anyone know much about electric refridgerators as raised beds?

I had a friend who works on propane fridges give me a couple he already pulled all the unneeded things out of and left me with a medium size rv fridge to use as raised beds. I plan on wrapping them with reclaimed wood to enhance aesthetics.

My concern is ... could someone who is reasonably handy pull the parts from a landfill-headed electric model without releasing horrible things into the air? OR do I need to have a specialist involved to keep the EPA happy and everyone healthy.

My end goal is to be able to have loads of these in a greenhouse, and run some Jean Pain compost heated water thru the beds to greatly extend my season.

There is a video on Youtube of a permaculture guy who used fridges for growing containers.

The freon thing I regard as another scam. You might tell refridge repair places you will pick up old ones and see what they say about the gas thing, and how the bureacrats regard the situation.

I heard of a guy who had a dead chest freezer.  He dug a big hole, dropped it in.  Now he uses it as a root cellar!

MMC11 wrote:
There is a video on Youtube of a permaculture guy who used fridges for growing containers.

The freon thing I regard as another scam. You might tell refridge repair places you will pick up old ones and see what they say about the gas thing, and how the bureacrats regard the situation.

this guy? [url=http://youtu.be/62ge_AqaVtM]

http://youtu.be/62ge_AqaVtM

This idea is so rad, no? I am gonna call my local appliance store and see if they remove all the junk and I can just pick them up. I would so love to fill up a trailer with em. maybe use them to help build terrace walls too?

good as worm bins too? keep out temperature swings maybe? I remember at a worm farm i visited, they had to use rope light to keep the soil warm enough in the winter. perhaps with a lid on, but slightly opened, it would use less energy to keep the ideal temp?


aaaaaand upon further investigation, Someone HAS had my idea before as well on this one. nothing new under the sun! literally. (it is solar thermal heated) http://www.redwormcomposting.com/the-share-board/tina%E2%80%99s-outdoor-worm-bin-experiment/

HI CASEY. 

Yes, that's the video.

Thanks for the worm one.  i have been wondering how to do that, how to keep worms ove rthe winter.

you betcha! I suppose the worms wouldn't mind some jean pain heat in there either in the winter? I just need to find someone willing to dump a load of woodchip and horse manure for me.

Have these been used in earthship houses? I have a feeling the R value would "stack up" well.

MMC11 McCoy wrote:There is a video on Youtube of a permaculture guy who used fridges for growing containers.

The freon thing I regard as another scam. You might tell refridge repair places you will pick up old ones and see what they say about the gas thing, and how the bureacrats regard the situation.

in the us, older fridges had freon but in 1987 the montreal protocol banned production of hcfc's including freon r22 and started a phaseout process, that will be complete in 2020. most fridges nowadays use ammonia as the coolant, but if you're only doing ten or twenty fridges, you can take the whole thing apart without opening the pipes up, i've done it with minifridges before, not too difficult, there's probably some youtubing to do there, but here's actual data on the freon stuff

"January 1, 2010: By this date there would be complete ban on the production and import of R22 and R142b. However, there is exception for the on-going servicing needs of the existing plants and equipment.

January 1, 2015: By this date there would be ban on the sale and use of R22. There is exception for certain cases, including the serving needs of the existing refrigeration and air conditioning equipment." this is from a quick google search. good luck, and keep us posted!