Wasting precious electricity on the frig when its freezing outside!

[pertnear]

When I was sitting in my living room here in Texas I got a cell phone call from my brother saying that if power didn't come back on soon he was taking his venison out of the freezer & setting it outside. We both laughed but thinking about it later, I remember seeing an old DIY show where someone installed a vent/thermostat/fan that actually brought cold air into the refrigerator from outside when the conditions were right. I'd say not worth the trouble here, but is that something common for my Northern brothers? It seem like all refrigerators ought to have a knock-out on the back where such a scheme could be set up as an option(?)

Just wondering....

[Bulldogger]

I recall seeing an episode of Alaska the Great Frontier and their freezers are on their front porches, not plugged in. It's not impossible.
BDGR

[Texas by God]

I have two refrigerators/freezers in my shop, and all the bottled water inside both is frozen. So I’m bringing the bottles in the house as needed to thaw them out. I think that I could unplug them for a couple of days and get away with it!
We’re on boil water notice- coffee counts as boiled water, right?

[Ural Driver]

NO! Ya still need to boil the water first......it takes two minutes at a rolling boil to kill bacteria. :coffee:

[Mal Paso]

Air cooled pantries used to be more common, fire regulations got a lot of them.

[Shawlerbrook]

Also, root cellars used to be common.

[John Wayne]

I've often wondered why you couldn't duct in ice cold air to the fridge with a small fan and out again.

[Scrounge]

When I was sitting in my living room here in Texas I got a cell phone call from my brother saying that if power didn't come back on soon he was taking his venison out of the freezer & setting it outside. We both laughed but thinking about it later, I remember seeing an old DIY show where someone installed a vent/thermostat/fan that actually brought cold air into the refrigerator from outside when the conditions were right. I'd say not worth the trouble here, but is that something common for my Northern brothers? It seem like all refrigerators ought to have a knock-out on the back where such a scheme could be set up as an option(?)

Just wondering....

The back room in my house (used to be a back porch) is also my workshop. We've been storing extra gallons of milk out there this week. Pulled the last gallon in last night, as it started warming up a bit yesterday, and today, it's up to 40 degrees F in there. It was around 20 a couple of days ago. Soil here is about 6" deep, at best. This is Tornado Alley, and cellars are rare here because the bedrock is tough enough to be hard to excavate in, but not tough enough to make a good shelter, or root cellar.

[BJK]

Maine here. We do that frequently if we have too much for the freezer. To cool something down rapidly, well, there's a lot more cold outside in the winter than I can make with electricity.

During a long duration power outage it's also common to get the coolers and take things out of refrigeration. Refrigerated stuff needs to be kept cool but from freezing and frozen stuff needs to be kept frozen. That can require moving coolers around day and night. Or that's what I did in years past. I'm too prepared to be bothered with that now.

For years I've thought about making an aluminum "box" upright cabinet (lockable against animals) to use as a freezer. I never have though.

[blackthorn]

You might be a red neck if----the stuff in your "freezer" actually resides in the trunk of your car.

[pertnear]

I remember a co-worker that had worked on the Alaskan pipeline saying he opened a window & set his beer outside on the ledge to get it cooled down quick. He said no more than 5 minutes or the cans would freeze solid! :drinks:

[MaryB]

I set gallon jugs 3/4 full of water outside to freeze and rotate them thru the fridge during a power outage. Saves on battery draw from the solar setup. Move everything from the fridge freezer to one of the deep freezers that I rotate power to 4 times a day. I use wireless freezer thermometer so I can monitor temps and see if one needs power.

[GARD72977]

I've often wondered why you couldn't duct in ice cold air to the fridge with a small fan and out again.

That would be fine until the temp warms up to 60 degrees before you thought about it

[DocSavage]

Ages ago I suggested to one of the local gas station convenience stores that he'd be smart if he had a thermostat control on his coolers to pump cold outside air on days where the outside temp went below 32°f/0°c to keep stuff cold. Granted it would only be useful from Nov to Mar but it could save him on his electric bill.

