Keeping vegetables and fruit fresh without energy

by: Mirjam Visser, 2013-10-29 15:40:37 UTC
Sustainability Aspects: 30-45% of vegetables are wasted, partly because of too cold storage. By optimizing storage temperature and humidity by using water vaporization instead of electricity they also save about 30-40% of energy.

OLTU

My favorite sustainable design of the short list of the Dyson Award is the OLTU. The OLTU is intended as a fridge-free way of storing fresh fruit and vegetables. Its creators say that the refrigerator isn’t actually the best device for storing vegetables and fruit. They categorized veggies and fruit in four categories temperature and humidity for optimal storage and went searching for a suitable material which they found in terra cotta. The device is designed to maintain the ideal temperatures and humidity for each temperature/humidity group.

Temperature and humidity is maintained in four different areas by evaporative cooling. Because the room temperature is not enough to reduce the temperature by evaporating they make use of the heat of which is emitted from the back of the existing fridge (which is still used to cool meat, fish and dairy). in this way a smaller fridge is needed and the OLTU addition on top of the fridge saves energy and helps cut food wastage.

Have a look at “Fabios presentation”http://www.jamesdysonaward.org/Projects/Project.aspx?ID=3453&RegionId=0&Winindex=0

Designer: Fabio Molinas
Manufacturer: na
Category: Cooling
Websites: www.jamesdysonaward.org/Projects/Project.aspx?ID=3453&RegionId=0&Winindex=0

Images

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OLTU
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OLTU
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OLTU
by Fabio Molinas

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