How to make a stupid-simple open-air refrigerator
Why pay for what Mother Nature is willing to give you for free? If I’m inside my house in the spring or fall and there’s a nice, cool breeze outside, do I keep my windows closed and run the air conditioner? Of course not. I turn the air conditioner off, open the windows and let Mother Nature cool off my home. And you know what? She never sends me a bill.
Well, the same concept holds true for keeping some of your food chilled when it’s cold outside, which in many parts of the country is roughly one-half of the year (mid-October to mid-April). I’ve learned that you can build an airtight box insulated all around with pinkboard that’s attached to the outside of your house (preferably in the kitchen area to the exterior of an opening that already exists) that will be an effective way to keep food safely chilled in a grid-collapse situation. And at the very least, you can save some money on your power bill in the meantime.
Does the idea of keeping some of your food chilled without paying for power intrigue you enough to want to give this a shot in your home? Do you have any thoughts regarding how this ambient air refrigerator could be improved from the way it was described in the article? Let me hear from you in the comments.
Related: The Best 7 Survival Tips Published
We have used Mother Nature for a good many years in the winter especially. We have a picnic cooler that we keep on our patio and I store drinks, some foods (depending on the temperature outside) and keep fresh fruit, oranges, apples, bananas etc in the coldest part of our home. While renting an apartment in the military in the 50’s, we opened a window and installed a wooden box on the outside windowsill which acted as a small refrigerator.
Wondering if a trick I have gotten good results with in an electric refridgerator will work in the free box? I and several of my friends placed a penny mounted with scotch tape on the side wall center and found that fresh foods and leftovers keep longer. Let us know if the same results can be obtained.
Regarding keeping food cold… remember that in many other cultures of the world their refrigerators are very small. How do they do this? They recognize that most foods should be harvested or made fresh rather than stored for longer periods. Some items like fruit and vegetables, bread, and eggs can be stored at room temperature. Yes, it may shorten the shelf life a bit but it is doable. If you have a whole lot of meat or produce, you can bottle it with a pressure cooker rather than depending on a freezer.
Sharing methods of survival techniques are essential in many different ways, one of the things I wonder and worry about is trust, People these days do not even know their neighbors, even if you have all the survival gear in the world, if your neighbor (who you think about as ok) is not really ok at all, you could find yourself in a bad situation all because you really do not know who you are living next to, just a thought.
I found out a few years ago that an old non working refrigerator works really wellfor keeping food cold and secure from neighborhood critters.
While we don’t specifically have an ambient temp. fridge, for the soups and chili dishes we commonly have during the cold weather months, we take the hot leftovers in whatever container, and place them inside our bbq grill overnight, close the lid, and the next day transfer them to the fridge/freezer for later use. Frequently, they’re frozen solid, thereby saving the energy it would take to chill/freeze them using our power. Here on the front range of Colorado, daytime temps. can get rather warm throughout the winter.
Before electricity came to town (1939) we had egg crate nailed to the outside window ledge, and just open the window and get your food stuffs…but made sure it was on the shady side of the house. Egg crates were just the right size for what we needed,
I live in the mid-Atlantic and while I like the idea of an outdoor fridge to supplement but unless you plan to also heat it, it will become a freezer after a couple of days. We use three large coolers on deck and move them inside when very cold. We keep a couple of large ice blocks inside which help regulate the temperature. Simple but effective.
We can’t leave any food outside or the animals get into it. They even tore into a sack full of what the cats left in the kitty litter
This is a very old procedure. Growing up in Elgin, Il, we did this in the very early 1940s. Good ideas keep returning, don’t they?
not good in southeast Ga only a few days a year would it come close to working
Here in Alaska, we use our cold hole year round. It ranges in size from a tube that you use a rope and bucket system to one that you walk down into. The temp never really varies much. It stays between 36-40 at the bottom and about 46 at the top next to the door. This is all accessed by the trap door in the floor in the kitchen. Keeping things frozen in summer, we use a solar powered freezer. In winter it goes to a winter cold hold since we only get about 3-4 hours day light, and solar becomes useless.
Nifty. As a southern boy, I’ve never seen a cold hole that’s really that cold, more cool.
How deep must this be?
I’m not always on a computer and not raised in the country. But i love all of your comments and I love that this is available. Since a child I have this inner strong intrest for survival with nature. Wish I had the land to learn and live this way. You are all in my heart.
