Alternative to walk-in cooler

[genericmail]

Anyone ever see this?

Found it and thought it might be worthwhile to someone.

http://www.storeitcold.com

I do not have a need now- but if I ever need one thought this was an interesting, if it works as described.

[Windy in Kansas]

Sounds fantastic. Would you mind also posting this information over on the Market Garden forum under gardening?

[agmantoo]

IMO this is nothing but an over priced thermostat hooked to a modified oversize air conditioner. They fail to mention the need and expense for an insulated room when comparing their unit to a walk in cooler. Read the How it Works page and at the end of the read tell me if you know anything more about the item than when you started to read the article. The entire article is only vague insinuations but nothing technical regarding the acutal workings. These people probably sell electric heaters the size of a shoe box for whole house heating during winter.

[redwall]

our camp ranger made one he just broke the controls to an ac unit.

[YuccaFlatsRanch]

I've spoken to the people who manufacture the Cool-Bot and how the cool-bot works is by tricking the thermostat on the A/C by heating the A/C's thermostat to keep the A/C running and also has a sensor that detects the buildup of ice/frost on the cooling coils. It balances the heating of the A/C's thermostat with the ice formation to maximize the running time and cooling capability of the A/C.

The write up I read was very clear as to what types of A/C would work with the Cool-Bot and also very clear about the amount of insulation needed and size of room for BTU of A/C needed.

The manufacturers were very helpful.

Compared to a commercial cooling system the Cool-Bot is very inexpensive.

[Oldcountryboy]

I question as to how well a normal A/C unit will hold up to being used for such a heavy job.

[highlands]

I've done a lot of research on this topic this year as we're going to be building four walk in freezers and coolers.

The price of that one is rather high. I've built thermostats for various projects and the cost is trivial. It doesn't have to be computer controlled, doesn't need fancy displays and even if it were it doesn't have to cost $300.

The other problem is over working the air conditioning unit. A partial solution is building a very well insulated walk-in room, remember vapor barriers, and that will help with the undersized refrigeration system. However, don't put a lot of warm food into it all at once. It can only remove its rated BTU's per hour.

1 BTU = the energy to raise 1 pound of water 1°F and then do it over time accounting for losses through the walls, ceiling, floor and doors as well as inefficiencies in the system and gradual losses in power in the A/C.

This is a doable project but it doesn't have to cost so much and don't expect too much from it.

Cheers

-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
in the mountains of Vermont
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/blog/
http://HollyGraphicArt.com/
http://NoNAIS.org

[Ed Norman]

I have the reefer unit with a 3 cylinder diesel engine from a semi trailer. Some day if I don't use the diesel for something else, it will be a cold room. A guy bought the trailer and wanted the box but not the reefer unit, so I got it.

[YuccaFlatsRanch]

I want a cold room purely to hang meat for about a week to age. After that I will turn the system off until the next time I need to hang meat.

[gccrook]

I am wondering if one of these would work?

http://www.farmtek.com/farm/supplies...;pg102720.html

[T Rice]

Walter,

Are you planning yours for meat storage?

TR

[highlands]

TR, Yes, for meat. Carcass chilling, cold product storage, hanging, curing and freezing. We're building a slaughterhouse and butcher shop - just for our farm. To meet USDA inspection standards we need a bit more than my all natural outdoor cooler/freezer I use for slaughter for our own family's needs. -Walter

[T Rice]

So Walter,

What's the temp you're looking to achieve?

Sub-zero?

[highlands]

TR,

The chiller is in the low 30 range. The cooler around 28 and the freezer -20. I'm not sure what curing will be - that is a few years off and we're just building the empty space for now.. The butcher shop is actually a walk in cooler too and will be around 40, basically as cold as we can stand to work. To conserve energy we'll be using a water cooled condenser on a scroll compressor for each room. Massive insulation and high thermal mass will also help with energy efficiency. In the winter we gain efficiency by using the outdoor cold - we're in northern Vermont so that helps for almost half the year.

Cheers,

-Walter