Refrigeration by removing oxygen?

Question

I know refrigerators are already nearly air-tight...

Which made me think...don't bacteria need oxygen and/or other gases in the atmosphere to live?

And...if there was any way to drain such gases from a refrigerator IE like it is done in food-canning...could you have a fridge that sits for months, even with no electricity, and still keeps bacteria from growing on/in the food inside it?

Could it work and, if so, what would likely be an efficient method to drain the air inside the refrigerator (and, perhaps, deploy food you ask for while letting a minimal amount of air back in IE through a submarine-type escape chamber)?

It just makes me wonder...my refrigerator is about the most inefficient appliance in my home beside my a/c...you'd think a fortune could be saved inventing a technology to make a near-electricity-less fridge...

Answer 1

evaporation is the key to cooling, my father used to tell a WWII tale of getting cases of beer but no way to cool it, until a Jr officer from new York sowed them hoe to use a gas tank filled and with holes aligned to the bottle caps, the gas was allowed to drip slowly onto the caps, or bottles, dad said it really didn't take that long and the beer was really cold

Answer 2

It's really the cold that is important for a refrigerator because the cold slows the growth of bacteria.  Removing the oxygen, but not cooling the food would lead to the growth of anaerobic bacteria.  Botulism, for example, is an anaerobe.  Anaerobes in general are responsible for a lot of the bad smells in life.  Nasty farts, for instance, are caused by anaerobic fermentation in your intestines.  What you would create with your oxygen-free, room-temperature device is an incubator for all sorts of nasty microbes.  It would smell, in very short order, like, well, um .... it would smell bad.  

Refrigeration technology is very inefficient, but getting better.  Refrigerators are not nearly as bad from an electricity perspective as air conditioning since the volume of a refrigerator is tiny compared to a house and a refrigerator is much better insulated that a house.  If you are truly concerned with saving power, learn to live with the air conditioner thermostat at a warmer temperature.