DUDE... We Got a CHEST FREEZER! (Appliances & Off Grid Living)
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- Опубліковано 1 чер 2024
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We've been living off the grid for over one year now and all that time, we have done without freezer space! Well, we have a tiny freezer in our RV, but the storage space wasn't enough to make our lives easier. With the addition of a battery bank and a small solar power setup, we were able to upgrade to an upright chest freezer which marked a big day on our homestead! There is a bit to take into consideration when picking appliances for off grid applications, so we hope to shed some light on a few of those things in this video.
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if you haven't been given this tip already, Put a cup with frozen water in your freezer then add a coin to the top of the cup of ice. If there is ever a power loss and restore without your knowledge the coin will have sunk into the ice or fallen to the bottom of the cup letting you know the food inside may have been compromised.
Keep the freezer full and it operates better. I keep unused space full of 2 ltr bottles filled with water. It helps keep the freezer running efficiently and in case of power outage helps prolong the temperature. As I add food items I remove the bottles and set them aside for later use. It is also a secondary way of adding to water storage.
Love you guys, just wanted to warn you that stacking your canning like that is unsafe. Seals can be broken and then reseal due to the pressure from above and botulinism can grow. It is colorless and tasteless, and deadly. 2 high only, or put cans in a bigger box so the box takes the pressure from above and not the lid.
I run my freezer on a timer. Right now ON around 9 AM and OFF around 5PM. That way is not stressing your battery. The temp does not increase over night in the freezer. (at least nothing that I can see. everything is still frozen)
I've heard that a great way to make sure that your freezer is working (if you don't have a light or leave it for long periods) is to place ice cubes in a plastic cup in the freezer. If the ice cubes are still the same shape when you check on it, you know that the freezer didn't warm up and then freeze again.
You could also use the freezer to freeze water bottles with salt in them and buy a large cooler to place the water bottles in. What this does is make the cooler into a refrigerator. Now, you could place your food inside of the cooler for refrigeration. I hope this helps.
Long time freezer owner ...
First, I am glad you have the freezer up the off the ground.
Second, adjust the temp to about 20F. Plenty cold, even in summer.
Third, you you will have to manually defrost it. Hopefully you have a large cooler and can transfer everything from the freezer to the cooler for the defrost cycle which will only take an hour on a warm, sunny day.
I lost a chest freezer because frost built up under the liner even though there was not a lot of frost on the inside and broke one of the refrigerant lines. One or two defrost per year is all that is required.
I had One of those freezers,they are great,you won't lose all the cold air when you open the door,they float too,mine did,floated away in a hurricane.
We can't survive without our chest freezer that is in the unheated garage. Glad you guys are getting things you will need later, a little at a time. Smart of you.
I see some one already commented on this. Most people do not know that cooling appliances are not designed to operate in freezing weather. We destroyed a refrigerator by leaving it on over the winter in an unheated cabin. We are also connected with a summer cabin co-op. We know of at least 4 cabins that also destroyed new refrigerators by running them over the winter. I was involved in a conversation with a dealer of refrigerators for outdoor kitchens. He said that they are so expensive because of the engineering to operate in the 30 to40 degree range.
i know this is 7 months old, i just recently started watching this channel...
but i LOVE the fact that this couple really use their brains and THINK about important stuff...
Much love from Finland
PorritZ
A smaller freezer or refrigerator has a higher surface to volume ratio, meaning that a small freezer has to keep a proportionally larger external area insulated vs. a larger freezer and will therefore be less efficient. Example: Assume a perfectly square freezer that is 1 cu. ft. in volume (1'X1'X1'). It will have an external surface area of over 6 sq. ft once you figure in the thickness of the walls. That is a 1:6 volume:surface area ratio. Now take a 8 cu. ft. freezer (2'X2'X2'). It will have a 24 sq. ft. surface area or a 1:3 ratio. That is a lot less heat loss proportionally.
The fuller you keep your freezer the more efficient it will be. If you dont have it full take some 2ltr bottles of water and put in there.
Exactly, well said
especially in winter, first leave the bottles outside to freeze (or fill a garbage bag with snow), but remember that water expands when it freezes, so leave some air in the bottle.
