Homestead fridge / root cellar.

[TeeDee]

Thinking upon what the average person could do if they needed to keep food, liquids, medications cool/cold in the most expedient fashion in case of a longer term lack of electricity.

How easily and quickly could you fashion a 'cold storage' and how would you do it? I have my own ideas but interested in hearing what others have to suggest.

 

[Toddy]

Well the usual before folks had a fridge was a bucket of water and a teatowel over the top...the teatowel was placed so that it just and no more wicked up water....it actually works by evaporation to cool the contents of the bucket. Folks used it to keep bottles of milk cold and fresh. Butter and cream were put into jars and treated likewise.

We wouldn't recommend it now for meat, but in my childhood we had neighbours who kept opened (it's sealed with a layer of fat, as used to be the norm on cans of cold meat, corned beef) potted hough in the same way during the heat of Summer.

 

[Woody girl]

When I was a kid, we had no fridge, but we had an outside larder on the north side of the house, we used the bucket and tea towel method for milk. Often had to chip the milk bottle out of the ice, then defrost the milk on winter mornings!
It works better if you have a North facing cool room inside the house.
My family never had a fridge untill the mid seventies, so it's a time tested method.
I used to have a plan for an evaporation fridge made from a box with holes , I lost it years ago, but there might still be something out there on the Web.
Look into amish methods. They won't use electric or gas, so that's where I'd go for ideas.

 

[British Red]

Root cellars are very hard at sea level. The old notion of apple stores works incredibly well though.

 

[TeeDee]

I'm thinking a more simplistic solution ( as I have one to hand ) is to bury my oldschool heavy galvanised dustbin upto just below the lid. Ground here is quite moist and shaded by trees and I think it should keep foodstuffs, liquids and medications quite cool.

 

[Broch]

It depends how much storage you need. A modern 50L compressor 12v fridge consumes about 20Ah per day - so, at 12v that's less than 300wh which can easily be supplied by a single solar panel and a 12v battery. OK, if you used it to freeze food it would consume more power.

My own Engel fitted in the Defender only consumes around 12Ah per day keeping food to around 5C at an ambient of 25C. So, that will keep the Peroni cold for a good week without a charge up (as some people on this site know!).

 

[TeeDee]

It depends how much storage you need. A modern 50L compressor 12v fridge consumes about 20Ah per day - so, at 12v that's less than 300wh which can easily be supplied by a single solar panel and a 12v battery. OK, if you used it to freeze food it would consume more power.

My own Engel fitted in the Defender only consumes around 12Ah per day keeping food to around 5C at an ambient of 25C. So, that will keep the Peroni cold for a good week without a charge up (as some people on this site know!).

Yep - solar panels are indeed a useful thing to have. I guess I was directing to the more old school root cellars / ice houses / low-tech options for achieving the same sort of result with more basic means.

But thats ok , you come in here with your flash ideas and flash equipment drinking your expensive foreign lagers. typical !!

 

[Woody girl]

I'm thinking a more simplistic solution ( as I have one to hand ) is to bury my oldschool heavy galvanised dustbin upto just below the lid. Ground here is quite moist and shaded by trees and I think it should keep foodstuffs, liquids and medications quite cool.

Just don't fall in when you try to reach something at the bottom of the bin! I have a mental picture of a pair of legs sticking out of the bin, waving frantically!
Covering in earth might work, but they will rust eventualy in a damp environment. I have one in my garden that has rusted through. Maybe some tyveck or similar round it would help that problem? No idea on that.
I think I'd go for a terracotta pot inside another larger one, with water maybe some ice between them, you have the insulation and cooling water wicking effect of the terracotta .
Obviously you need some sort of lid too, so I'm thinking a terracotta pot saucer that fits over the top.
So many ideas out there on yt.

 

[Pattree]

In my childhood, the pantry was on the approximately north side of every house in the road. This wasn’t as simple as it sounds as the road was an oval.
What made it a pantry rather than a cupboard was a huge thick slate shelf.
Underneath, the buckets could be stood in a big zinc tray and covered as above.

 

[bearbait]

From Richard Graves' Bushcraft...



See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coolgardie_safe