Isn't the energy required to make all that ice, and get it to your house offsetting any energy savings from not having a refrigerator? Not to mention the fact that your food is not being kept at a constant safe temperature and could easily be wasted. Seems like a stunt to me, not a true commitment to saving energy.

Having a chest freezer is no more efficient. They use just as much energy as a fridge. I have to agree that I have a fridge and have less of a carbon footprint because I only buy locally grown foods.

though the couple also admits to having a small freezer in the basement, I don't think this is practical at all for the vast majority of people (especially with kids!). the energy that goes into making the ice that will just be wasted is an issue. as is the fact that you'll have to go the grocery store a lot more often. if you don't live within walking distance, that's a lot more waste. not to mention that many people don't have time. you'll also have to buy smaller items that waste more packaging, and the option of buying in bulk to save money is gone. I do think that many people could use smaller refigerators (come on, do you really need the space to have four different types of jam open at one time?), but elimination is too extreme for many.

while I do applaud people who make serious efforts to be eco-friendly, I wish more articles would focus on aspects of 'being green' that are much more approachable to ease people into it. but I suppose the headlines wouldn't be as attention grabbing.

I also think the woman who took ice home from the ice machine at the office is funny... did her employers know they were paying for her new 'refigeration system'?

what energy does this save? she has to go out & buys ice! no to mention most coolers are made of bad stuff anyway. & ice is made of water, which goes to waste.

just use your fridge. i eat mostly raw, but i use my fridge to hold leftovers & stock a few items so that they LAST longer.

i'm glad people are trying but this kinda extreme stuff is just turning people off green.

also, i'd really like people to think about something. i just moved. i was living downtown in a large city. now i live in the country. i used to be able to walk to the farmer's market or the grocery. now, i have to drive. if you don't live in a city these kinda things make green way more difficult. i'd like to see more articles giving suggestions for non city dwellers. & i can't buy local b/c the mountains are so steep here you can pretty much only have a tiny 1 person plot. we don't even have a whole foods!

Somewhere I read a longish piece about the absurd inefficiency of our fridge placement. In summer, the fridge is generating heat inside our already hot homes. In winter, we're sticking this machine inside our houses that we've warmed instead of out where it could take advantage of the cold.

The argument was that if we positioned our fridges more like ACs, we'd have cooler houses in summer and would spend less energy cooling food in winter. I've since spent a lot of time studying my apartment wondering how you could make that work in a brownstone. You can't. But I still study it.

Why not just get a very small under the counter fridge? We had one of these for most of my childhood in England and did just fine.

foodefafa said:
"while I do applaud people who make serious efforts to be eco-friendly, I wish more articles would focus on aspects of 'being green' that are much more approachable to ease people into it. but I suppose the headlines wouldn't be as attention grabbing."

mariegael said:
"i'm glad people are trying but this kinda extreme stuff is just turning people off green."

You're right. The extreme green folks run interesting experiments that make for better green news stories than folks like myself who reduced my home's energy consumption by 20% last year (and up to 70% during some months) by changing habits & approx $300 of simple home improvements. That's very attainable for the average person but I don't have a lot of media types beating down my door wanting to publicize it. Caulking and weatherstripping, and turning off lights when you leave the room isn't as sexy news-wise as dumping your refrigerator and risking food poisoning.

We were without power for two weeks after Hurricane Ike, so I unwillingly got to try the no refrigerator experiment. Let me just say that I am glad I live now, in the twenty-first century, in a Western country, where we have the things like refrigerators and air conditioning. Fortunately God was merciful and we had unusually cool weather; the highest temperature it reached was ninety degrees, not the usual September highs in the upper nineties and above. For the first few days we couldn't even obtain ice, so I went back to nursing my almost-weened toddler and we survived on non-perishables like peanut butter and crackers. I'm all for doing what you can to conserve resources, but I need my modern conveniences! (Well, actually I suppose this all proved that I don't need modern conveniences, I just really, really want them.)

Fade on Violet reminded me of all those European kitchen designs I've seen with small fridges under the counter. I used to wonder how on earth they managed because I come from a family where buying in bulk and freezing food was the norm because we had a large family. My grandmother actually had two large freezers in the basement in addition to the kitchen fridge.

But living on my own, I see all the space that goes unused and think maybe downsizing would not be a bad idea. Maybe one solution would be an increase in home canning or dehydrating foods to last longer. I've also read on here that root cellars are becoming more popular.

And where are all those green economy entrepreneuers out there that can't design a more efficient fridge?

I live with my partner in a 350 square foot studio in Chicago. It has a full-size fridge which takes up nearly half the kitchen and sticks out into the hallway. It's nearly always empty as my SO and I don't buy frozen foods and go shopping nearly every day on the way home from work so we have fresh food (and so food doesn't get wasted by sitting around and going bad), this is common in Europe, not so common here, I think.

The freezer has ice cubes and a small tub of Ciao Bella sorbet in it, and the fridge has a bag of salad, some soymilk, a bunch of condiments and some onions and potatoes in the produce drawer. It looks pathetically empty and I know it's just sitting there wasting energy.

I'd really rather have an under-the-counter fridge, but I suppose it might not suit the lifestyles of most people.