Is that an excuse to justify making more ice cream?
I was going to post the same comment. I have a large chest freezer and I have 1/2 gallon milk jugs 2/3 full of purified drinking water. If the power goes out not only am I fine for maybe a week but I have drinking water as well. As I use up the food I add another bottle.
That was my other question, thanks for the info'.
I suggest adding a wind turbine, looks like you guys are in an area that gets a good bit of wind. Wind turbines can run day or night as long as there is wind. Your solar will only charge during the day and not that great during the short winter days, go hybrid, wind and solar. good luck!!
Don't know if anyone has mentioned this to you. I grew up on a farm and can tell you that a good root cellar not only makes a great pantry. It will also serve in a pinch as a freezer in the winter and protect your food. Especially if its rock lined to keep out pest and you make some nooks in the wall near the entrance to hold your frozen things. You can also build a cold box with an insulated inside door on the cold side of your shack that will make a good winter freezer or fridge. Neither requires gas or electricity. Good luck you two. I enjoy watching your videos.
We unplug our chest freezer in the winter! No need to keep It drawing solar power! The outside air will keep its contents frozen!
I recommend moving the canned goods away from the stove and sunlight. A cool dark place, perhaps beside the freezer. Cheers!!
Freezer dissipates heat... so not beside the freezer or fridge.
I appreciate how you explain your practical solutions with concrete examples. It's not, "If you were going to try to power a small freezer"...It's more like, "We powered our small freezer this way." That is very helpful.
I dont know if you have seen it. But else were on the internet there was an brilliant trix to see if your freezer ever lost power and ruined your food, the trix was that you get an cup of water and put in the freezer so the water got frosen and then put a penny on top of it. if you one day opens the freeser and the penny is in the buttom of the cup you know that some thing has gone wrong.
itex136 q
Sears may stand behind their appliances but if you have a problem with them you MUST call an 800 number to get it fixed. You can't just take it back to the store - it's not as simple as it used to be. We quit going to Sears for that reason and stuck with a local Ma and Pa type store where they do service what they sell and you don't have to call some 800 number and hope that they come out and fix it sooner than later - what we found was much MUCH later.
My mom told me about a cool trick someone showed her. I think it was more for leaving on vacation, but might work in your case as well. Freeze water in a container, and once it is frozen, place a quarter on top of the ice. Say you lose power for some time, but everything is refrozen when you get home. Normally you wouldn't know that your food had thawed, but if the ice melts in the container, the quarter will sink and the water will refreeze with the quarter at the bottom.
I love how ready they r for almost anything
.... with ice cream in tow :-)
Cool
220k year / 8.76 = ~25 w / hour. No biggie.
Problem comes with stuff that spikes in amp usage when it start up.
A neat trick if your not sure about continuous power for a freezer is to find a small tupperware box and 3/4 fill it with water and then freeze when frozen throw in a half dozen small stones and every time you open or check the freezer give the box a shake and you should hear a rattle if you get a slosh well that's self explanatory and if the stones are frozen at the bottom you know that the power has been off long enough to defrost the ice and re freeze it and your food stuff is now suspect.....
you could also buy a popsicle and lay it on top of the food, if you open the freezer and the popsicle is now flat yet frozen, your freezer didn't keep temp and refroze so your food may be suspect. Lots of methods out there-just dont forget and eat the popsicle.
Years ago off grid we used a Servel Electrolux propane refrigerator actually 2, 1 turned down and it froze everything. The other just a frig. They are super efficient and hardly use any gas, and there are no moving parts to wear out. GE bought them out and closed them to make a bigger market for their electric appliances. They sold the rights to produce them to a Swedish company and that is where all the RV gas refrigerators were developed. Many still for sale because the hardly ever wear out. Just door seals and such.
also by using 2 liter bottles of water ,you have fresh drinking water when ou take them out.we keep our freezer full and have had the power go out for three days and no lost food.that huge block of ice wont just melt.
Keep that freezer packed full and it'll work even less to keep it cold.
mikeallenbrown1 And if you don't have enough food keep jugs of ice to keep it full.
mikeallenbrown1 Also use extra insulation in the summer.
