Environmental Friendly Refrigerators

Narrator: There's a new type of fridge in the shops and it’s powered by
lighter fuel. Lighter carbon fridges don’t destroy the ozone layer in
the atmosphere, the CFCs and they don’t have the global warming
with CFC substitutes.

Uta Rodenhauser: So, what you can see here is a hydrocarbon fridge. A new product,
stainless steel as far as you see, we offer free as a section above
with temperature of -18 degrees. We have the cooling section
down hear, to put your daily needs inside, what you need for today.
Its temperature is between two and 11 degrees. And the almost
new thing called “almost zero technology” and the big advantage
of this zero degree technology is that it keeps everything fresh
three times as long.

Narrator: CFCs were once industries wonder chemicals until science
discovered that they destroy the protective ozone layer. The
solution has been to take technology back to the future. There's
nothing new about using hydrocarbons such as butane in fridges.
The very first ones used it in the 1930’s. The same chemical that
are in cigarette lighters are use to keep fridges cool on the inside
and to make sure that they stay that way with special insulation.

What is new is the way fridges are made. Converting to
hydrocarbon fridges means makers such as Germany’s Bosch
Siemens have had to guard against one thing, the risk of explosion.
The fridges themselves are inherently safe once they're built. It’s
just the building them needs care.

Kurt Reiz: We have HC detectors to make sure that we have no leakage into
the ground level. The whole factory, we have smoking prohibition
and we have an alarm system which was sound when we reach
20% lower explosion limit and we will evacuate the whole area
when we reach 40% of the lower explosion limit. But this whole
safety procedure does not apply to our customers because all of
ours fridges and freezers are inherently safe.

Caption: Special care is taken when hydrocarbons are blow into the fridge.
The fridges are designed so that all parts that could spark are kept
well away from parts that could leak hydrocarbon gas.

Narrator: Environmentally conscious consumers in Germany have been a
driving force of a change. The transformation has been so
successful that in the European Union countries, you soon will be
able to buy a fridge that uses chemicals that destroy the ozone
layer or warmed the globe.

Already, there are over 20 million hydrocarbon fridges worldwide.
Transfer of European technology has enabled to hydrocarbon
fridge manufacture to start in China. India is set to join them and
together China and India are likely to become the world’s biggest
markets for environmentally sound fridges. Hydrocarbons are
cheap, widely available and the fridges just as efficient as the old
CFC polluting versions. Invest in the future, convert to a
hydrocarbon fridge.