Iceboxes

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Ayone have ideas for keeping things cold with no electricity? I've been thinking about turning an old refrigerator into an icebox for vegetables. What do you think?

Little Bit farm

-- Little bit Farm (littlebit@calinet.com), June 04, 2000

Answers

How about a spring house?

-- STAN (sopal@net-port.com), June 04, 2000.

Or if you have an old dug well, you can lower down into the well a watertight container with whatever you want to keep cool inside it.

-- Hermit John (ozarkhermit@pleasedontspamme.com), June 04, 2000.

I had a friend who lived in Alaska. They dug a deep hole and covered it with straw and a wooden top. They used that as their refrigerator. Kept the bears out and their food fresh.

-- Pat (pmikul@pcpros.net), June 04, 2000.

I like the spring house suggestion, to be honest. No ice to replace, etc. But I can't see why you couldn't use a fridge as an ice box though, assuming you have a supply of ice all year. You'll have to figure out how to keep the ice up high since the cold air will sink down and over everything below it. And you'll have to figure out how to catch and divert the water as it melts too. I would form a drip pan out of some sheet metal and funnel the melt into some 1/4" tube and out and away.

Have fun and good luck!

-- Eric in TN (ems@nac.net), June 04, 2000.


This won't keep things really cold, but will keep the temp. about ten degrees or so cooler than the ambient air temperature -- make several shelves out of hardware cloth or screen, about eighteen inches to two feet square. You can either frame them with wood, or hang them from ropes, then cover the sides with screen and make a door. Now hang the whole contraption in the shade, maybe under a tree, and place a pan of water on top, cloth (burlap would probably be best) on all sides, and the ends of the cloth in the pan of water. The water will wick out onto the cloth and keep the contents cool(er). This contraption has been in use with variants for centuries. A spring would keep things cooler, but this will work for a while, until you get the spring developed. I don't think the hole in the ground will work as well in Oklahoma as it does in Alaska, though!!

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), June 05, 2000.


Little bit, there is a company which makes a small refrigerator which runs off solar energy, and has no moving parts whatsoever except a couple of small fans for air circulation.

I wish I could give you more info than this, but I only saw these being sold at a craft fair in Roseburg Oregon, almost twenty years ago. Perhaps you can find more info on the net.

The way these thiings worked was THERMOCOUPLES, which give off a cold temperature, when electicity is passed across them if they are wired right. The beauty of the situation is that the sunnier it is, the bette they work, and the more the cooling power is needed, normally.

JOJ

-- jumpoff joe (jumpoff@echoweb.net), June 05, 2000.


My Grandma had an icebox made from on old reefer, the kind with the small freezer box and a single door with a latch. She had a screened drain tube going to the outside instead of in the drip pan. She used it every summer for the overflow veggies and for lots of company. It saved her from having to buy and run another refridgerator that worked just for those few short months when it was needed.

My wellhouse makes a pretty good cool storage. It is well insulated and has three tanks in it that keeps things cool through the summer and above freezing in the winter.

Laura

-- Laura (gsend@hotmail.com), June 06, 2000.


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