[Hick]

Around Thanksgiving through New Years we put all the leftovers out on the table in our enclosed back porch. We just open all the windows and use it as a walk-in freezer

[CastingFool]

I usually wait till the outside temp is steady on the teens or lower. Then, move all the stuff from the freezer to our breezeway, then thaw out the freezer. Sometimes, I use a heat gun to speed things up, too.

[David2011]

I have two refrigerators/freezers in my shop, and all the bottled water inside both is frozen. So I’m bringing the bottles in the house as needed to thaw them out. I think that I could unplug them for a couple of days and get away with it!
We’re on boil water notice- coffee counts as boiled water, right?

Around Thanksgiving 2016 I was living and working away from home in a small town near Lubbock when a strong Arctic front came through. I was in the Houston area at the time. When I returned I found that everything in the fridge had frozen. The soft drinks exploded and made a huge mess. Glad I wasn’t there trying to stay warm during that!

Now that I’m retired I’m going back to personal rule #1: If I have to wear shoes it’s too danged cold. Failed that this past week but got lucky. Only one pipe break and that was in the laundry room. Had to have a plumber fix it for $195 because I couldn’t buy $3 worth of copper fittings. The entire state is sold out of 1/2” and 3/4” copper everything.

[Geezer in NH]

I feel real bad when I have to send my wife of almost 50 years to fetch a beer from the cooler (so they don't freeze) onto the below zero porch to get me a cold beer. I do tell her to wear her sweater. :bigsmyl2:

[Lionel Allen]

Was talking to an electrician and as we were swapping stories he told me about o e of his customers who has a rural grocery store. He said the freezers were in an insulated garage. The heat from the freezers was keeping the garage warm enough to store other non freezable items indoors. Claimed the guy didn't need to run auxiliary heat.
No idea how it would have fared with the cold snap we just went through: couple of weeks in the -30's.

[gwpercle]

Our electricity went of for a while ... I decided it was time to leave our cold house and go anywhere with heat ... the thermometer in the refrigerator had a higher temperature than the kitchen !
I held the refrigerator door open to let some of that warmer air into the kitchen ... that's Insane !
When it's warmer in the refrigerator than in the house ... it's time to go South..or at least to a place with a working furnace !
Cajuns must not have any Eskimo DNA ... we don't tolerate the cold well at all ...
I swear I will never complain about the heat and humidity in Louisiana ever again .
Gary

[Woodbridge 30-30]

I've often wondered why you couldn't duct in ice cold air to the fridge with a small fan and out again.There is a guy on YouTube named thebossoftheswamp that has this type of a setup in his cabin. He did a tutorial about it in one of his older videos.

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[Springfield]

There are many ways ot heat and cool things without electricity, but they tend to be high maintenance as far as keeping an eye on them, and we have all become lazy and too reliant on the electricity. My favorite i read about years ago was a plant nursery that kept lots of rabbits in the greenhouse, as the rabbit ears produced a lot of heat, and it was cheaper to feed the rabbits than pay for the electricity. It was more difficult to adjust the heat, though.

[ascast]

Yes, it is done. Now days it is called "Economizer Cooling". Used in commercial applications, like convenience stores etc. Basically, a fan blows cold outside air in the cooler and the compressor stays off. Like Syracuse you could save money for more than 6 monthes of the year, but you still probably run the cooler some during the day.

[slim1836]

Around Thanksgiving 2016 I was living and working away from home in a small town near Lubbock when a strong Arctic front came through. I was in the Houston area at the time. When I returned I found that everything in the fridge had frozen. The soft drinks exploded and made a huge mess. Glad I wasn’t there trying to stay warm during that!

Now that I’m retired I’m going back to personal rule #1: If I have to wear shoes it’s too danged cold. Failed that this past week but got lucky. Only one pipe break and that was in the laundry room. Had to have a plumber fix it for $195 because I couldn’t buy $3 worth of copper fittings. The entire state is sold out of 1/2” and 3/4” copper everything.