More stuff in the freezer doesn't really change how much heat gets back into it, but it can give a huge buffer zone for things to stay frozen as that heat needs to distribute across more mass.
The thing that can raise the efficiency by several magnitudes is extra insulation, if you can double the insulation properly then the power consumption will halve.
And obviously letting things cool outside means the fridge gets no extra work, putting it somewhere already freezing also means no extra work.
Be careful doing that because most modern CHEAP freezers have the condensation coils below the surface (not at the back) so insulating the surface will kill it because it can't condense properly.
you guys are living the dream, keep up the good work
Having freezer space is a blessing! That was good that you discussed the power and tradeoffs - nice video. We just added a chest freezer too, showed it in our update video. Unfortunately ours is indoors, but in a cooler area of the house (no central heating). We have lots of garden produce items in there - hard to can basil, leeks, and the like. I am figuring out a root cellar as well - but its a large project. ...perhaps next year. Keep cool !!
Thank you for your videos. I love getting real life information from people learning as you go!
George Washington's estate collected blocks of river ice wrapped in straw in a cellar.
The ice lasted 6 months, with 2 " polystyrene panels imagine what we could do.
I have seen fishing freezers using 2 ft foam linings.
in the winter you dont need have it plugged in aslong as it is below freezeing so 0watt useage . have it on a pallet or something so you can roll it outside in the winter and roll it in in the summer.
There's a difference between kilowatts and kilowatt-hours. When you say it uses 220 kilowatts per year, that's an incorrect statement. The tag says 220 kilowatt-hours. Of course it's going to be confusing for the average person when you explain it incorrectly.
A watt is a measure of energy flow, like how fast your garden hose is flowing. 10 watts is 10 watts whether it's for an hour or a month.
A watt-hour is a cumulative total of energy flow, like how much your garden hose has filled your swimming pool. Using 10 watts for an hour is a total of 10 watt-hours. Using 10 watts for two hours equals 20 watt-hours. And using 25 watts on average to power a fridge equals 600 watt-hours per day, 4.2kWh per week, and 219kWh per year.
So your fridge uses about 25 watts, not 220 watts. Using the right units is important if you're trying to teach people to calculate their own solar needs.
I had been using an ice chest to keep perishables fresh. To do so, I had to buy ice. The cost of preserving my food for 6 months totaled over $1000, for just the ice. During that time, I had been practicing a Buddhist vegan lifestyle and diet. The lessons from that were invaluable; I can not place a price tag on them. Most importantly, I was more focused on the lifestyle transition and nutrition than money. I thought that because I was not shuffling cash into unsustainable choices, I could afford to buy 14 lbs of ice everyday. However, I became aware of all the components required to make ice available including large commercial trucks and large amounts of water and the energy to freeze it. The experience as a whole is invaluable, but there are better and more mindful ways to eat and live healthy. As I see it, the solar powered chest freezer uses significantly less energy to preserve food than a commercial ice supplier.
A very good indicator to use in your freezer is a 1/2 full bottle of water. Lay it on its side when freezing the water, and then put it somewhere it can stand upright. Adding a bit of RED food coloring to the water prior to freezing makes a great telltale of the freezer is off for an extended period of time. like if you leave the area for a vacation. If when you get back you check the freezer and the light are on, but the water in the container is all in the bottom of the bottle you know in an instant that the food is suspect. We are frequently away from home, and it is a real comfort to see the bottle standing there with ice from the top to bottom along one side. indicating that there were NO extended power outages in our absence,
great video so glad you do them it's great to see others doing what your doing
I think you need to re- evaluate the current draw from the freezer. .5 amp? i have never seen a compressor that was that low. remember you have to calculate it with the battery voltage not the 120 v.a.c. from the inverter.
