Logan_Chicago

I’ve heard people say that the trouble with the world is that we haven’t enough great leaders. I think we haven’t enough great followers. I have stood side by side with great thinkers—surgeons, engineers, economists, men who deserve a great following—and have heard the crowd cheer me instead. I love my profession. I like playing baseball. I love the fans too, but I think they cheered too loudly, and they cheered for the wrong man.

Babe Ruth

Edit: thanks for the gold.

Among the most pointedly sad things I've ever heard.

You're like Spiderman but with pelvic pain instead of webs and spidey senses.

Bill Gates is taking care of the rest.

Nice.

Visual

This is fantastic. Man, I wish there were more products out there to deal with this sort of thing. I mean, everyone owns a refrigerator right?

Okay, so here's the deal. Those freezers are using the refrigeration cycle to cool off the inside of those chests. If you live in a cold environment then it heats up your house which is fine, but if you live in a warm climate then you're essentially heating up your home then using the same cycle (!) to then remove that heat given off again using your AC unit.

First fix (a little bit odd but I've seen it done) - you could use rigid foam like XPS (the pink/blue stuff from Home Depot) to cover the exterior of your freezers further. Taping, 2-layers, and thicker insulation will help.

Second fix - can these chests be located in an unconditioned area like a garage so that they don't heat up your house in the summer?

Third (unrealistic) fix - you use hot water right? Why can't that hot coil (the condenser coil) on the back of your fridge be used to heat incoming water? It'd make the fridge more efficient and lower your cooling and water heating bills all in one. The problem is that marketable solutions for this sort of thing would be complex and you'd need skilled installers. All of which costs money, so typically we just plug stuff in and deal with it.

EDIT: someone mentioned below that additional insualtion could cause a fire. If you can see the condensing coil then it shouldn't be a problem. If you have a chest freezer where the condensing coil is below the exterior sheathing then you can't add additional foam as it would cover the coils and keep the coils from dissipating heat. Basically, you'd have a bad time.

Also, don't know how I forgot this but refrigerators and appliances in general have seen great improvements in energy efficiency in recent years. If you have an old fridge chances are a new one will be far more efficient and they payback period may be fairly short.