A group of Danes trying to save the word while keeping their Carlsberg cool have come up with a rather useful Green innovation. Earth cooled beer. This completely off grid solution is designed for the backyard patio or garden, relying on a hand crank to move beer from Mother Earth to the imbiber. The group's slogan is Save the world one earth cooled beer at a time and promotes itself with the testimonial "eCool is the greatest gift a man could wish for". No wonder the group can't keep up with demand.
I suspect between Danish love of the outdoors during the summer time, and drinking beer, this is going to be a hit. Hard to say how it'll do outside of Denmark but I have this strong desire to find out if the $350 price tag includes shipping to California.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by ezekielsays on Saturday May 31 2014, @02:21PM
I love the idea, but all my beer is homebrewed and comes out of a corny keg. If I still bought cans, I'd be up for buying one of these (or more realistically, trying to build my own - that's half the fun!).
I do wonder about the effectiveness in warmer climates though. I'm inexperienced with regards to below ground temperatures in places like, for example, Arizona.
Go ahead and play the blues if it'll make you happy.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Saturday May 31 2014, @07:20PM
If you visit the website it doesn't even give a hint of the temperature. It just says 'cool'.
I keep getting reminded of Germany where they drink warm beer. What does a Dane consider cold beer to be anyways?
My threshold for cold is below 50 degrees (F). If a drink a Coke Classic (Mexicana only) I need it 1/2 of a degree above freezing max.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Saturday May 31 2014, @11:25PM
This won't sell well in the US/Canada, where people really do like their beer substantially colder than just about anyplace else. 50 is warm beer by most standards in these parts.
Personally, room temperature is find by me. If the day is hot I like it colder, because beer (any alcohol, really) impairs your body's cooling system.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by evilviper on Sunday June 01 2014, @06:17AM
That would depend on local ground temperature. You can easily find maps of that.
eg. http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/Cooling/EarthTemperatures.htm [builditsolar.com]
They're typically listed for 30ft (~10m) down, though, and this cooler only going maybe 3ft (1m) down will be MUCH closer to local air temperatures, so split the difference.
In summer, in the Mexican deserts, in a location without shade, given the fairly small depth, I'd bet on around 85F (~30C) degrees.
In Canada, during winter, I'd expect sub-freezing temperatures.
Hydrogen cyanide is a delicious and necessary part of the human diet.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by evilviper on Saturday May 31 2014, @02:55PM
Well, that's different... But not exactly in a good way.
Problem is, the next can in-line will usually be warm, as it rests just below the surface where the temperature would be much higher. People will be cranking and cranking this thing, feeling each can, trying to get a cold one that's been near the bottom for a while.
A better model is a bucket on a rope, inside a well... Everything in the bucket stays at the bottom of the well, where it's consistently cool, all the time, until someone raises it up to add or remove the contents.
And for the price I can buy a mini-fringe and pay for the electricity to run it for several decades... or an army of insulated "ice chests".
Hydrogen cyanide is a delicious and necessary part of the human diet.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 31 2014, @03:37PM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 31 2014, @04:03PM
WGAS? I wouldn't trust any random web site that you have to allow scripting to browse it for the details on their product. Be nice if the editors checked for such and flagged them or refused to link such garbage pages that are seemingly like slashvertizements anyway.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by jmc23 on Saturday May 31 2014, @04:24PM
Why not just use a moveable zeer pot?
(Score: 2) by evilviper on Sunday June 01 2014, @06:08AM
The need to keep adding water, the smaller size, and the problem of freezing in winter.
Hydrogen cyanide is a delicious and necessary part of the human diet.
(Score: 1) by jmc23 on Sunday June 01 2014, @04:47PM
The size is as big as you want to make it. Water is when you use it, but if you're really lazy you can always add a drip line.
Winter? Seriously? If you must keep your beer outside, just pack it in snow. It's an insulator you know.
(Score: 2) by evilviper on Sunday June 01 2014, @05:28PM
Building as much capacity as this has, would make for a rather large and cumbersome pot.
If you'd bothered to read TFA, you'd see it's specifically advertised as keeping your beer FROM freezzing. Possibly more important than cooling it, in the far north.