I really think there's a market for energy efficient smaller fridges in this country. A dorm-type fridge is not quite big enough, because there's no freezer room, but the full-family-size fridge is way more than I need as a single person.

The no-fridge lifestyle would be incredibly wasteful for me, since it would mean I couldn't save leftovers, and I couldn't cook big dishes on the weekend that then serve as lunch during the week.

"We're a New Yorker"--can AT bloggers please stop this? It's just such poor writing. The dumbest one was the "we just moved in with our girlfriend" line in another post. If we insist on using the Editorial We, let's deploy it correctly, shall We?

I agree that not having a refrigerator at all is quite pointless.
I have been living with my much younger sister (not quite 19 years old) for a little over a year. To be honest we have had several fights after she did the grocery shopping and purchased far too much produce than we could consume before it would perish. I can't stand throwing food out but it happened many times. We just moved into a much better home with a refrigerator half the size. While she freaked out and considered it the one draw back I considered it the best feature. She will learn to only buy what she needs and I think that step is far better than an extreme of no fridge.

I considered this for a bit when I thought about canceling my electricity (ridiculous rates). I think you could do it if you buy your food fresh daily or every other day. You would have to buy meat the day you use plan on cooking it. I think it can be done but people don't want to go to the grocery store every day and eat fewer frozen foods.

Where are all these under counter fridges in Europe, I wonder. I live in Europe and have never seen one in a normal house. (Students have them of course, but I have never seen them as 2nd fridges, otherwise.)

If someone could manage to redesign the fridge and sell it at a reasonable price, I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

Like many above, I feel that a full size fridge is a waste of space and electricity for my needs. I'd prefer something narrower in width, taller and shallower in depth than a standard US fridge.

Love the chalkboard fridge. How'd you do it?

I lived without a fridge in college (and no, I didn't have a school cafeteria for meals). But it was a cold climate, so I hung a plastic bag outside the window to keep milk, etc. cold (and often, unfortunately, frozen).

When I graduated to a real apartment, I had one of those Euro fridges that fit under the counter. It was perfectly fine for one person, except that the freezer compartment wouldn't hold a pint of ice cream.

I didn't get a regular size fridge until I had kids. But I still have a non-fridge mentality. At the winter holidays, when I entertain a lot, I keep a haul of frozen Costco party foods in the trunk of my car until I need them. It's Montreal, and believe me, nothing's gonna melt.

As soon as it gets cold enough here in upstate New York, we rotate containers of frozen water between our back yard and the fridge, figuring that the fridge runs a bit less if we help it out that way. Plus, I get a bit of a workout hauling the several liters of water back and forth through the house every few days.

@fisheggs Your post got me on this. That is probably one of the most useful things you could do. Even just filling empty shelves with tubs of cold water is better than anything.

Changing the temperature of empty space is very inefficient. Slowing down air molecules takes a lot more energy than slowing down H2O.

As for me, my fridge is usually stocked full of food, and I live by myself. Most of it doesn't go to waste and half of a shelf is usually dedicated to pre-cooked / left overs. I live in MD, so freezing water to fill up the empty spaces is impractical, BUT, I do my part and usually have a case or two of brews in the bottom of the fridge! ;)

As for refrigerators: if you have one, use it. Keeping two things in it is far worse than stocking it full.

I think the half size, under counter fridge might be the happy medium, if you can swing it. I have two kids under 5 and this would be a challenge, plus we are renters. I like the idea of doing this once we own again and when the kids are a bit older. I think shopping for just what you will realistically eat, a couple of times of week, while a pain is the best way I've found not to waste food and energy. We are fortunate to live 2 miles from a huge farm store that is a locavore's dream.

I had to do this for the last week while I waited for a refrigerator to be delivered to my new house, and my answer is no way could I do it full time. It's pain to have to run to the store every other day for ice and you really can't fit much unless you have a very large ice chest.

To reduce carbon footprints (feetprint?), you're better off doing none of these things and instead foregoing 1 airplane trip.

At certain points in my life I could have made do without a fridge. Traveled a lot, took out the rest of the time (can do easily with one person in a city). But at least a small fridge would have been optimal since I don't eat much and therefore always have a doggie bag to take home.

I've been on a tennis trip where the fridge in our condo broke down, we kept everything in coolers but it was November and cold, I wouldn't trust things in coolers in Hawaii for more than a couple of hours.

I did reduce the size of my fridge in my new space. Never did fill up the old one so figured I'd go smaller. Now have a 32 inch wide instead of a 36 inch.

Examine habits:

Go grocery shopping twice a week.

Plan to use all the items purchased and store leftovers for 3 days.

Drink only water.

Keep fruit on the kitchen counter.

Try a macrobiotic diet of grains, legumes and veges.

Limit animal products.

Limit condiments.

Came across this post while searching for a way to survive without a fridge. I'll be rooming in an apartment without a fridge, not by choice so I have accepted that I will just have to make do. I do not plan to use ice packs as that would be impractical considering my dependence on public transportation.

It has been helpful to read boating and sailing articles, especially Beth Leonard's tips on "Cool Ways to Keep Food Without Refrigeration." She wrote it in 2007 and I find it still valid four years later. What is nice is that she wrote it with the tropics in mind, which is the toughest weather to be without an icebox (I am in the tropics).