Wind Powered Freezer / Refrigeration 

In much of the world people are without electricity to operate refrigerators.  This makes it difficult to keep perishables such as milk, eggs, meat, etc.    The same problem occurs even in the USA after major hurricanes until power can be restored.

Our Solution

Our wind powered freezer  is designed to alleviate part of this problem by converting the wind energy directly into cold energy.  These units start with freezers from 1 cubic foot and can keep their contents frozen with 3 hours per day of 8 MPH winds.  The specially designed turbine blades make it possible install on existing rooftops without requiring ugly and expensive support poles.

The basic unit is a 5 cubic foot freezer that is entirely powered by wind energy. It uses no electricity and as such is immune electricity failures and is much less expensive than traditional solutions which rewquire  PV  (Photo Voltaic) solar pannels plus batteries and a 12 volt refrigerator.  

This design directly converts the wind energy into chilling energy using mechanical compression without going through an intermediate alternator / motor arrangement.  This allows the system to be cheaper, lighter and more robust other renewable based refrigeration strategies.

Ideal for

• Hurricane areas subject to loss of power.
• Off grid refrigeration.
• Areas Frequent power outages.
• Large scale refrigeration in windy areas
• Freezers for isolated fishing villages

Details

• It can optionally provide refrigeration
• Can be up to 200 foot away from the freezer box allowing the wind collector to be mounted on the roof and the freezer inside the house.
• Optional housing can also provide refrigeration.
• Works during dark stormy weather where Photo Voltaics fail
• Cheaper than Photo Voltaic solar panels and electric fridge.
• Maintains freezer box at 25F or below on 3 hours of wind 8 MPH per day.
• Easily withstands 70 MPH winds.
• Easy install with simple tools
• Horizontal wind collectors require only 2 vertical foot of space on roof.
• Only needs 2 small tubes ran from wind collectors to freezer box.
• Powered entirely by wind energy.
• Needs no electricity.
• Immune electricity failures.
• Mount wind collector on roof keep freezer in house.
• Wind collector can be hundreds of feet away from the freezer box
• Does not use any refrigerant
• No caustic chemicals needed.
• No electric grid needed
• No Generator or messy fuel needed.
• Will not drain batteries

Pricing

• 3 cubic foot chest style freezer available Large quantity available to distributors at $250 each.
• Additional sizes available.
• Additional shapes available.

Background

This design has shown a 70F drop in temperature with 8 MPH winds and has withstood winds over 50 MPH with no damage. It does not use any refrigerant or other caustic chemicals.   We have had very good results from horizontal wind collectors that can be mounted on roofs in less than 2 vertical foot and are very light weight. This makes it relatively easy to have an indoor freezer or fridge powered by outdoor wind and only needs a couple of tubes running in-between.   There is no  electricity involved so the cold is stored in the form of a human safe antifreeze solution.

Wind energy is sporadic so we store excess cold in the form of an interior liner filled with a human safe propylene glycol solution that freezes at 15F.    The low phase change temperature helps keep the food below freezing even during extended periods of no wind.    During extended periods of very strong winds the stored cold can easily reach -15F which allows it to keep the food frozen for even longer.

For users living in hurricane zones we recommend that you move perishables from your standard electric freezer into our wind powered freezer prior to the start of the strong winds.  This allows these items to absorb additional cold during the windy portion of the hurricane.

The basic freezer can also act as a refrigerator simply by building an insulated housing around the freezer.   A XDOBS version with special fittings to regulate the temperature in the refrigerator compartment is available at additional cost and can be built in at distributors request.

The anti freeze solution for storing cold is somewhat heavy so the base units are shipped without the anti freeze installed.     It is easily added to the unit from 1 gallon jugs which are available world wide.  XDOBS can provide the propylene glycol at distributor request  however it is generally cheaper to buy it from a local source.

For areas with extended power outages combined with extended periods of inadequate wind it is possible to operate unit with a more dense Propylene Glycol solution which causes the fluid to absorb more cold prior to freezing.   It is also possible to obtain a unit which can utilize 12V DC power to extend the cooling life during extended periods of no wind.