2007 - Volume #31, Issue #6, Page #31
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"Off-Grid" Battery-Powered Refrigerators, Freezers
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"LP freezers are designed to store pre-frozen foods, but are not suggested for use in freezing a product," says Vernon Musser, Musser Refrigeration, Goodville, Penn.
The battery-powered freezers Musser sells freeze foods solid and then some. He reports recording freezer temperatures of as low as minus 22¦F.
Musser sells mainly to the Amish community, but also to a variety of other users such as missionaries overseas. He had one customer buy one to take to trade shows for use storing ice cream for sale. Another fellow bought a unit to store fresh shellfish from his dragline on the Chesapeake Bay.
Musser sells both refrigerators and freezers at $1,200 apiece. Both are chest-type units. The SunDanzer 8-cu. ft. units are cooled by energy efficient, brushless DC motor compressors operating on 12 or 24 VDC (volts direct current). Efficiency is maintained with 4.33 in. (11 cm) of polyurethane insulation between the walls of the coated steel cabinets. The very efficient units are sized to run on a single 75-watt solar module.
Musser also sells iceboxes meant for flash chilling of fruit and vegetables. The stainless steel boxes operate off a 3/4-hp, belt-driven, cooling compressor. With the compressor, they average between $4,000 and $5,000.
To use them, about a foot of water is placed in the tank. About three inches of ice builds up on the coils.
"Some claim that chilling with water in an ice bank will keep milk and garden produce fresh longer than putting them warm in an upright or chest-type freezer or refrigerator," says Musser.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Musser Refrigeration, P. O. Box 126, 1583 Main Street, Goodville, Penn. (ph 717 445-6991; www.musserrefrig.com).
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