Who needs a refrigerator?

Not sure if this is the right place for this, but after watching the 'Quest for a negative carbon footprint' video,  thought I'd share my experience eliminating at least one electric-sucking appliance from normal modern life here in NA - the fridge.

My partner and I used to live on a sailboat (by the way, that same sailboat is for sale - very inexpensive - if anyone's looking to live off-grid-ish but can't afford a homestead yet) and did so for eight years. The 'fridge' on it sucked, so I explored nautical alternatives, one being the once ubiquitous icebox.

Now iceboxes on boats also suck, because they're almost always badly insulated, awkward to use, waay to small, and don't keep things very cold for very long. So I built a super-icebox, chest-style, based on a design by Larry Pardy. It was around 32" x 22" x 24". It was 4" of pink rigid foam insulation, layered every 1/2" with aluminum foil to reflect heat, and fiberglassed to finish the final layer. Then it was installed in one half of a bunk, handy for the galley. I'm not a cabinetmaker, so the lid construction leaves a lot to be desired, but I did try to insulate it. Tip: never use red oak for cabinetmaking. Good grief!

We purchased those standard commercially available iceblocks, not sure how big, maybe 8" x 14" x 6" or so. I kept temperature measurements for a year, measured from the top shelf, figuring on that being the warmest part of the unit. In the summer two of those would keep the icebox at 8 degrees C for five days before replacing the ice, with wintertime conditions (it was next to the hull, which was in icy waters) one block would suffice every five days, for a steady 8 degrees C.

We were so pleased with how that worked we're doing it in our rental land dwelling now. I recently finished making a larger version, also 4" thick, but more regular fridge-sized, so we could store our veggies comfortably, not having a root cellar. We have access to a friend's freezer, so we're using that to make ice blocks. In the two months we've had it operational, it's been using two 8"x12"x5" blocks, swapped out every three or four days, to create a steady ambient 8 degrees C in the top quadrant of the icebox. Some day we'll move to a place where we can have our own freezer, and'll be able to freeze larger blocks of ice, which should slow down turnover.

We'd normally have a freezer anyway for food preservation. This way we don't need the fridge. Oh, and one more note of interest. After years using the chest icebox, when we had to go back to normal upright fridges, we hated it. In the icebox, everything is easily accessible. Nothing gets lost behind rows of mystery condiments, and leftovers, becoming impromptu science experiments. I love having a nice, easy icebox again.

Photos attached are of both boat icebox and the new landlubber version.

I'm sure there are design efficiencies which can be made, but this is where it's at for the moment.

Anybody else have icebox experiences?

K Rawlings wrote:Not sure if this is the right place for this, but after watching the 'Quest for a negative carbon footprint' video,  thought I'd share my experience eliminating at least one electric-sucking appliance from normal modern life here in NA - the fridge.

My partner and I used to live on a sailboat (by the way, that same sailboat is for sale - very inexpensive - if anyone's looking to live off-grid-ish but can't afford a homestead yet) and did so for eight years. The 'fridge' on it sucked, so I explored nautical alternatives, one being the once ubiquitous icebox.

Now iceboxes on boats also suck, because they're almost always badly insulated, awkward to use, waay to small, and don't keep things very cold for very long. So I built a super-icebox, chest-style, based on a design by Larry Pardy. It was around 32" x 22" x 24". It was 4" of pink rigid foam insulation, layered every 1/2" with aluminum foil to reflect heat, and fiberglassed to finish the final layer. Then it was installed in one half of a bunk, handy for the galley. I'm not a cabinetmaker, so the lid construction leaves a lot to be desired, but I did try to insulate it. Tip: never use red oak for cabinetmaking. Good grief!

We purchased those standard commercially available iceblocks, not sure how big, maybe 8" x 14" x 6" or so. I kept temperature measurements for a year, measured from the top shelf, figuring on that being the warmest part of the unit. In the summer two of those would keep the icebox at 8 degrees C for five days before replacing the ice, with wintertime conditions (it was next to the hull, which was in icy waters) one block would suffice every five days, for a steady 8 degrees C.

We were so pleased with how that worked we're doing it in our rental land dwelling now. I recently finished making a larger version, also 4" thick, but more regular fridge-sized, so we could store our veggies comfortably, not having a root cellar. We have access to a friend's freezer, so we're using that to make ice blocks. In the two months we've had it operational, it's been using two 8"x12"x5" blocks, swapped out every three or four days, to create a steady ambient 8 degrees C in the top quadrant of the icebox. Some day we'll move to a place where we can have our own freezer, and'll be able to freeze larger blocks of ice, which should slow down turnover.