I'm a refrigerator Tech you don't have to run that freezes at -6 when food freezes at 32 bring your temperature up
Thanks for posting guys. Great upgrade and a great deal. We even have a sears appliance parts place nearby, so if you're handy you can get parts and make repairs yourself.Like the fan belt for that 30 year old clothes dryer that wore out. Got the idea for the chest freezer from Steven Davis on his youtube channel. He got a cheap temperature controller from ebay, replaced the temperature controller that came with the freezer, and can use it as a refrigerator or freezer by punching in the numbers. I wonder if the electronic controller would make the freezer more efficient due to the precision that it turns the freezer"s compressor on and off. Maybe beyond your needs now, but useful later.
Little chest freezer is well worth the cost, both in money and power consumption. It can pay for itself by giving you more storage and preservation options.
I have the next size smaller chest. I put mine on a timer ! It got too cold and I monitor it with a temp gauge. The floor will get the coldest and the top a bit warmer. I really don't use mine to freeze but to cool and I only need it at -1- on its thermostat. On that setting its close to 32 on the bottom but I do keep it indoors. The outside would really make it more efficient in the colder weather. Its very efficient !
Is there any benefit to adding external insulation to the freezer? It seems like a cheap upgrade which would reduce power requirements.
Turn your stand up fridge on its back, turn the compressor 90 degrees and add wheels to the back of the fridge and you have a chest fridge
Have you thought about putting one of those outdoor wireless thermometers inside the freezer so you can see its temp without going out to look at it? Yes they are made to see what the outdoor temp is but nothing says you cant use it to check other things.
Just make sure its rated for low temps. The wireless ones generally have a range around 30 feet so can also measure the battery box temp or other outbuildings. For anything long distance wired is the way to go by just running some 5-8 wire thermostat wire during installs so you can have options later.
I thawed my turkey outside in a cooler with the help of a remote, we were in the high 50's so I added ice to keep it lower.
You can get a temperature controller from a home brew supplier,. and turn a freezer like that in to a super effective Refrigerator.
The cost for the controller about 70 bucks. They mainly use that type of set up for laggering (50 degree ferment temp) and carbonating
(36 degree temp) The controller is easily adjustable.
Sears has been flirting with bankruptcy. Just FYI. Love you two's humor!
Don't always trust that light, I had a small freezer similar to to yours and my light was on and the compressor stopped working and I lost 100 lbs of meat
a chest freezer is good for a frigerator also uses let's power and are controlled by thermostat It was pretty cool when I was looking at a off grid set up.
You could also build an earth seller sometime when you have an escavator (probably spelled that wrong) on site. Dig a hole about six feet deep line the sides with logs to prevent the walls collapsing in. Then build a lid with some modern insulation on the inside side. If you can do it in a spot with as much shade as possible. This is a good salutation for storing preserved food but not ice cream.
If you put milk jugs full of water in freezer it will help keep it cold not have to run as much, when you put in more food take out a jug.
If I was living in a grid down period and had no power, I would move my freezer out into the back yard and leave my freezer just open enough during the very cold winters here in New Hampshire to preserve the food inside of it. And during a summer power outage, do what we do now and run the freezer off the solar & battery / inverter system.
I have a freezer like this one. Its a Haier, love it! in saving space in this freezer this is what I do with stew and may other things. I use the ziplock qt bags. I measure 2 cups with tiny amount of air space. Lay the bags flat. You can stack alot in there. It would save your jars for something else. This is only a suggestion. Also your bone broth would freeze very well like this.
Nice solar panel system. Suggestion on getting more out of that panel system. open up the back of the panel and add some tubing that you can run water through. Please use metal tubing as plastic produces some nasty water once heated. Added insulation to the panel backside so the lines do not freeze up and a drain valve and sut off valve for them nasty below zero nights. But, not only will you get hot water on sunny days and wrm water on cloudy days, the solar cells are a silicon product (just like computer chips) and work better when cooled. You can raise the power production by as much as 30%. Also too, there are a number of tutorals here on youtube on savonus rotor generators that can boost your powe supply greatly. You have already had experience with wind there (I remember the first wind storm you had) and why not harness it to your advantage. Nice thing about those rotors is you do not need to do a high tower like you would with propellar generators. Also too, if you have it run two generators, that is twice the power from one unit and a lot cheaper to build and maintain than a wind prop that is 50ft in the air. Also, once you get your freezer set where it will stay, having a "cooling pipe" with a screen on it underground and run by a recycled computer fan to let the earth cool the air coming into the pipe and let it cool down the backside of the freezer so that less energy is used to actually keep it frozen. There should be a compressor towards one end of teh freezer that would have a little radiator for throwing off the heat. The problem is that during teh summer is the hot air is being pushed through that radiator and thus takes more energy to keep the freezer frozen than if it is cool air blowing through it. Not winter mode, but it would not be summer mode in the summer time either.
great setup.
