safer but it will cause you fridge to run less.
When ever you put some thing in the fridge or freezer, make sure it is cooled to room temp. That make your appliance work less.
If you have free space in your freezer, add some water jugs to make ice.
Yes, it cost a few watts to freeze it but it creates a larger thermal mass and your freezer will stay cold logger incase of power outage and you always have tons of ice which some have a belief is good for chilling beer and making ice cream.
Using a pressure cooker saves a ton on fuel.
Using a Dutch oven, you can make a pan of biscuits or cornbread with just e few briquettes or dry sticks.
You can make a very efficient clay stove to burn wood for using a wok or cooking rice.
I have seen really neat ones in the Philippines.
Eating more raw veggies instead of cooking save fuel and it’s healthier.
Save all your used cooking oil and you can make an oil burning stove.
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Greg; We allready do most of what you outlined. Pretty much save the dutch oven cooking for camping. Have cooked with wood before, ya its cheap, but it's also not terribly convienent. Chest freezer are the way to go, if you're organized. If you're not the top stays open to long while you paw thru stuff to find what you want. Even here where elect. isn't exorbitant we keep both the fridge and the freezer full, use 100% CFL and diode bulbs, all energy star ultra-low consumption appliances. Gas for dryer, h2o htr, furnace. 1 trip to store every 7 days. Plan to continue in Puna, only more so, with solar panels in an on-grid tie, 6kw backup. Wanted to nail down propane costs and availablity ahead of time, which the PW'ers as usual have done agreat job on.
dick wilson
dick wilson
"Nothing is idiot proof,because idiots are so ingenious!"
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DickWilson, you mentioned two things about propane which sounded a little scary but I don't know what they mean: maintain a 9" WC at all times; and it can turn any low spot it gathers in into a bomb.
Could you explain? (We have separate 5-gallon tanks for cooktop and fridge)
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WC refers to inches of Water Column, its a measure of the working pressure delivered from the gas valve into the appliance. This value is appliance specific and will be called out in your appliance specifications or installation instructions. This is adjustable by your appliance service installer. With most propane appliances used at elevations above 2000' elevation your installer should also use a combustion gas analyzer for any flame producing appliance to adjust for proper opertion. I would suggest that this be done on any installation to obtain optimum efficiency from the appliance.
Propane is heavier than air and any leaks will settle into a low area, such as a crawl space or tunnel. It is also highly flammable and will detonate if a spark of any sort is introduced into a atmosphere containing propane. I would recommend that any enclosed area where propane could collect from a leak have a combustible gas detector. If you have seperate tanks for each, you should have sufficient line pressure to satify the gas valve, and as long as your tanks have adequate ventilation and are not in an enclosed space, you should be fine. Investigate any propane odor immeadiately, and do not use the appliance or any spark producing device until the source of the odor is determined.
dick wilson
dick wilson
"Nothing is idiot proof,because idiots are so ingenious!"
I am actually fixing to build an ammonia absorption refer that will burn wood.
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"The stuff can turn any low spot it gathers in into a bomb" Taking a page from boat construction, never enclose propane in a non vented area, ventilate, ventilate, ventilate.
There are some really good propane safety systems on the market that use "sniffers" and turn the gas off when propane is detected.
Sky diver leaves the aircraft at 12000 feet, deploys both 'chutes nothing happens. At about 1500 feet he sees a housewife coming up at him - he shouts "hey lady know anything about parachutes" she replies "nope, know anything about propane ovens?"
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quote:
Originally posted by Bullwinkle
There are some really good propane safety systems on the market that use "sniffers" and turn the gas off when propane is detected.
Bullwinke,can you mentioned some of this systems ?
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http://www.fireboy-xintex.com/S2A.html
I like xintex my first one has been in place for 20 years now, still works well.
.. There are others search for "propane monitors" These Xintex units can be had for 200-250$ the list prices are just that.
West Marine stocks them at 275$ , most likely even less through their "port supply" wholesale arm
Note these are 12 volt, with a small wet cell battery and a 12v power supply they will work well off grid as well as backup in case of power failure
