# Passive off grid refrigeration



## Tirediron (Jul 12, 2010)

As far as I am concerned loss of grid power would make most refrigeration kind of hard, I found this link several years ago and find it to be a good idea except for the global warming crap http://fourmileisland.com/icebox.htm

I think one could expand on the idea and make a pretty decent system for a fairly reasonable cost, going with the if you build it you can fix theory.


----------



## Tirediron (Jul 12, 2010)

I also think that a cool room probably in a basement with a north facing passive cool collector would also come in pretty handy.


----------



## DKRinAK (Nov 21, 2011)

Tirediron said:


> As far as I am concerned loss of grid power would make most refrigeration kind of hard, I found this link several years ago and find it to be a good idea except for the global warming crap http://fourmileisland.com/icebox.htm
> 
> I think one could expand on the idea and make a pretty decent system for a fairly reasonable cost, going with the if you build it you can fix theory.


Went to the site on the link. While the guy might be smart, he lacks any kind of real web skills. That aside, it also seems the home owner is quite well to do - rich even. I don't begrudge wealth to anyone that obtained it legitimately.

A 20 acre 'lot' with a below ground home on solar isn't exactly low cost. And a 20 area lot by itself is not even a dream for the vast majority of folks that might bother to read the stuff posted on the site. So, railing against the very system that gave this cat the wealth to have all of the stuff shown is a bit...offputting, at least for me.

The ice box does seem to be a legit build, IF you live where winter temps hit 0F for long periods of time. SoCal? - ain't going to happen.

For the rest of us a kero or propane Unique, Dometic or Norcold fridge might make more sense. Sure would cost less....

Thanks for posting, it is a wide world and nice to see folks living their dream.


----------



## zimmy (Aug 17, 2012)

Perhaps he is a "DINK" (double income no kids) like my wife and I, not rich but thrifty, resourceful, and ambitious..:surrender::surrender:


DKRinAK said:


> Went to the site on the link. While the guy might be smart, he lacks any kind of real web skills. That aside, it also seems the home owner is quite well to do - rich even. I don't begrudge wealth to anyone that obtained it legitimately.
> 
> A 20 acre 'lot' with a below ground home on solar isn't exactly low cost. And a 20 area lot by itself is not even a dream for the vast majority of folks that might bother to read the stuff posted on the site. So, railing against the very system that gave this cat the wealth to have all of the stuff shown is a bit...offputting, at least for me.
> 
> ...


----------



## crabapple (Jan 1, 2012)

May not be a big problem for our kids!

This has nothing to do with human impact on climate change, but instead the activity of the sun and how solar cycles impact our climate as well. It's based on a mathematical model that shows the sun might "quiet" down in the coming years thus impacting our climate as well. This is not a climate change denial article, please read it before commenting.

A few months ago, NASA published a study showing that Antarctica is actually gaining more ice than it is losing. They made the announcement after using satellites to examine the heights of the region's ice sheet. The findings contradict the prevailing theory that Antarctica has actually been shrinking, however. The paper is titled "Mass gains of the Antarctic ice sheet exceed losses" and was published in the Journal of Glaciology.

The authors of this study are from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, and the cause of this ice gain isn't entirely known, but a number of theories are mentioned in the paper. It is worth mentioning, however that NASA was blasted by dozens of their own scientists regarding their global warming stance, even though a number of the world's top scientists have questioned just how much an impact greenhouse gases have on climate change. You can read more about that here. (source)

Perhaps there are other factors contributing to climate change?

Just a few years ago, Antarctic ice extent had reached an all-time high. (source)(source)

There are many theories as to why this is so, and one of them includes the effects of supposed global warming, but not everyone agrees. That's a completely separate topic, however, and you can learn more about it in the articles linked at the end of this article.


----------



## Country Living (Dec 15, 2009)

Several years ago we bought a  19cf Propane Refrigerator  with a top freezer as a part of our disaster preparedness plan. Right now it serves as our 2nd fridge. It will become our primary fridge in case of a long-term grid-down situation where we choose not to run our residential generator. We have a  wireless thermometer  on the propane fridge as well as on both freezers with the alarms set to notify us if the temperature goes above or below a certain number. We bought a spare thermocoupler for the fridge as a "just in case" because it's critical for the operation of the fridge. The fridge has glass shelves and an interior light powered by four D batteries. You wouldn't know it was a gas refrigerator if you didn't see the fins in the back.

