College Kid Perfects the Pot Fridge
If you live in a primitive environment, like a desert, modern amenities aren’t going to do you much good. A refrigerator would come in handy, but what are you going to do, plug it into your camel!
However, rural farmers in Nigeria, who don’t have access to water, electricity or even transportation, have been refrigerating things for years.
They use a simple contraption. One big pot, with a small pot placed in the middle, wet sand goes in between the two and as the water evaporates it cools whatever’s in the center pot.
And now, a British college student has modernized the contraption.
Unlike the third-world fridge, 21 year old, Emily Cummins’s supped up version is made with metal cylinders, wire mesh and wood, but it works the same way. In between the cylinders is some sort of wet absorbent material, like soil, wool or sand, and evaporation does the rest.
The sustainable refrigerator requires no electricity and can keep foods, like meat and milk, cool for days, holding steady at about 43 degrees Fahrenheit; The Guardian reports.
I don’t know how practical it is, especially since you have to keep rewetting the sand. Also, it kind of looks like a birdfeeder.
Via EarthFirst.
