I'm planning on purchasing a small AC/DC/liquid fuel portable freezer to make ice, as soon as I can find one. I have an antique icebox which I can use to keep things cool, and am also going to convert one of my built-in cabinets into an olde tyme crawlsace-to-attic cooler. What I'd like to know is whether it would be possible to also use my current (sub zero) refrigerator/freezer as an icebox, by keeping it supplied with ice from the freezer. For some reason I've got this nagging idea that things would get moldy. I wonder how much ice I would need to produce to keep all this equipment adequately supplied.

Y2K, ` la Carte by Dancr near Monterey, California

-- Dancr (minddancr@aol.com), July 05, 1999

Answers

What ja need all that for? Insulin? How often are you going to need to access it and let the cold out? What density/sensativity of packages will you have- will they need to be frozen?

-- Chuck's wife (rienzoo@en.com), July 05, 1999.

Dancr,

I would think it would alot of ice for a regular sized freezer, just restocking the ice would loose all coolness, possibly allowing for partial thawing and spoilage.

Perhaps using your portable freezer to make ice, or refreezing water in milk jugs or some container of smaller size for efficency...using the same water over again (loose ice melts, needs drained and make a general mess). Alot of these very large new coolers have very good insulation. Placed right...shade, set in lined hole in ground, covered with insulation, etc. would keep things very well. Good luck!

-- Lilly (homesteader145@yahoo.com), July 05, 1999.

I do have some medications that need to be refrigerated, and have already bought a very small capacity portable refrigerator to handle that reliably for a six month supply (that's the shelf-life of the medication). I'll be stocking up on a six month supply of propane, for use in a well ventilated garage, for it as soon as I figure out how much will be needed.

I'm not really planning on using the portable refrigerator beyond that time because it seems as though a freezer would be more efficient. I've been thinking, instead of using messy ice (especially since water may be a bit hard to come by), that I would purchase in advance a good supply of coldpaks.

So that the opening of the doors would not release all the cold, I would hope to keep the thermal mass of items to be cooled up. In the case of the crawlspace-to-attic cooler, there would also be the passive cooling to assist in that.

I've been thinking of my future freezer as an entrepreneurial opportunity, or at least a goodwill tool... that if I were to stock up on coolpaks, I could sell or share cold ones, taking warm ones in trade. I would wait to start this up until I thought that solar panels outdoors would be safe from theft and vandalism, only using propane, then as backup for rare cloudy days. Any excess capacity beyond what I needed to keep my own spaces cool could go toward that.

I'm just looking for some guestimates of how large a freezer I might need to keep these spaces cool. I've been unable to find the capacity of my refrigerators, even though I have the literature that came with them. The large one is Sub-Zero model 561... not the largest they have, just an average size refrigerator (or maybe smaller). The other is a very small "wet bar" unit.

It sounds like maybe I shouldn't count on cooling more than just the "wet bar" unit, and using the big one as a vermin proof cabinet. Suppose that would be the last place marauders would look?

-- Dancr (minddancr@aol.com), July 06, 1999.

It doesn't directly address your question, but I did some research a while back on refrigeration. (My Dad's a diabetic.) Thought I would share the following links with y'all: http://www.koolatron.com/model.htm http://www.sunfrost.com/vaccine.htm http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles/hackleman56.html http://www.mrsolar.com/catalogue10.html

-- marsh (armstrng@sisqtel.net), July 06, 1999.

When I was a kid, my Dad managed a ranch on the island of Maui, pretty isolated, went 2 years without power before Dad provided a generator and brought electricity to the ranch 'community' of approx. 5 homes for the first time. I remember having a kerosene refrigerator. My Mother's only complaint was the humidity problem she had with it. I honestly don't recall the freezer capability. Solar could be considered using an AC/DC fridge from an RV dealer and batteries....not cheap, but dependable. Our solar will operate our fridge/freezer without any trouble and was one of the main purposes of aquiring it. Jerky will get old, and none of us are 'weaned', love those dairy products! Winters in our neck of the woods don't reliably provide hard freezes. Good luck friend!

BTW, I still have photos of Dad doing the laundry with a toilet plunger in an enormous cast iron caldron over a fire in the yard! That ranch in all of it's primitive glory, provided me with some of the happiest memories of my childhood and gives me the confidence to face what lies ahead.

-- Will continue (farming@home.com), July 06, 1999.