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axelthegerman06/16/20254 repliesview on HN

Solar and battery for refrigeration seems a waste.

If you own a house I'd look into very old school options like digging a deep hole to store your food in a dark&cool place - forgot the name for it but it'll work for weeks or months without a single milliwatt


Replies

card_zero06/16/2025

A "cellar"? :)

Or if you want to get technical I guess "root cellar".

wat1000006/16/2025

That sounds really inconvenient (am I going to keep my food down there all the time, or is the plan to carry the entire contents of my refrigerator down there in an outage?) not terribly effective (RIP all the frozen stuff) and probably not any cheaper. Plus the hole can’t be used for other things like charging my phone.

chairmansteve06/16/2025

Convert a chest freezer into refrigerator and you don't need batteries.

https://www.notechmagazine.com/category/refrigeration

show 1 reply
Dylan1680706/16/2025

It'll work just great to keep half the things in my fridge safe and none of the things in my freezer safe.

Refrigeration is top priority and I would happily buy solar panels just to keep it working (plus leeching a few watts for my phone).