62K + subscribers, congrats. I love how you two just figure it out which is the best way to learn!
I bought a 9 cubic foot freezer last year. I don't know why I waited so long. Mostly garden vegetables go in there with no work whatsoever. I just cut them, put them in a bag and throw them in. It's surprising how much can go in there because they just squish down, but they don't get squished. Another thing I did was put a piece of insulation on the top because I noticed the top had less insulation then the sides and bottom. I was always going to be the big homesteader, but it worked out to having a garden and a freezer.
I found all types of fruit trees growing on road sides. I scored when I found a Harry&David pear tree growing across from their orchard below Table Rocks. Good find guys. Great info on the chest freezer. I am putting a timer on mine so it is off through the sun down hours so it is not draining battery power.
A good idea is to put bottles of water in your chest freezer of a day if there is extra space in there, this means they will get very cold and then if you turn off your freezer of a night time they act as a cooling source for many hours and can keep your stuff cool basically all night.
you can turn one of those chest freezers into a fridge. very little power use. we converted one with a new thermostat off ebay for our solar.
www.northernbrewer.com/johnson-refrigerator-thermostat?gclid=CjwKEAjw-uDABRDPz4-0tp6T6lMSJADNoyPbo5hKFknGRP6nfMUjAI3T_DCRqorOE5SKRSCcRorhQxoCPu7w_wcB
Ron Smith
nope. not that one. the one we have replaces the one on the freezer. stock location but it now can be adjusted from fridge temps to feezer temps.
nice, have a link?
Ron Smith this is like the one we have but ours was only 21 bucks.
best thing to do is google beer freezer conversions. beer makers use these freezers to ferment in.
Look at this on eBay www.ebay.com/itm/251971627428
thanks
OK! You said RV refrigerator? Well gas refrigerators & freezers are available too. I got both, for our home. No noise, 1 pilot light (Hi/Lo t-stat). The only 2 draw backs is door light kind of gimp. 4 D cells with 6 volt led. The other is manual defrost.
Smart to let the unit set so it can settle, a lot of people don't do that and it can hurt the unit.nice vid.
Dude you are the bomb, love your videos. Keep them coming they are more then helpful.
Don't know how I got along with out my new 5.2cf freezer for so many years. Going to pack up some snow later in the season to make snow cones in the summer!!!
Happy with the freezer. Uses less power; about 56 watts at 0.83 amps running !!!
Good info, looking forward to more on solar...!!
Good thinking, good information. Thanks.
That ice cream looks gooood!! Binge watching your vids today!! 😘
If you will fill a bunch of bottles with water and put in there it will help it not to run so much since it would be full and as you need the space you can take the water bottles out. You'll always have water on hand that's frozen to. Just helps it not to run AS much. Mine is 38 years old. Yup very old freezer. When it goes I might just have to give it a funeral. ;-) Seriously though I am thinking about making me a cellar with it for veggies in the ground. Speaking of root cellars I was looking at a blog awhile ago and thought of you guys. With that hillside you have and ALL THOSE ROCKS ( I LOVVVVVE ROCKS yes I do, lol) anyway you could build you a root cellar into the hillside with all your large rocks!!! I saw one where they used car tires to stacked on top of one another and filled with soil. Anyway was thinking that would be mega nice in the heat of the summer if you had no power you could sleep in the root cellar where it would be COOLER!
Think about filling as much of the empty space in it with anything you can. Even boxes with newspaper,or milk jugs of water( their square so they take of more air space) . This lowers the amount of air your freezer will have to cool.