Our propane dealer had it drop-shipped it to them and they brought it out when they came to put in the line. The only downside is, and it's actually a throw-back to my childhood, is gas refrigerators have to be manually defrosted. What I've learned to do is when about 1/4th of the fins start getting iced, I empty the fridge (either move the food to the other fridge/freezer or put it in an ice chest), and defrost it. It takes significantly less time to defrost it at that time than to wait until all the fins are iced.

It may appear to be a bit pricey; however, what's the cost of food safety? We live in a hot, humid part of Texas where basements and root cellars are not viable because of a high water table. Sometimes peace of mind is priceless.


----------



## Tirediron (Jul 12, 2010)

Country Living said:


> Several years ago we bought a  19cf Propane Refrigerator  with a top freezer as a part of our disaster preparedness plan. Right now it serves as our 2nd fridge. It will become our primary fridge in case of a long-term grid-down situation where we choose not to run our residential generator. We have a  wireless thermometer  on the propane fridge as well as on both freezers with the alarms set to notify us if the temperature goes above or below a certain number. We bought a spare thermocoupler for the fridge as a "just in case" because it's critical for the operation of the fridge. The fridge has glass shelves and an interior light powered by four D batteries. You wouldn't know it was a gas refrigerator if you didn't see the fins in the back.
> 
> Our propane dealer had it drop-shipped it to them and they brought it out when they came to put in the line. The only downside is, and it's actually a throw-back to my childhood, is gas refrigerators have to be manually defrosted. What I've learned to do is when about 1/4th of the fins start getting iced, I empty the fridge (either move the food to the other fridge/freezer or put it in an ice chest), and defrost it. It takes significantly less time to defrost it at that time than to wait until all the fins are iced.
> 
> It may appear to be a bit pricey; however, what's the cost of food safety? We live in a hot, humid part of Texas where basements and root cellars are not viable because of a high water table. Sometimes peace of mind is priceless.


Using things that will make your life easier if shtf ,now when things are relatively good puts you many steps ahead of those who just plan or even buy stuff and keep it in storage..


----------



## RedBeard (May 8, 2017)

Country Living said:


> Several years ago we bought a  19cf Propane Refrigerator  with a top freezer as a part of our disaster preparedness plan. Right now it serves as our 2nd fridge. It will become our primary fridge in case of a long-term grid-down situation where we choose not to run our residential generator. We have a  wireless thermometer  on the propane fridge as well as on both freezers with the alarms set to notify us if the temperature goes above or below a certain number. We bought a spare thermocoupler for the fridge as a "just in case" because it's critical for the operation of the fridge. The fridge has glass shelves and an interior light powered by four D batteries. You wouldn't know it was a gas refrigerator if you didn't see the fins in the back.
> 
> Our propane dealer had it drop-shipped it to them and they brought it out when they came to put in the line. The only downside is, and it's actually a throw-back to my childhood, is gas refrigerators have to be manually defrosted. What I've learned to do is when about 1/4th of the fins start getting iced, I empty the fridge (either move the food to the other fridge/freezer or put it in an ice chest), and defrost it. It takes significantly less time to defrost it at that time than to wait until all the fins are iced.
> 
> It may appear to be a bit pricey; however, what's the cost of food safety? We live in a hot, humid part of Texas where basements and root cellars are not viable because of a high water table. Sometimes peace of mind is priceless.


Also in a pinch you can run it off methane. Im sorry i have an obsession with methane.


----------



## Country Living (Dec 15, 2009)

RedBeard said:


> Also in a pinch you can run it off methane. Im sorry i have an obsession with methane.


We have two 1,000 propane tanks as a lesson learned from this forum when the propane shortage hit the northwest three or four years ago. If we choose not to run the residential generator, we'll have propane for the fridge and the stove (burners) for years. We have a Sun Oven for baking. A Bison hand-pump on our water well. We added a 200' leach line to our aerobic septic system a few years ago (I had an epiphany one day about what would happen with our aerobic septic system should be power or the pump go out... the answer is - the sewage would flow out the top of the holding tank onto the yard). A wood stove heats the house so it's important we keep at least three years of cut wood on hand at all times.

The biggest lesson to learn is the time to get something is when you don't need it.

A bad storm hit north of us a few months ago and some people were going to be without power for a few weeks. The company from whom we bought our Koehler received a lot of calls from people who got upset when a generator couldn't be delivered and installed that day. They were unaware, or ignored the fact, there's prep work to putting in a residential generator. Plus, the queue for the generators grew exponentially those first few days.

It's the same thing with a tornado shelter. The time to get one is not when you see the tornado coming towards you.....