I PREFER THE WRITTEN ARTICLES OVER VIDEOS….I CAN STOP READING AND COME BACK TO WHERE I LEFT OFF AND THE VIDEOS ARE TOO LONG AND REPETITIVE.
I agree! I never even watch the videos — as soon as I see a link is a video I just close the window.
Is there a way to either download the videos so that we can go back to them as time / situation permits ?
Count me in on this new fad of dealing out lengthy infovideos that are rather hesitant to actually give out any pertinent information at all. It seems the the person is more interested in hearing their own voice and not caring if the audience is bored and poorly informed !
I agree immensely! Too repetitive, too long and always wanting to sell some stuff! I paid for the stuff to get me here and they want to sell more stuff! I don’t have a lot of money to blow…but I am very interested in survival info. Please make a way where we can download the video or transcript so we can read/watch it when we are able to devote the time to really listen and study! Thanks!
ah, we too had our experiences with root cellars and ice blocks etc. today, I use a ceramic plate heater which heats my small space well for ten bucks a month, and a window mounted AC cools it for 15 or 20 bucks a month in the summer, not bad for Florida, but there’s no hope here for root cellar or ice blocks from your own pond. Guess I can’t have everything. I love the Zeer pot and wish I could get one. Actually solved my problem(for a one person home) by using a small 4 or 5 cu ft undercounter fridge without automatic defrost and not thowing out the freezer until I just must. or the door won’t close any more; combined witha 5 cu ft freezer to keep all the freezables. Both items work best when kept as full as possible..even if jugs of water, frozen if necessary, are used to fill otherwise empty spaces, and again do not thaw themout to defrost until threatened by pop open doors on them.
yes I would like to know more about ambient air cooling devices
Yes, I would like to know how to do this.
Cooling in the South.
I did try a small Zeer pot, but with our humidity only saw a 10 degree Fahrenheit temperature drop in 90+ summer.
Had better results digging a 4′ deep post hole, 70 degree temp during 90+ degree afternoon.
Next to research and test, supposedly done by the ancient Egyptians, is to us a solar oven pointed straight up at night to make ice.??
This is exactly what we were doing in Paris, my native town. Like Jon, In the kitchen there was a “cooler” which was constructed as part of the cabinetry.” During my childhood in France, we only got a refrigerator when I was 18. Of course it was also a time when we would buy fresh food at the grocery store or “marchés” everyday. So things did not have much time to spoil. Michèle Shuey
Great subject – excellent comments. This has always made common sense to me. Of course that makes me – cheap – weird or just crazy in this gluttonous society. Don’t care. Having moved three times from ‘citified’ rural – out another 50 miles to rural – here in Southern Ontario – seen the pattern. Lucky enough to be in a ‘Victory Home’ from the forties. Very happy in a tiny cabin with a very large lot. Full of FOOD. Developers hate me – the feeling is more than mutual.
July 8/13 there was a record breaking storm. Sorry, converting to meaningful inches of rain has wasted 20 minutes – enough to say broke a 60 year record – fast and furious.
So power of course is out, the roads are a parking lot – mind you – established older part of town – Just West of stinky Toronto. So after shutting down my PO depot walk home before sunset. My family knows the drill. Plenty of fresh water loaded up, do not even think of looking in the fridge etc. – rain had stopped – break out the Coleman gear – nice cook fire – basically fed the neighbors, passed out essentials, candles water etc and made it a campout.
Not only were these people in houses clueless – apartment dwellers – might as well been Armageddon.
A day or two without service… yeah we know the rest.
Thanks – only a few- and then again we are ‘strange’.
One family doubled our ‘helpful donations’ and now are working on the strategy to endure more than a just an inconvenience. Decent folks – quite different- but a sincere common bond that makes us much more than neighbors.
I don’t so much pity the others, but am troubled for the young and elderly.
By the way – the old cabin that no longer fits in.
One of the few structures to weather just another storm.
SO SORRY I TURNED THIS INTO A RANT!
Great stuff – thanks again to all.