Entertaining video as always. Fun update and a little humour. lol. Nicely done.
yeah you can take that little refrigerator you got and lay it on its back and then take the motor and rotates at 90 degrees and then it will act as a chest freezer I have done one like that and it works great but as you say it's not quite as insulated as a regular chest freezer so yes it does use more
That's what our off grid freezer runs .6 kilowatts or 600 watt hours a day. I also have one that I converted to a refrigerator. It runs on 220 watt hours a day. Are you able to keep your batteries up in bad weather? Winter here in the Pacific North West are challenging for sure. I wont see the sun for another 7 days!
looking forward to the updates to your channel!
and do you know the lowtech failproof test for knowing if you lost power to your freezer and the food could be bad? you fill a paper cup with water and place a coin like a quarter on top. when you open the freezer, always check the cup and coin. if the coin is on top, the food is good. if the coin is in the middle or bottom of the cup the freezer lost power and thawed.
also, those freezers work best when they are FULL! the items once frozen help keep the temps even.
Get the extended warranty, we had a Sears small one like that and just after a year the compressor failed, and we found that it a common issue with the smaller chest freezer.
I was so happy to see you preserving your urban harvests. However, I feel the need to tell you that you must remove the rings from your canning jars. You should never store your jars with them in place. The only way that you should stack them is just how you are doing it. In the original boxes. Great job on the homestead and keep those videos coming!
That whole "freezing outside in the winter" thing has racked my brain time to time. At first it seems obvious that, since it's cold outside, why not put it outside instead of heating your house while trying to cool something inside that hot house.
There is a catch to this... the heat that a fridge or freezer is generating in your house (in the winter) is actually helping to heat your house (while cooling your food) so your furnace is having to work SLIGHTLY less hard, and using less energy. In the end, as long as you aren't draining your batteries too much, you might as well keep it conveniently in your kitchen.... especially if it's solar energy that would otherwise go to waste because of a full battery bank.
Haha! That was great. Thanks for the info!
You two are absolutely adorable and a true inspiration. I would never be able to live off-grid in and RV with my Husband and two kids in my area. It just gets too darn cold in the winter. But I get great ideas from you guys. Both for me to use now, and for me to do once I am able to buy my own property. Keep it up!
I do not understand your comment. I said they had great ideas and I would like to use them someday. Having kids makes it much harder to do boondocking and my winter weather can get down to -50. Not something I would like to subject children to if I have a choice.
I am sorry you have such a nasty disposition that you feel you need to be hostile to a happy family who is learning how to homestead, children included.
You have not thought about drying fruit, mushrooms, etc. Has become very popular here in Sweden when the freezer is full. As well as inlaid chantarelles are very good. :)
get a huge car fridge I've got an Engle. Keeps food around _20c so if you loose power in the winter you can run it off the car if you have too.
honestly, unless u have already mentioned that your opposed to propane it's going to be a given that some creature comforts are not yet designed for solar effeciency. hint-( 24kilowatt solar sys). The average solar useage would require the average household to install a 6-9kiliwatt setup. Or about $40k-$50k depending on contractors & quality of solar materials. My wife currently uses about 90 kilo a month which is 3x's the monthly average. I'm ready to go off grid if I can just get Edison Solar to install that $127k solar setup for Christmas. Then I can say we are 100% off grid & loving it!!! Here's the real kicker -- They say the average US home cost between $250k-$275k. Now, considering the amount of electricity needed to operate that 2,000 sq ft home wouldn't it be simpler to build a $150k home & install a $127k solar array & just sell the excess energy back to the electrical company & use the extra cash to buy groceries? I guess I want my independence & luxuries too.
With every video of yours I watch, I fall more in love with you guys. You're doing what my partner and I dream of, and seem to be doing it so well. I love your honesty and realness. Keep doing you, and I'm off to buy christmas presents with your amazon link.
Great Project Video!!!
Ugh, OSU Beaver people. LOL! Kidding, love the friendly rivalry. Another awesome video!! I'm storing all this information and making sure the file is backed up each time I add something to it. You're both full of great ideas and I'm sure they'll be put to use when I get to my new place. Thanks again for everything.
