Novel fridge cools with sound

Sounds cool!

(sorry... had to be done.)

I wonder if this means they could be made smaller? It seems like the compressor motor and such take up a fair bit of space in current refrigerators. Maybe smaller cooling machinery could mean smaller appliances with equal storage volume. And, perhaps ironically, maybe they'd be quieter, too.

I'd love to know how the efficiency of this refrigerator compares to a typical household unit.

Edit: Here's Wikipedia on the subject: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoacoustic_hot_air_engine#E...