[Greenbuilding] Refrigerator cabinet?

[Speireag Alden]

On 2007, Dec 12, at 23:50, Keith Winston wrote:

> How about a fiberglass door, with an extra gasket on the inside,  
> and 2" (or more? the door will already be insulated) added to the  
> outside. Rather big access...

     Now, that's a very interesting idea.  It could be a cut-down  
door, too, since presumably one doesn't need an entire door's worth  
of aperture.

     Or, thinking as I type, you could put the door horizontally and  
lift it upward to open, perhaps with line-and-weight on a pulley to  
make opening and closing easy and gentle.  Such a door would give  
easy access to a large horizontal storage space.  It seems that all  
my time in refrigerators is spent leaning and peering.  One thing I  
like about an annual fridge is that the most efficient cold storage  
using planar materials is a cube, but the most efficient access shape  
is a not-very-deep rectangle.  In an annual fridge, all the thermal  
storage gets put toward the back, so that even with a reasonably  
cubicle storage space, you still have not a lot of depth for access.   
Rather than let things get lost at the back corners, everything is  
visible and accessible.  You just need to make it big enough to hold  
the biggest thing you're going to put into it without deconstruction  
(half a pizza, perhaps, or your biggest soup stock pot).

> Alternatively, a series of drawers. I've been sorting my way  
> through that design. Probably harder to DIY. I was thinking of VIPS  
> for insulation, which is the big thing in refrigerators these days.

     I've thought of the drawer idea, and I like it.  There are some  
minor technical problems with lighting each of several small,  
enclosed spaces.  My current thinking is to stay away from drawers,  
since I want to encourage inspection from the outside before opening  
the inner door.  But there's no reason that the space couldn't be  
divided into multiple access points, with walls between each.   
Essentially a series of large dorm fridges...

     Hm...

-Speireag.