DR
Dan, know what ya mean about people,most are sheep. Used to manage an apartment complex,12 units, I was the live in manager, power used to go out if you looked hard at the wires. had a big snow storm, no body could move, started cooking outside on a charcoal grill, had wood stashed all over the place, people couldn’t believe it, you would have thought it was arrmageddon, had to show folks how to do everything,even wash,unreal. gave it up for the back country, feel much better, I know my family can survive. so many people are sheep
A refrigerator that has had food in it either must be kept running or be where it will stay very cold in order to prevent mold from growing. (This from my son who managed a rental store.) A freezer holds better if it is full, so use plastic jugs of frozen water to help keep the cost of running it down. Growing up, my family used a wash tub set in a spring that was in our cellar. (Not unusual in the day when the house was built.) My dad created a lid for the tub. Worked very well for our butter, cooked meats, etc. We kept our eggs in the cellar as well. When our electric went off in the winter, I filled a picnic cooler chest with our food, put it outside, and piled snow around it & on top. It kept very well. And we ate regular meals as I cooked on top of our wood burner.
What do you do to keep the frozen food from thawing when the food on the refrigerator side is in the Nature box and the regular refrigerator is turned off to not use the grid?
Can you put a refrigerator outside not plugged in and save money? I would appreciate your opinion please.
In many places it is against the law to have a refrigerator outside with a door on it for child safety. Check with your local government and find out.
But if you have an outside, uninsulated garage, as we did when I was growing up in Colorado, my mother put food out there to “freeze” in the winter. Worked fine.
For those who live in the country, buy books on root cellars and spring houses. That is how the pioneers did it. Then focus on growing in all seasons using a cold house, green house system. Eat it fresh and dry the excess with a solar food dryer.
How does this save energy? I still have my refridgerator/freezer inside and running. Does a refridgerator use less energy if there is less food in it? Living in MN, how do I keep foods from freezing during Jan-Feb?
Google the Mother Earth News Sept / Oct 1975 Issue, , ” Wood burning Alternative Refrigerator Project” These operate on the same principle as the old Servel Refrigerators that operated on NG, Propane , kerosene or Alcohol.
great g’ma raised me…used ice boxes…always in winter set perishables on porch as long as its cool enough…works great….do alot of the same tricks as below….ak. still uses wells or dug outs to store meat in, also in mud room….alot of cool ways….take older meat out of freezer and put in bags to use first and newer meat in freezer…rotate…thanks
I store sturdy containers filled with a water/rock salt solution outside during the winter, in case of a power failure. The salt makes the water freeze at a lower temperature, so I think that means they should stay cold longer. I think that keeping a few such containers in a well-insulated box would help to moderate the temperature of the food during a brief warming spell.
Why not have a back-up propane-powered refrigerator, as used in RVs?
They’re not 21 cubic feet (more like 6 or 8 cu. ft.), but for important perishables, it’s a cool (pun intended) idea! No electricity is required.
No electricity required..?
How do you ignite the propane..??
you use something called a lighter or match.
When I was going to high school in the late ’60s – early ’70s we lived in a house that was built in the 1930s. In the kitchen there was a “cooler” which was constructed as part of the cabinetry . At the back & bottom of these “cooler” shelves were slats with screens over them to keep bugs from entering and doors enclosed them. When mom put certain items that needed to be kept cool, it went in there. If the item needed to be kept refrigerated due to being a more modern product that might spoil more easily if the temp. wasn’t kept below a certain threshold, then it would go in the frig. Of course, this “cooler” was on the north side of the house, so it was always in the shadier side to take advantage of the lower temps. It worked quite well and very few items ever had to be thrown out due to spoilage. The only time it wasn’t very useful was during the summer months when temps. went into the 80s & 90s. Then we’d migrate items to the frig. This was in northern California too! However, IF we didn’t have a frig to put it in – and there were a few times when this happened – we could get blocks of ice, place them on the top shelves with plastic to let the melted ice drain off to the back & not on the items on shelves below, and things would stay amazingly cool for days.
How about explaining the thermostat operation and wiring. Acess door ? also
The Swedes have been doing this forever. When I was in Sweden in the 80’s, every apartment that I ever saw had a cupboard like this. There must be information somewhere in sweden.
I live in Orlando Fl (zone 9b) and it is really hot and humid here in the spring summer and fall and we sometimes get a handful of cold days in the winter. I have a concrete block building that is about 1100 square feet. Its actually a free standing garage. If I built a small room in there and insulated it really really good would that be cool enough to use as cold storage?
