Posted on 06/24/2018 8:12:43 PM PDT by Jonty30
The Weltevree Groundfridge is an ingenious way to provide an affordable, insulating, cooling and storage system for wine, fruit, vegetables and cheese. The pre-fabricated cellar can hold as much as 20 refrigerators without the use of electricity and uses the insulating effects of the soil and water to keep the temp at between 50° and 53° degrees Farenheit (10 and 12 °Celsius) throughout the year.
It REALLY depends on where you live.
The dirt in Phoenix can be 90 deg even 15 feet down.
In the summer in the Central Valley of CA, my tap water sits at about 85 deg.
I am quite sure I can build one for much much less than the asking price here.
There are cool caves in KC, MO. Companies pay storage fees for products that need non fluctuating temps. I used to explore the caves as a a yute.
How can it compete with the one that throws the beer across the room?
Ground temp in central Ca is 65, southern alaska is 45.
Not sure how it uses water, or how it regulates humidity.
Root cellar is NOT a fridge. It’s only good for live things like robots, apples, natural cheese and other ferments. Its ok for canned goods and wine. It operates best 45 - 55 with medium high humidity.
This is a very nice design.
Your pipes must be 7 to 10+ foot deep to be in the thermally stable zone.
For some reason my spell check insists roots are robots...
Not sure it is worth the price, but root cellars have long been part of the American homestead. You can even do something similar by creating what I know is a “pipe cellar”.
A pipe cellar is an above ground cellar, well insulated, that has a pipe system that keeps the air cool. The pipes are run under ground 4 to 6 feet deep, 6” or 8” pipes that that run for some distance and then return to the root cellar. This is known as a closed loop earth-air heat exchange (not recommended for living space). Consider that most fridges are between 20 and 25 cubic feet - going to a walk in size 1000 cubic feet is a HUGE jump. However, most root cellars keep the temp around 55 degrees if designed properly. Modern fridges keep food in the 36 to 40 degree range. So the root cellar concept is really about keeping things cool, not cold. Works well for veggies, breads, cheeses, and cured meats. Not sure I would keep high bacteria prone foods like raw meat in the cellar, but that is just my preference.
The General rule of thumb (non scientific) is that for every 10 foot cubic of the cellar, you need to have the air replaced 10 times in 1 hour - or - 166 cfm. Now you have to factor in the size of the pipe. Divide that number by the size of the fan in diameter and in inches. A six inch pipe, divide by .5; for an 8” pipe divide by .75. Not uncommon to see a 300 cfm fan required for a 6” pipe. If you have two closed loop pipes, you could reduce the cfm.
Another consideration is the length of pipe. I really don’t have a rule of thumb for this as soil types down at that depth vary widely. If memory serves, 10% of the total volume is the length in pipe. I am sure that is a good start but I don’t remember how pipe diameter effects the length - sorry.
Other things to consider in a pipe cooler. MOISTURE! In high humidity environments you will need to 1) make sure the water drains from the cooler as you will get a lot of condensation on the walls and 2) moisture is drained from the pipes as you will get condensation in the pipes as well. You also will likely want a resin based fan to avoid rust.
Lastly a small solar panel and a battery to run during the night.
I built one of these for my grandfather on his farm in Georgia ..., some 35 years ago. I would not take my memories as design guidance without checking it with some kind of more reliable source. But I would imagine that there are farm coops that can guide you if you want to DIY. So as always, your mileage may vary so consult a professional.
prepper ping
My mom (RIP) would tell the story of getting ice delivered to the house. The kids would gather around as the guy cut the ice to size. He knew the size of each home’s icebox. She said he would always seemed to be a bit messier with the cutting when the kids were around - and leave lots of extra shavings for them.
Up at our cabin we had a wringer washer that got a bit of use when I was a child (we spent all summer there).
Ringer washer? Brilliant!!
We had an icebox when I was a kid.
We would put a large square card in the window ——the poundage you wanted would show on the top of the card,and you would turn it if you wanted another size.
It would melt into an ice pan under the icebox.
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We had an icebox when I was a kid.
We would put a large square card in the window ——the poundage you wanted would show on the top of the card,and you would turn it if you wanted another size.
It would melt into an ice pan under the icebox.
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Yes yes. This old technology. 50 degrees F is too high. That’s we have refrigerators.
My thought too. They reinvented something humanity has know for centuries or probably millennia.
My grandmother grew up with iceboxes, and never learned to say ‘refrigerator’. I was in my thirties before I realized that people looked puzzled when I said ‘it’s in the ice box’. Even now I sometimes slip, and people think I mean the freezer.
I'm guessing it costs a whole lot more...
A lot more than a spring house, too - if you happen to have a spring...
A spring house, or springhouse, is a small building, usually of a single room, constructed over a spring. While the original purpose of a springhouse was to keep the spring water clean by excluding fallen leaves, animals, etc., the enclosing structure was also used for refrigeration before the advent of ice delivery and, later, electric refrigeration. The water of the spring maintains a constant cool temperature inside the spring house throughout the year. Food that would otherwise spoil, such as meat, fruit, or dairy products, could be kept there, safe from animal depredations as well. Springhouses thus often also served as pumphouses, milkhouses, and root cellars.My Dad told me about springhouses in the 1930's before his sharecropper family had even dreamed of having an ice box. His most perfect memory was going into the spring house and taking a long drink of cold buttermilk.
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