And here I've got an ammo can of copper fittings. I would have been happy to have given you what you needed had I known and been closer. I don't get rid of anything.

I got lucky here, no broken pipes, yet.... Keeping my fingers crossed and saying a prayer at times. I feel for those less lucky than I. We are truly blessed.

Slim

[ascast]

do a search (google) on Economizer cooling, it is far more common than I remembered

[Lloyd Smale]

ive got 3 freezers plugged in. Two in the non insulated part of my pole barn and the other in an unheated enterance way. Some worry about them not holding up when run it sub freezing temps but one of mine is about 20 years old and one of the others is a good 10 years old and i never had a single issue with them even once. Now if you look where i live youll see that we are below 30 for probably a 1/3 of the year and 30 is a warm winters day in mid winter.

[dverna]

I need to unplug the freezer/fridge in the garage during the winter or I get a buildup of ice in the freezer when it goes into defrost cycle. The water winds up freezing where it exists the freezer and blocks off the flow.

[JoeJames]

Memorable cold spell here in the Arkansas: Last Thursday, after doing some snow clearing, I thought I'd have me a can of Guinness from the frig in my open garage. New one for me. The can of Guinness was frozen solid.

Broke off a piece from some firestarter, lit it, and put it in a cast iron melting pot, then set the can on it for a spell. Finally it melted enough to drink it. Still slushy, but drinkable. Never heard before of heating up a can of Guinness. Even then I had one of those ice cream moments when the semi-frozen beer hit the back of my throat.

[MaryB]

Memorable cold spell here in the Arkansas: Last Thursday, after doing some snow clearing, I thought I'd have me a can of Guinness from the frig in my open garage. New one for me. The can of Guinness was frozen solid.

Broke off a piece from some firestarter, lit it, and put it in a cast iron melting pot, then set the can on it for a spell. Finally it melted enough to drink it. Still slushy, but drinkable. Never heard before of heating up a can of Guinness. Even then I had one of those ice cream moments when the semi-frozen beer hit the back of my throat.


Good way to get buzzed fast, the alcohol will melt out first so that slush is probably 30% alcohol LOL Some high ABV beers are made by freezing and draining off the alcohol. Freeze distilling and you need a distilling license to do it on purpose. How apple jack was made in the old days, freeze, invert jug over another container and let the alcohol drain. Temps must be below freezing for this to work.

[Lloyd Smale]

I need to unplug the freezer/fridge in the garage during the winter or I get a buildup of ice in the freezer when it goes into defrost cycle. The water winds up freezing where it exists the freezer and blocks off the flow.

first thing to do is get rid of that self defrosting furnace. They use ALOT more power. Especially if there in a warm spot. Plus they dry out food. I know its about impossible to find a fridge that isnt but i wouldnt buy a self defrosting freezer if it was half the price.

[Butzbach]

NO! Ya still need to boil the water first......it takes two minutes at a rolling boil to kill bacteria. :coffee:

Not really. Preppers know that bacteria dies at 180 degrees F. In order to conserve fuel in a SHTF scenario you can cut the heat when the rolling boil starts as 180 degrees was passed on the way there to 212. :drinks:

[Butzbach]

There are many ways ot heat and cool things without electricity, but they tend to be high maintenance as far as keeping an eye on them, and we have all become lazy and too reliant on the electricity. My favorite i read about years ago was a plant nursery that kept lots of rabbits in the greenhouse, as the rabbit ears produced a lot of heat, and it was cheaper to feed the rabbits than pay for the electricity. It was more difficult to adjust the heat, though.

So, they didn't have a .22?

[JSnover]

It's a lot simpler just to keep the refrigerator full; they're more efficient that way. I've lived all over the east coast and the midwest and I only imagine this idea being worthwhile if it was cold for the majority of the year.