For warm climates or seasons, using a Zeer Pot evaporative cooler can work well, The trick is finding clay pots big enough to hold all that you would like.
http://gizmodo.com/5935104/how-to-make-an-electricity+free-refrigerator
For refrigeration in warmer climates, check out the “Zeer” clay pot in pot design:
An example of a pot-in-pot refrigerator, not in use.
The pot-in-pot refrigerator or zeer (Arabic: الزير) and its manufacturing process was engineered by Mohammed Bah Abba, a Nigerian teacher from a family of pot-makers, who patented a pot-in-pot refrigerator in 1995 to help Sudanese families preserve food. Bah Abba was awarded the $75,000 Rolex Award for Enterprise in 2000 and the World Shell Award for Sustainable Development in 2001 for its development.[1][2] It is a refrigeration device which keeps food cool without electricity by using evaporative cooling. A porous outer earthenware pot, lined with wet sand, contains an inner pot (which can be glazed to prevent penetration by the liquid) within which the food is placed – the evaporation of the outer liquid draws heat from the inner pot. The device can be used to cool any substances such as water, foods or temperature sensitive drugs.
Frank,
Excellent article and idea! Of course, as you point out, this only works in places with hard and constant winters. Still, perhaps making such a box on the shady side of an outbuilding in vacillating weather zones like here in Colorado might help, although you’d have to have a freezer to move things to when .. like today … it’s freezing after sunset and warms to 40;s and 50’s on clear days.
Have no idea how those in the south and hot states will cope when the grid goes down. Several years ago we had a power failure that only lasted about 48 hours and even with coolers and ice we lost food.
Keep up the good work,
Orrin
How about some “post grid failure” ideas for refrigeration for those of us who live in warmer climates? I think almost everyone knows that we can use outside in the winter for refrigeration, but what about summer time, especially the southern states where it’s hot and humid!? This would be very valuable information for countless readers.
I liked my grandparents solution—cut ice off the lake in winter, store in a dugout shed or barn with sawdust for insulation to last all summer, and do what their neighbors did–cut more blocks of ice and sell to the public. People used augers and hand saws back then, using horses to pull the thousand pound blocks out of the water…used chainsaws to cut the ice in large blocks,
Also they used a well to keep food cool, lowering it down on a rope and basket before they got an “Ice Box”.
It stays cold way up north here–so when I find sales on meat or frozen food I use a cooler outside to keep it frozen when I have no more room in my freezer dept.of my refrigerator. Most of the winter after December until March stays below freezing. And if there are a few days of above freezing, keeping the lid shut in the shade keeps it frozen for 4 days or more.Trick is to keep it full of food or ice. Ice being that it is frozen outside at night.
Another trick to save energy is freeze blocks of ice in the freezer compartment and put half of it in the lower part of the fridge and leave ice in the freezer. Then unplug your refrigerator from power. Depending on the temp outside the fridge and how many times you open the compartments, your fridge can keep things cold and frozen for days, using up to 4 times less energy.When ice melts, plug the fridge back in and refreeze the ice for a few hours and repeat.If you freeze the blocks outside in winter, you won’t need to plug it back in until weather warms.
When I lost power for 7 days last summer, my freezer was full and frozen. It took 5 days before it started to thaw, and that was when it was 75 to 90 degrees all that time, and the freezer was full with frozen block of ice which helped.
When I was seven we lived in a old farm house with no power. We had an outdoor entry to the basement. On the basement steps my mother would keep parishables and it worked. The house was surrounded by large maple trees providing shade all day. It was always cool inside on even the warmest days by just keeping doors and windows shut. Since it was always cool after sundown everything was opened up. Water came from a dug well or springs below the hill. For us kids we thought we had it made. This was back in the late 1940’s near Amsterdam, New York. We kept the oil lamps after power came into our area. We walked to school two miles away and all eight grades in a one room country school and one teacher.
At 73 years of age I work ten acres in the deep south and do not act my age. I’m still a kid with more dangerous kinds of toys.
Donald, it sounds like you had a life very similar to the one my parents gave me and we did have it made. I learned to work. Something so many kids today know nothing about. BUT there are a lot of good kids out there that do have courage and a good value system. I pray they will continue instilling those values in their children so our planet earth can continue.
Hi Brent,
Thanks for your post. I have responded to your inquiry below via your email address. Please check your spam folder if you do not see that message in your inbox.
Best regards,
Steph
Power4Patriots Customer Service