Winner of the James Dyson award, and revolutionising the way in which we store vegetables, Italian inventor Fabio Molinas’ Oltu aims to make everyone’s life easier, and not to mention greener, by providing a vegetable storage space with a very innovative and eco-friendly twist.
Oltu is a vegetable storage device which sits on top of your fridge, using energy from the fridge to cool any vegetables inside. The product is designed with various aims in mind. Indeed, Molinas has sought not only to create a new food invention which will provide optimal conditions for vegetable storage, but has also made it his mission to do this in a very environmentally friendly way whilst also educating people about just what it takes to keep vegetables nice and fresh.
Oltu: not a bad thing to have on top of the fridge
The energy wasted by our fridges is not something which often springs to mind, right? Well it is for Fabio Molinas. As he himself says, people these days are obsessed with keeping vegetables in the fridge, whereas, in reality, vegetables require a specific set of conditions, in accordance with their proportions, and do not in fact need the ultra cool and energy-sapping conditions provided by a fridge.
The Oltu storage unit uses the heat produced from the back of your fridge and, through the technique of evaporation cooling, uses this heat to cool the vegetable rack. As the heat rises from the fridge, it comes in contact with the double wall of the clay containers found in the device. Here, the water is cooled before rising up into the Oltu storage facility itself. The result? Fresher produce for longer.
Here’s to a greener future
Amongst the benefits offered by Oltu, the most significant, and presumably the reason behind its triumph at the Dyson awards, relates to its green approach to vegetable storage. Not only would Oltu allow families across the world to buy smaller fridges, but these fridges would also waste no energy, as the heat produced would be used by Oltu.
Anyone using Oltu will not simply get a storage facility, they will also get an education on vegetable storage. Oltu does not simply provide a cool temperature for the vegetables. The conditions provided are tailored to the produce inside, which incidentally, and pleasingly, means less enery cosumption. It is this educational component which could change people’s food storage habits forever.
Learn about your vegetables
Whilst the modern day world is increasingly concerned with the environment, and with creating products which can reduce our carbon footprint, there are not many who realise the importance of educating people in the methods of energy saving. What makes this project truly special is the inventor’s desire to inform people that vegetables can be perfectly preserved without having to use the amount of energy previously thought necessary. In fact, they can be preserved more effectively with less energy!
And so to sum up. Simply put, products like Oltu, incidentally entirely deserving of the James Dyson award, are vital for a greener future, with an emphasis placed not only on technology, but also on a far more important element – people. Long may this way of thinking continue!
So do you think the Oltu would have a place in your kitchen?
Source: Oltu
