Ice Houses

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I was wondering if any one has built and used an Ice house. We are thinking about making one of these. It will be in the northern climate. Let me know how well it worked... Do you think it will serve as a fridge in the mild summers? We are trying to be able to not have to use any kind of gas or electricity. I thought if we built an Ice house, it would cost less than a new LP fridge and then we wouldnt have to buy LP . Thanks for your help Ginny Davis http://goin.missouri.org/~yehagirl/property.htm

-- Ginny Davis (yehagirl@goin.missouri.org), November 19, 2000

Answers

Have no experience except what I have read. I think the inner and outer walls were a foot or more apart and filled with something like sawdust as insulation. Knew a guy in CO who built one under his porch. Filled it with ice during the winter by letting 5-gallon plastic buckets freeze solid. These were then brought indoors until they had melted just enough for the block of ice to slip out.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), November 19, 2000.

We had a neighbor's ice house next to us years ago. It was very large, about the size of a normal 2-car garage, and they cut ice every winter and filled it, then added sawdust on the ice. It lasted into July that way, but not beyond. The house was not insulated in any other way, so you might be able to extend the ice life that way. This was in northern Wisconsin. It's a lot of work cutting ice -- have you ever tried it? And those ice blocks are darned heavy!! They used to use a draft team to sledge them up from our lake, but the doggone things weigh at least as much as a concrete block the same size. Not to discourage you if that's what you want to try, but I'm not sure you'd save much on actual costs. I may be wrong. Some people now cut it with chainsaws instead of the old ice saws, but that spits a lot of gasoline onto the ice.

-- Julie Froelich (firefly1@nnex.net), November 19, 2000.

Friends of ours in Alaska had built an ice house, as they didn't have electricity. The building was partly underground. I can't remember if it was log, or insulated, but either would work. In the coldest part of the winter, they opened the building up, and filled the floor area with water about a foot deep (this was a project in itself, as they were hand-pumping their water). As it was way below zero, the water promptly froze. They then covered it with several feet of sawdust, and used the building as a freezer for the rest of the winter, then in summer buried stuff in the sawdust next to the ice to keep it cold. Their ice lasted all summer, but summer is pretty short up there!! Anyway, it saved having to haul ice blocks from another location -- if you have running water, it would make filling the ice house a lot easier. But the weather needs to be below zero if possible.

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), November 20, 2000.

My mother says that that ice house had double walls after all, and that they were filled with sawdust too. I just went in there to cool off...

-- Julie Froelich (firefly1@nnex.net), November 21, 2000.

Sawdust certainly is the cheapest way to go but it does settle. Rigid foam is much better, the thicker it is the better too. We built an ice house years ago in NY. we used 4" thick foam we bought from a boat company, it was used for floatation. Cutting ice is a lot of work but you can make a form to make ice blocks, a couple of days of below zero weather will give you a years supply of ice, make sure they aren't so big you can handle them. In Bradford Anguer's book, "How to build yout Home in the Woods" he calls for 2" of sawdust in the walls and roof, north facing and shaded if possible.

-- Hendo (OR) (redgate@echoweg.net), November 21, 2000.


we have a very old ice house on our property that the oldtimers tell me supplied ice for the entire town for many many years and that lasted for the whole summer (in northern CT).

it has about 1 1/2 ft space between a very thick outer wall and a thin 1/2" inner wall. the space was filled with sawdust. theouter walls are just roughcut lumber but very thick-- maybe 4 inches. it's a tall, square barn with a small footprint approx 15 x 15. dirt floor for drainage.

good luck

-- johnny (j.frierson@frimee.com), August 09, 2001.


Sounds like a rather involved process to avoid using LP. You'll need a fairly large, moisture resistant and well insulated building, drainage, a method to get/make and move ice... I believe the cost of building a proper ice house and the amount of labour to stock it would be far too high to make it practical. Unless you are extremely remote and LP is not available, I'd reconsider.

cheers,

-- Max (Maxel@inwindsor.com), August 09, 2001.


I live in a very moderate climate, so try not to laugh at my ignorance of cold weather.

Do y'all think it would work to just spray water into the ice house every day or so, when it's butt cold, let it freeze, and apply more water the next day?

Could you freeze enough ice that way to avoid the use of aircon the next summer?

JOJ

-- jumpoff joe (jumpoff@ecoweb.net), August 09, 2001.


http://fourmileisland.com/default.htm this link is for an Ice Maker that requires no work

http://www.humboldt1.com/~michael.welch/extras/solarice.pdf greatest invention I ever saw.It is a solar powered ice maker that is completly mechanical and is so simple and can be made for less than $500 and makes 10 lbs of ice any time the sunshines.It is on HOMEPOWER.com Would like to hear from anyone direct that is into low tech inventions or solar or permiculture

-- Nick Mars (nickmars55@aol.com), May 11, 2002.


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