Core77

The Groundfridge Pre-Fab Root Cellar

Keep your food cool, without the electricity bill

By Rain Noe - April 27, 2015

in Food | Sustainable Design

Much of our electricity bills are spent countering nature: We turn on lights when it's dark, we make warm things cold, or cold things hot. If we could work with nature rather than against it, both our wallets and the environment would benefit in the long run.

Enter the Groundfridge. Designed by Floris Schoonderbeek for Dutch label Weltevree, whom we last caught at Dutch Design Week, this prefabricated root cellar keeps things at a constant 10 degrees Celsius. Not quite as chilly as the average refrigerator's 40 F (about 4.5 C), but the Groundfridge maintains its temperature using nothing more than the earth you bury it in.

Enter a caption (optional)

Where it really shines is capacity. Made from polyester laminated around what looks to be a plywood core, the globular portion of the Groundfridge is 2.2 meters in diameter. This translates to a whopping 3,000-liter capacity; for scale, a huge American refrigerator with a 30-cubic-foot capacity translates to 850 liters. And again, the Groundfridge stays cool with no electricity (although it presumably uses some to power the included lights inside; the company doesn't mention how those are wired or what sort of lights they are).

Enter a caption (optional)

There's no word on the price, but Weltevree expects to begin shipping them this summer.

Via Inhabitat

o
3

Favorite This
Q
3

Comment

Comments

M Saaaa

9 years ago

Z

1Z

Reply

In Oklahoma, they call these things tornado shelters

!Report as spam
Mike Cheung

9 years ago

Z

1Z

Reply

They should slap a solar panel on the door and light it for "free".

!Report as spam
Danny Bates

9 years ago

Z

Z

Reply

Lucky me, I got to see one of the early prototypes for the double wide version...

!Report as spam