The Solar Powered Refrigerator – Very Environmentally Friendly

Can you imagine a refrigerator that runs on solar power? Refrigerators and freezers consume a lot of energy though the newer models may be more energy efficient. A solar refrigerator gets it energy from the sun and so does not cost anything to run. The Fridge Factory in Swaziland developed a way of running a solar refrigerator without the use of even a storage battery.

SolarChill an initiative which is part of an international effort to find ways and means of finding refrigeration particularly to store medicines and vaccines in rural areas and places without electricity or without reliable electricity. The refrigerator is powered by a photovoltaic panel, which makes ice when the sun shines. This ice then cools the refrigerator in the night, when there is no sunlight.

The Fridge Factory does not use the chlorofluorocarbons that are known to deplete the ozone; it uses environmentally friendly hydrocarbons instead. The refrigerator uses a direct current (DC) compressor, so the sun’s rays are directly converted to electricity, thus resulting in being more energy efficient.

The refrigerator also features a fan, which circulates the cool air into the cabinet and a thermostat to maintain the desired temperature. As 30 percent of the population of Swaziland is HIV positive the refrigerator is a boon for keeping testing kits and other drugs and vaccines.

This kind of refrigerator can find a great deal of use in many developing countries, which have a great deal of sunlight, but often little or no electricity. People in the western world in remote places, camps, log huts, rural areas can even use it.

Category: Appliances, Power, Solar