great article, and timely, and important in cutting down energy needs. You are so right. Many foods don't need to be friged, so true.

I unplugged my fride here in Taiwan a year ago, and no problem. Your article deserves a wide wide readership in Western countries. The rest of the world already knows this.

Good reporting!

Nathalie Jordi,
I've referenced your very imortant article over the Dot Earth blog at the New York Times by Andrew C. Revkin today. It's a blog post he did on solar energy, a good post with a good idea from a top solar reseacher.

But one commenter, Daniel Bell, in comment no. 3, said it well, too:

"Meeting our needs with less energy is the lowest-cost, highest payback option. While pro-solar Prof. Nocera's examples clearly show that our other renewable options aren’t sufficient to meet our long-term needs, it also is firmly locked in a linear world view. I’m going to want some cold beer this weekend, and I don’t care if my refrigerator takes 10 watts or 1000 watts to keep it cold."

See his comment and others and reference to your good article at Plentymag.com here:

http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/27/all-energy-roads-lead-to-the-sun/#comment-19483

http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/27/all-energy-roads-lead-to-the-sun/

Useful info! In approaching this issue, though, a little historical perspective on the technology itself couldn't hurt. The actual story behind this appliance may come as a surprise to many readers:

"REFRIGERATOR: An insulated cabinet whose interior is kept cool by mechanical means. Refrigerators came to be known as 'iceboxes' when it was discovered that blocks of ice stored inside them remained frozen longer than in the traditional straw-lined pits formerly blasted deep into the bedrock beneath every American household. But the real refrigeration revolution began when the device proved capable of preserving food as well. Soon every family was setting aside a little room among the ice blocks for food. This allotment steadily grew, until in time the age-old dietary-ice-to-food ratio had been turned on its head. By the beginning of World War II, the average American ate a larger amount of food than ice. Ice manufacturers attempted to revive interest in their product by incorporating bran or foie gras into it, but by then even schoolchildren showed a marked preference for items such as sandwiches, which contained ice in only trace amounts."

from The Devil's Food Dictionary

While this is an interesting topic, there are many holes in the research. How is leaving eggs or cheese on the counter going to help to reduce energy consumption? Your fridge is still the same size. You still need to use it, so it's still consuming the same amount of energy. Plus, by not refrigerating animal products, you risk food poisoning.

According to Canada's Egg Council, eggs DO need to be refrigerated and you need to place them in the middle of the fridge for best temperature control: http://www.eggs.ca/eggfacts/eggstore.asp Improperly stored eggs can be contaminated with salmonella, Lisctera or other bacteria, which, when eggs are served uncooked, as in Sunny-side up, can lead to serious food poisoning.

Cheese should also be refrigerated if it is soft, semi-soft or if it is unfermented. These cheeses spoil quickly. While best served at room temperature, these cannot be stored out in the open.

Also, I wonder what people who live alone are supposed to do? I don't have any choice but to buy 12 eggs at a time and without a refrigerator I'd be throwing out a lot of food and spending as much money as a family of four. How that is eco-conscious?

Girloplenty raises a good question: how is leaving eggs or cheese on the counter going to help reduce energy consumption if your fridge is still the same size? In fact, as paradoxical as this seems, having a more empty fridge RAISES energy consumption. The fridge has to work much harder to keep empty air space chilled, whereas a fridge full of food acts as insulation that retains the cold. The more full your fridge, the colder the interior stays on its own. So, unless you are planning to trade down to a tiny fridge, keep yours as full as possible to keep energy consumption down. Also, every time you open the door, you raise the temp inside. So it makes sense to keep to a minimum the amount of time the fridge door is open.

Obviously, taking things out of your fridge doesn't shrink it--and as planeterri pointed out, an empty fridge takes more energy too cool than a full one. However, I was arguing in favor of smaller fridges, not empty ones.

Yes, Canada's Egg Council recommends refrigerating eggs, but I think North Americans are one of the only cultures that refrigerate eggs as a matter of course. Unless my kitchen were really hot, I would feel totally safe leaving eggs out. In the highly unlikely case that an egg was going to give me salmonella, it would have made absolutely no difference whether or not it came out of a fridge.

Also, I wouldn't consider moldy cheese spoiled--I'd just cut off the moldy bit and carry on. I do tend to refrigerate soft cheese if I'm not planning to eat it immediately, but hard cheese survives quite well on the counter, in waxed paper--again, if the kitchen isn't too hot. If I saw the cheese getting sweaty faster than I could eat it, I'd put it back in the fridge.

Leaving cheese out means I don't have to wait for it to come up to room temperature, which is when it tastes best. I tend to just buy small pieces, often, and eat them quickly, while they're at their best.