this post was submitted on 13 Jan 2024
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Discussion of climate, how it is changing, activism around that, the politics, and the energy systems change we need in order to stabilize things.

As a starting point, the burning of fossil fuels, and to a lesser extent deforestation and release of methane are responsible for the warming in recent decades: Graph of temperature as observed with significant warming, and simulated without added greenhouse gases and other anthropogentic changes, which shows no significant warming

How much each change to the atmosphere has warmed the world: IPCC AR6 Figure 2 - Thee bar charts: first chart: how much each gas has warmed the world. About 1C of total warming. Second chart: about 1.5C of total warming from well-mixed greenhouse gases, offset by 0.4C of cooling from aerosols and negligible influence from changes to solar output, volcanoes, and internal variability. Third chart: about 1.25C of warming from CO2, 0.5C from methane, and a bunch more in small quantities from other gases. About 0.5C of cooling with large error bars from SO2.

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We’re over-freezing our food. Turning up the temperature slightly could avoid 17 Mt of CO2 (www.anthropocenemagazine.org)
submitted 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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“This temperature corresponds to 0 degrees Fahrenheit, so it was “probably a round, easy number to remember”

That’s what Allouche and team will be working on next, as they build their research summary into a full report, to be published in September 2024. “These findings give good reasons for ‘3 degrees of change’ to be further explored,” Allouche says.

Three Degrees Of Change: Frozen food in a Resilient and Sustainable Food System (PDF)

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

How many liters do you need to put in the fridge to keep it cold all day with minimal power usage?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

Quick answer to your question: I'm using about 12 liters.

But a good answer depends greatly on some variables specific to your own circumstances:

  • air temperature of your kitchen
  • what's inside your fridge (empty space vs. thermal mass)
  • the size of your fridge
  • how well insulated it is
  • how well maintained it is
  • how often the door is opened
  • how long the door stays open
  • whether the door opens out, or up
  • whether it has both refrigerator and freezer units
  • how cold the ice/water jugs are

I've noticed the fridge consumes more electricity in summer, as we don't have AC, and I keep the house between roughly 54-60F (12C to 15C) in winter. In summer the kitchen ranges from 16C in the morning to up to 33C, although with shading improvements it's now more often 26-27C in summer.

I've also noticed a big difference in the jugs when the overnight low is -26C vs. -6C. At the coldest level, the jugs don't thaw in the fridge for 2 days at least, while a minor freeze gives at most a day of free cooling.

Our fridge is of the style with a refrigerator section above and a freezer drawer below. They are in separate, insulated compartments with their own access doors. I assume that with the ice in the fridge, almost all if not all of the electricity used is to keep the freezer cool.

I'm guessing at the usage based on a couple observations: 1) our LFP battery that we use for the fridge etc. during peak pricing times drains much slower with the ice and 2) the fridge is noticeably quieter with the ice jugs. It would be better to measure for a month with a kill-a-watt tool.