(Homesteading.news) Long-term storage of foods, as you know, can often require cooler temperatures. This article will discuss how you can build one using just an air conditioner while saving yourself hundreds or thousands of dollars.
As noted by Homestead Survival, one of the biggest hurdles to overcome is keeping your A/C functioning. The site notes that if you attempt to cool your walk-in below 67 degrees the coils on your unit tend to want to freeze up. However, you can overcome this problem with a Coolbot that you can pick up for a couple hundred dollars.
From the StoreItCold web site:
The CoolBot turns almost any brand of off-the-shelf, window-type air conditioning unit (purchased separately) into a turbo-charged cooling machine. Transform an insulated room into a walk-in cooler to keep your vegetables, meat, flowers and other products fresh and thermostatically controlled cool down to 35F!
Fans of this device say it not only saves on installation and repair costs, it will refuce your use of electricity and operating costs – something that should be welcomed by all homesteaders.
Now, as for the actual construction of your walk-in, StoreItCold has a number of must-do’s in order for it to be a functional alternative to a much more expensive alternative. Check those out here, along with the various designs.
The University of Kentucky also has a great design [here, in this short four-page PDF file].
The Coolbot technology is key, however. As noted in this report by Cornell University, the device has been a savior for many small farmers and homesteaders who need an affordable, effect cold-storage unit:
Since the device went on sale in 2006, thousands of small farmers – and florists, hunters, brewers and anyone else needing a walk-in cooler – have started using the CoolBot to keep their product fresh for a fraction of the installation and construction costs of the more traditional options.
The CoolBot uses patent pending technology that allows a home window air conditioner to keep a well-insulated room as cold as 35 degrees consistently, while at the same time using about half the electricity of a comparably sized standard compressor. The setup is simple: aluminum foil attaches a heating element to the air conditioner’s temperature sensor to trick the compressor into running longer. The CoolBot has a second sensor that idles the air conditioner when its fins are about to freeze, and restarts it when they have thawed sufficiently.
Check out this short video to see what’s involved in setting up your own walk-in cooler from Back Yard Meat:
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