I have the same fridge and been using it for years off my solar :)
Hi: Great Video's. Please check to see if your freezer will run in necessary with it is very cold outside. Some freezer compressors won't start with cold oil in the compressor. You may need to add a hard start kit or small crankcase heater to the compressor. Both are small money.
I really like this show and the info is made easy 👏🏿👏🏿
Take a second chest freezer and replace the thermostat with a refrigerator thermostat and then you have a very efficient refrigerator.
Thanks for another great video!!
Did you look into propane freezers at all? We're off grid also, and we opted for propane for our fridge, freezer, cooking, and water heating, mostly because when we tried an energy efficient electric model freezer we still had issues with the power usage, and our rv fridge was propane and worked wonderfully in the rv, so it was worth a shot for us. Amish companies (diamond and ruby come to mind offhand) are making 100% propane operated appliances for off grid living. IF the electric one doesn't work for you (we live in SC where it's 100 degrees over half the year), then you might look into propane. Now that we've added wind to our power arsenal an electric freezer may work better for us, but we've already gone propane, so the world may never know.... I am so thrilled to follow your off grid journey.
I saw that you dug a hole for your waste tank/fresh water tank? You could do the same thing for food storage, you would not have to build a structure, just burry a tank into the earth and modify the tank with an upright door. Dig a hole for the cellar and an access to the door. This could also double as a storm shelter if needed. Geo Thermal costs $0.00 per month to have and uses earth energy. Fruit does not have to be frozen, it does have to be kept at or below 37 degrees F to keep it good for a matter of weeks. Canning it and storing it you will get 2.5 years or more. I would can it (vacuum sealed in mason jars) then pull out only as much as you plan on using for your ice cream and use only what power you need to freeze that.
I recommend getting yourself a Kill A Watt so you can accurately track the power consumption.
At an Open House I saw a Solar Powered Refrigerator based on the Amonia cycle. The cooler was to be used in medical clinics in Africa. tjl
+Tim Lipinski I think propane fridges actually use ammonia too. Propane is just used to heat the liquid which enables expansion which creates a cooling effect and thus refrigeration. Like a heat pump does.
Ever tought of root cellars.....and storing ice in saw dust....our founder were doing that way! ;-)
enjoyed you video i am same like off grid one bit of advice freezer light just tells you power to plug on e bay has digital thermometer uses aaa battery that way you can see temp at a glance if mechanical breakdown. you will notice temp b4 gets to warm :)
get a new upgrade to 240volts Outback system to running your freezer
typically with off-grid situations you will typically gravitate towards appliances that have 12/24vdc and 120/240vac and propane/lpg gas service for fridges and freezers..
these tend not to come from sears..
also invest in a multi fuel generator..
there are a LOT more efficient models for off grid that use 12,24 or 48 volt DC for both freezers and chest fridges.
.....you two r crazy....love it!!..great vids😄
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Hey guys, I've been really enjoying your vids and I was wondering when you would get around to the topic of refrigeration.
Have you looked at some of the DC refrigeration compressors? At this point you're starting to look at "roll your own" solutions, but there are such things as refrigeration compressor units that combine most of the elements needed (compressor, condenser coil, control electronics etc) that you can then fit to your own custom made freezer box.
Looking at some of them, like SunDanzer, you can get a ready-made freezer that connects directly to DC. That saves you room on your inverter since it can take power directly from the panels.
Other options like Sun Frost are also DC direct, but they are strictly reach-in units, not chest models. They are seriously dedicated to insulation though, the walls are as much as 4" thick!
It's also worth considering building one from scratch - more and better insulation, keeping the condenser coils out of the freezer's walls (lots of designs bury those warm coils in the walls of the freezer, which is just weird). There are lots of options to consider when it comes time to look at larger freezer solutions.
Love the series.
Don't forget consumer reports for product reviews and repair history.
plastic milk crates can help organize inside the chest (most->least used items.
When you mentioned opening the old mini unit I wondered about just mounting it on its back?
Will you be using the firelogs again this winter?
need a true sine wave inverter or the life or your compressor will be short.
drop a bunch of frozen food in and the freezer is instantly cold like an ice chest. and a freezer or fridge is more efficient if its loaded than when its empty.