We'd normally have a freezer anyway for food preservation. This way we don't need the fridge. Oh, and one more note of interest. After years using the chest icebox, when we had to go back to normal upright fridges, we hated it. In the icebox, everything is easily accessible. Nothing gets lost behind rows of mystery condiments, and leftovers, becoming impromptu science experiments. I love having a nice, easy icebox again.

Photos attached are of both boat icebox and the new landlubber version.

I'm sure there are design efficiencies which can be made, but this is where it's at for the moment.

Anybody else have icebox experiences?

That looks like a great piece of high efficiency engineering and don't sell yourself short that is good building techniques. It does seem though that rather than replace the energy usage  you have offloaded it to the friend with the freezer.  Not a bad solution really; a centralized ice maker and decentralized ice use. It was the model of the 19th century. I did help a client convert a chest freezer to run as a fridge simply by adding a beer keg thermostat. That was also an incredible efficient unit.  Some of the DC fridge makers sell complete refrigeration units you add to your own chassis also a very elegant solution.  Maybe save the transport costs of ice down the road.
Cheers,  David

That is quite ingenious for a specific application, bravo!

I can't even imagine being on a boat for more than an afternoon, I might have to try it sometime! I can only imagine the day to day stories that comes from that type of living arrangement.

Thanks for sharing.

Add on idea...  Looks like you might live somewhere cold in the winter?  Build another one about 6 times bigger on the shady side of a building outside.  In the dead of winter, make ice blocks outside and store them in that ice house.  Then you can consume those blocks for at least the spring and early summer before resorting to your friend's freezer.  Back in the day they harvested ice from lakes but you can make them in forms as well.

Yeah, it's not eliminating electrical need, but it's reducing it significantly, since we'd be using a freezer anyway, and fridges draw a lot more energy, day and night. Plus, and it's a nominal issue, I hate the sound of a fridge. Is it just me, or are they really noisy?

When we have normal winters, I could leave the water totes outside for mother nature to freeze them for me. But the past few winters it hasn't been consistently cold enough to rely on that. We're in the process of building an off-grid house, so the freezer would be one of the few loads the solar power would need to deal with. Some day I'd love to try the old fashioned earth-bermed storage in straw method.

I remember seeing in a old book from long ago a two storey design, where the fridge storage is actually on a dumbwaiter which sits below, in a small sub-level 'room' filled with ice. When you need to open your fridge, you'd raise the dumbwaiter box up to the kitchen, grab what you need, and lower back down. They stocked the iceroom in the winter, and presumably it lasts the summer.  I've been enchanted by the idea ever since. I used to have a pic of the diagram, but I just went searching and can't find it. If it reveals itself, I'll post it here.

K Rawlings wrote:Yeah, it's not eliminating electrical need, but it's reducing it significantly, since we'd be using a freezer anyway, and fridges draw a lot more energy, day and night. Plus, and it's a nominal issue, I hate the sound of a fridge. Is it just me, or are they really noisy?

When we have normal winters, I could leave the water totes outside for mother nature to freeze them for me. But the past few winters it hasn't been consistently cold enough to rely on that. We're in the process of building an off-grid house, so the freezer would be one of the few loads the solar power would need to deal with. Some day I'd love to try the old fashioned earth-bermed storage in straw method.

I remember seeing in a old book from long ago a two storey design, where the fridge storage is actually on a dumbwaiter which sits below, in a small sub-level 'room' filled with ice. When you need to open your fridge, you'd raise the dumbwaiter box up to the kitchen, grab what you need, and lower back down. They stocked the iceroom in the winter, and presumably it lasts the summer.  I've been enchanted by the idea ever since. I used to have a pic of the diagram, but I just went searching and can't find it. If it reveals itself, I'll post it here.

All great ideas. I love all those classic passive solar and alt building books from the 1970's early 80's.  As a built by the owner home it would be totally possible. My problem is I'm asked to build solutions for people who want to pay to have it done. At 200-300$ a square foot for a new build that ice chest room ends up costing $20000 to replace $1000 worth of solar electric system at most. Consumption on a 6 cubic foot chest freezer is about 500 Whrs per 24 hours. If its converted to a fridge 250 Whrs per 24 hrs. I find them dead quiet. Stand up Fridges are loud.
Cheers, David Baillie