alternative "refrigeration"

[eDJ_]

When I was a little kid the Boy Scouts would hold a annual "exposition" to show the public what they could do.  A lot of people attended and I was taken by my folks.   Dad was interested in this 5 gallon square metal can that was covered with burlap.  It had a can on top that would slowly drip water on it to evaporate and cool the inside. 

Dad was a Texan where the humidity was about 10% but here in the Ohio Valley the humidity is often 90%.  (not a lot of evaporation would occur here)  but it had a ring on tech of the top corners so it could be tied to a central rope and hoisted up over a tree limb to keep animals out of it. 


One side of the can had a square hole cut in it and the metal door from that hole had hinges so it could open and close.
And it too was covered with burlap. 

I've never had the opportunity to use one of these but I'm sure the low the humidity the better it would cool.   And hoisting it up over a tree limb would not only help keep it safe from animals but also place it in a better breeze to promote the evaporation process.

 

[maki2]

Where I am in in the woods in north GA the issue with keeping produce outside is slugs. They LOVE a nice ripe tomato. I'd love to build an evaporative cooler for produce. I cant keep onions very long and I like to use them in cooking. The possums and raccoons go after everything else.

They keep OK for a while if you have not yet cut into one. But they need to be kept very dry so that would not be a vegetable that you would put into an evaportive cooler. Do not store in a sealed up plastic bag or that will lead to them developing mold. Moisture is their enemy if storing without refrigeration. One suggestion I saw was to wrap each onion loosely in paper towels to help absorb any excess moisture.

Once you cut into them you need to use it all unless you can store them at 40 degrees or lower. So just buy little onions or get some shallots and remember they like it dry and also dark.

 

[XERTYX]

Freeze dried green onions. That's something. I'm talking about regular onions. I think it's my humidity. They either rot or mildew on me. If I keep them in those breathable bags they sell em in they just dry up. If I buy 2 or 3 at a time and keep them in the plastic bags they mildew in a few days. So anymore I I just buy them more often. I just had to throw out 3 beautiful ripe tomatoes this morning that got mold on them. I think it's my environment. I'm down in a holler not far from 3 creeks so it gets humid. Also I dont cool the room I store produce in so it gets nice and hot too. I've been thinking of using an old cooler to store them in with one of those dollar store humidity traps inside.

 

[highdesertranger]

yeah out west here with our low humidity a big sack of onions will keep a couple of months. if you are ever out in Washington or Oregon check out some Walla-Walla onions, great sweet flavor. whenever I am up that way I get 2 big sacks. highdesertranger

 

[maki2]

Freeze dried green onions. That's something. I'm talking about regular onions. I think it's my humidity. They either rot or mildew on me. If I keep them in those breathable bags they sell em in they just dry up. If I buy 2 or 3 at a time and keep them in the plastic bags they mildew in a few days. So anymore I I just buy them more often. I just had to throw out 3 beautiful ripe tomatoes this morning that got mold on them. I think it's my environment. I'm down in a holler not far from 3 creeks so it gets humid. Also I dont cool the room I store produce in so it gets nice and hot too. I've been thinking of using an old cooler to store them in with one of those dollar store humidity traps inside.

When you get home wash your tomatoes or other vegetables you are not going to refrigerate in salt water or in vinegar and let that solution dry on them. That will act as a natural anti bacterial to help them last longer without developing mold.

Do you have enough power to run a little 12v computer fan? Good air circulation is one of the solutions to reducing mold. That is why they have louvered doors on closets.  The cabinet doors on my build all have center panels of Phifertex mesh to allow for lots of air circulation thereby reducing the chance of mold inside of the cabinets.  Even the old non refrigerated "food safes" in medieval times had perforations or bars in the doors and sides. The punched tin pie safes had those holes to improve air circulation. Fruit baskets are made of wire for that reason as well. A traditional way of storing onions was don't cut the leaf stalks off but instead braid them together to create a string of onions that could be hung up, cutting off the lowest one as you needed one for cooking. Garlic was also done that way. Even chilli peppers were hung to dry and stored as strings of peppers. Just do some research on how people used to do these things.

Here is a video on how to store onions by attaching them to a string.