Packing it in snow won't help, at all. Without an active heat source, or being removed to sunlight every day, there's nothing to prevent it from cooling down to freezing temperatures. Besides, that's a lot of (unnecessary) care and labor that could be avoided.
Hydrogen cyanide is a delicious and necessary part of the human diet.
(Score: 1) by jmc23 on Sunday June 01 2014, @05:50PM
So, you've never went camping in the snow have you?
Since you hadn't bothered to read what I wrote, I'll repeat again, snow is an insulator. Leave your eggs on top of snow and they'll freeze, pack them in snow and you just get cold eggs.
As a potter, it would be trivial to hand build a 24 capacity horizontal gravity fed one that's loaded on the top and you pick up your can on the other side. Of course, i'd add fiber to the mix to increase porosity and wicking. Actually, it would be trivial to design for a potter, and trivial to build out of slabs for most children.
(Score: 2) by evilviper on Monday June 02 2014, @12:27AM
I did. Your assertion is just mind-numbingly wrong.
An insulator is not a heater... An insulator only SLOWS the amount of time it takes to reach equilibrium with outside temperatures.
Nope. That can only work, slightly, in the short-term, and only when temperatures are just a small amount below freezing.
Hydrogen cyanide is a delicious and necessary part of the human diet.
(Score: 1) by jmc23 on Monday June 02 2014, @12:44AM
And just how long are you going to hang outside drinking your beer in the winter you fucking idiot?
(Score: 4, Funny) by Gaaark on Saturday May 31 2014, @04:47PM
My fridge is always running... i put some beer in, and keep refilling it when i take some out. Keeps it cool, in a way that doesn't use any more energy than to cool my veges/meat/etc.
But it is cool, and if i had money, would think about buying it... just because it is cool.
.....does it play 'Pop goes the weasel' when you turn the crank and then out "POPS" my beer??? I could have multiple orgasms if that happened, lol!!!!
"Round and round teh beer bush........."
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. I have always been here. ---Gaaark 2.0 --
(Score: 3, Informative) by evilviper on Sunday June 01 2014, @04:44AM
That's not true. There is no "free cold" to be had. Every warm can of beer you put in there, costs a certain amount of electricity. You won't notice it, immediately, as there's so much chilled thermal mass in there that the only symptom is compressor kicking on a fraction of a second sooner than it would without those few warm cans. On a larger scale, with a 36 pack of warm beer/soda cans, you'll find your refrigerator thermostat trips and turns on the compressor almost immediately. A very obvious effect.
Modern refrigeration has a coefficient of performance (CoP) of 3-4, so the electricity it costs to bring your cans of beer down to the set temperature, is only 1/3rd or 1/4th as much as it would take to warm the cold cans up to room temperature with a microwave, hot plate/electric stove, etc., but it still costs energy and money.
Hydrogen cyanide is a delicious and necessary part of the human diet.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Sunday June 01 2014, @01:26AM
( Instead of giving you one link, I preloaded the search keywords into Google... ISAAC is a technology for powering an ammonia absorption refrigeration process directly from the sun. )
I have been looking into scaling this technology for use in the desert, albeit I would not want to try this in a densely populated area for fear of repercussions from any refrigerant leaks.
I feel I am already pushing the limit playing with using propane ( R290 ) as a refrigerant as it has excellent thermodynamic properties, and I can get all I need without pandering for licenses, however due to its flammability, I choose to build the entire refrigeration engine, along with a couple of tons of water in an ice bank ( about 50 cu.ft or so ), outside so if I do get a refrigerant leak, it won't build up in the house with the inevitable explosion. I can always pump the chilled water to inside heat exchangers safely...
Do not read too much into the words "ice bank"... its just a child's wading pool set into the ground with lots of styrofoam sheeting around and over it, making it a decent sized subterranean cooler box... whose "roof" is the floor of an outdoor patio. A little door in the side gives me a place to keep my beer.... The main trick is I never want to freeze the whole thing... just up to 80% or so.. so I always have some liquid water both to pump and to keep the forces of freezing from damaging the container and refrigeration piping.
As a bonus, in the winter, it can be used to store heat from a solar array.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]