Super-fridge

Energy-efficient appliances: where to start? It’s a bit overwhelming at first. Began kind of randomly with fridge-freezer gear—preserving food by keeping it cold seems both essential and energy-expensive. The first promising company I run into is Vestfrost, a refrigeration specialist from Denmark. According to dealer literature, “these sleek and popular energy efficient refrigerators are suited for the off-grid home as well as the apartment dweller.” That sounds good! Their Zhape fridge+freezer line has a tiny fooprint of only 2’x2′ (60x60cm), burns about 1 kWh/day, and looks imposingly sleek. Freezer capacity is 3.7 cu ft (105l); the fridge is 7.7 cu ft (219l). Sounds great, but with all that high design and stainless steel, I’m wondering about the price tag! Ahh, US$1,400 (US$1,150 for white).

UPDATE 2016: Somewhere between then and now, this fine looking and well-regarded compact fridge seems to have been discontinued, while the manufacturer, Vestfrost, bought out by a Turkish company in 2008, still exists (focusing on biomedical, merchandising, and wine refrigeration, globally, as well as household appliances in Denmark, in case you wanted to know). Oh well…