 

[maki2]

forgot to add don't wash the onions or garlic, they need to always be kept dry.

 

[Homeless in Canada]

I'm thinking of getting a small chest freezer. Because I drive a lot I can use the power from the alternator to produce ice as I'm driving

 

[XERTYX]

You'd do better with an icemaker. Even the smallest of the AC chest freezers use a LOT of electricity. Also it would take a long long time for it to cool off enough to even start freezing ice. Unless maybe you filled it with 2 liter bottles or gallon jugs of water to keep it cool while it's not switched on.

For a little more you could get a 12v fridge/ freezer. They also take several hours to make ice but many of them use very little power in fridge mode if you're just wanting to keep things cool.

I'd love to have a sundazer chest freezer. They're 12v and sip power. But they're also over $1k the last time I looked.

 

[Homeless in Canada]

You'd do better with an icemaker. Even the smallest of the AC chest freezers use a LOT of electricity. Also it would take a long long time for it to cool off enough to even start freezing ice. Unless maybe you filled it with 2 liter bottles or gallon jugs of water to keep it cool while it's not switched on.

For a little more you could get a 12v fridge/ freezer. They also take several hours to make ice but many of them use very little power in fridge mode if you're just wanting to keep things cool.

I'd love to have a sundazer chest freezer. They're 12v and sip power. But they're also over $1k the last time I looked.

 I want a freezer that uses a lot of power because my alternator is capable of producing a lot of power so why let it go to waste.

I thought about getting an ice maker but that requires water pressure which I don't have. With a freezer I can just manually fill a bunch of ice trays with cold water from my cooler whenever I have to drive somewhere.

 

[XERTYX]

Although I wound up returning my frigidaire countertop ice maker because it failed after 2 months of daily usage those and similar models dont require pressure. You just dump the water in the top.

Also the more power you pull from your alternator the more fuel you'll be using. Just keep that in mind. It's one thing to pull the power if you need it but I wouldnt design my build around it. It's not wasted energy it simply has the potential to produce more. Just my 2 cents.

 

[highdesertranger]

Homeless just because your alternator has some big impressive number behind it doesn't mean all that energy is available. may I suggest some studying on how your alternator actually performs. highdesertranger

 

[lenny flank]

^^ Most people seem not to realize how long one has to drive to fully charge a decent-size battery with the alternator. A trip to the gas station isn't gonna do it.

 

[Homeless in Canada]

Although I wound up returning my frigidaire countertop ice maker because it failed after 2 months of daily usage those and similar models dont require pressure. You just dump the water in the top.

Also the more power you pull from your alternator the more fuel you'll be using. Just keep that in mind. It's one thing to pull the power if you need it but I wouldnt design my build around it. It's not wasted energy it simply has the potential to produce more. Just my 2 cents.

Putting a little more load on the engine is a lot cheaper than running a generator to produce a 250 watts of power.

But good to know that the countertop ice makers don't require water pressure I'm going to go look at a used one on Monday. My plan is to recycle the melted ice I drain out of the cooler by freezing it into ice cubes.

 

[XERTYX]

I wish you much success. But I would urge you to consider a 12v fridge. For most of last year i used my melt water from the cooler to wash laundry in my 120v portable washing machine. That is another thing to consider.

An alpicool C20 in a real world test used under 6Ah per day in refrigerator mode. That combined with an isolator to help charge your house battery from the alternator seems a more compact and efficient solution.

 

[maki2]

Getting a new alternator installed may cost you more than one of the small 12v compressor fridge freezers such as the Alpicool. I found a used Engel for $300.00. New from Engel the same newer model of that size of fridge is $800. Before Engel had its own location in Florida they were being imported and relabeled as a Norcold.

This is the chart for which Norcol units are made by Engel. Buying used equipment can save you lots of money.
https://www.engelcoolers.com/norcold

But while you are saving up for a little low draw fridge then you can take advantage of some evaporative cooling methods to extend the life of the fruits and veggies you buy.

 

[highdesertranger]

using a vehicle as a generator is very inefficient. a small efficient generator will always beat it out. I hope you are not planning on sitting there idling your vehicle to run your refrigerator or even to charge a house battery. it just doesn't work that way no matter what you have been told. highdesertranger