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An earth-cooled beer dispenser

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41–50 of 77 posts

Re: An earth-cooled beer dispenser

#43

Given that I don't choose a bigger fridge specifically to store beer in, and I tend to have, say, 4-8 bottles of beer in the fridge at any one time, and I wouldn't store anything else in the fridge to replace it, and a fridge becomes less efficient the emptier it gets ... is this really a good idea?

Maybe it's not built for your home where you have electricity and a fridge. Maybe it's built for your lakeside getaway where you go camping with the family every summer.

I suppose I can but dream :-) Seriously, I didn't mean to sound so negative in that original comment, I just really wanted an excuse to install this in my back garden!

Re: An earth-cooled beer dispenser

#44
post #6
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depending on location, ground temperature tends to stabilize once you get a few feet down. Here in the northeast United States, it's about 60 F year-round once you get 15 feet below the surface. I worked for a company that was making direct-exchange geothermal heat pumps for homes - think about a big refrigerator whose coils are buried in the soil.

(About 15,5 °C)

Makes for a great lukewarm british ale :)

Re: An earth-cooled beer dispenser

#45

Interesting. At our family lake house, we've been putting beverages in a net with a rope and dropping it to the bottom off the dock. They always come up cold :)

Haha I imagine this works really well in most places. If I tried this in Florida I think I'd pull up a pile of green sludge with my beer.

Use your pool instead of the canals?

Re: An earth-cooled beer dispenser

#47
post #18

It might be a translation issue, but "well insulated" seems like exactly what you don't want for this sort of cooler. Maybe they mean the top is well insulated while the bottom is not.

Keep in mind its Google's translation, what they probably meant is there will be no dirt on your beer when you pull it out.

Re: An earth-cooled beer dispenser

#48

Given that I don't choose a bigger fridge specifically to store beer in, and I tend to have, say, 4-8 bottles of beer in the fridge at any one time, and I wouldn't store anything else in the fridge to replace it, and a fridge becomes less efficient the emptier it gets ... is this really a good idea?

What about the people who sit outside with a case of beer in a cooler with ice? Instead of buying a couple bags of ice a month, they use this instead.

Now is it a good idea?

Re: An earth-cooled beer dispenser

#49

I guess this is awesome if you really like drinking 55-60F beer. Otherwise, this is luddite technology designed to appeal to ecotards.

Exactly. The ground is usually 58F. I remember reading about this in a thermal home book. (If you effectively bury 3/4 of your house, you only ever have to warm it to 70F from 58F.) It's actually somewhat funny. Did they think there were ice cubes under the grass when the designed this?

AFAIK, the ground temperature will be the average air temperature over the year. It's certainly not 58F everywhere, because in Siberia there's permafrost, and in Denmark might likely be less than 58F, too.

Re: An earth-cooled beer dispenser

#50
post #21

I guess this is awesome if you really like drinking 55-60F beer. Otherwise, this is luddite technology designed to appeal to ecotards.

True dat. Half frozen Corona is the rx for summer heat. And once you've been in a quick mart beer cave on a 100 degree day......

I'd wager Denmark never gets anywhere near 100F...
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