Storms pass and people forget until the next storm or the next incident and suddenly everything is an emergency again.

I'm not saying we've thought of everything. However, we regularly go over our daily activities and ask "what if....". There are critical life-safety issues such as food acquisition, food preparation, food preservation, sanitation, rodent control (how many of you didn't think of that?), etc. The questions need to be asked. IMHO.


----------



## LastOutlaw (Jun 1, 2013)

I have an off grid location that I go to every couple of weeks. It takes me one full hour once I leave pavement and two water crossings to get to it. When I first got it I struggled with the cold issue. I almost sprung for one of those disgustingly expensive coolers but still didn't want to have to drive over two hours even once a week to get ice. I opted instead of the propane fridge or the expensive cooler for the modified chest freezer. My modified chest freezer utilizes around 300 watts of electricity per 24 hour period.Most people can generate that kind of power affordably. 
Here is a link to info on the modified chest freezer into a fridge.

Copy below link
https://www.newlifeonahomestead.com/convert-chest-freezer-to-fridge-solar/

How To Easily Convert a Chest Freezer to a Fridge For Solar and More!

by Kendra | Sep 23, 2014 | OFF GRID | 82 comments
Why Would We Want a Chest Fridge?

In the months before purchasing our solar kit, we took measurements of how much power each of our appliances pulls using a Kill A Watt Meter. After plugging our fridge into the meter for several days, we were able to determine that our upright unit was pulling about 2.25 kWh/day. With a solar system that will only produce 4-6 kW/day (assuming sunny days and clear skies), we had to find a way to reduce the load our fridge required.

How To Convert a Chest Freezer to Fridge

I did a lot of research online, reading solar forums to find out what other people were doing for refrigeration off the grid. Many people use propane or gas refrigerators, but we didn't want to have to depend on buying fuels to keep a fridge running. Some people recommend solar refrigerators, but with the smallest models starting out at around $700, this option was way out of our price range. A more primitive alternative is using a Zeer Pot, but we really need something more practical than that for our everyday needs.

And then I came across something that sounded too good to be true:

Converting a chest freezer&#8230; a regular ol' chest freezer&#8230; into a super energy efficient fridge.

Surely it would be complicated. There would be re-wiring and all sorts of complicated electrical modifications. Right?

Actually, not at all. It's as simple as an extra plug. But I'll get to the technical stuff in a minute.

One of the best things about a chest fridge is that they require just a fraction of the energy an upright model uses. Think about it. Cold air sinks. So when you open an upright fridge, all of that cold air you've paid to produce falls right out of the fridge at your feet, which in turn causes it to run more often. But with a chest fridge that cold air just sinks back down into the unit, requiring less energy to keep it cool. That's why grocery stores like to use chest fridges.

Even if you don't have any plans for going off the grid, you might want to consider the benefits of replacing your upright fridge/freezer with chest units simply for the energy savings.

Switching to a chest fridge isn't for everyone. There are definite drawbacks to a system like this, which we'll talk about later. But for us, it was a perfect and affordable option to use alongside our solar kit.

Converting A Chest Fridge To a Freezer

chest fridge

Step One: Finding The Right Freezer

When shopping for a chest freezer to convert to a fridge, find the smallest unit to accommodate your needs. Generally, the smaller the freezer the less energy it will require.

We found a 6.8 cu. ft. Magic Chef freezer for $80 on Craigslist. It'll fit an 8×13 casserole dish down in the bottom, so there's plenty of room to store leftovers or make-ahead meals. Although this unit isn't Energy Star rated, it was comparable. Before deciding on a purchase, do some research into how much energy it uses compared to other models of equal size. The amount of watts it uses as a freezer will be different from what it'll use once converted to a fridge, but by comparing models you can at least get an idea of whether it uses more energy than necessary or if it's pretty energy efficient from the get-go.

To figure out how many watts a freezer pulls, you'll need to use the formula: Amps x Volts = Watts. There should be a plate or sticker somewhere on the freezer that tells you how many amps and volts your freezer uses.

Just for reference, our freezer breaks down like this: 2.0 A x 115 V = 230 Watts, or .23 kW (1 kW = 1000 Watts). This tells us approximately how many watts the unit uses per hour.

After converting the freezer to a fridge, our unit was pulling .68 kWh/day. Once we loaded it up with food the chest fridge is now reading about .51 kWh/day. That's less than a quarter of the energy our upright fridge used!

If you get a used chest freezer, make sure everything is in good working order, and ask about the last time the freon was topped off scratch that, but do make sure there isn't a leak in the line.

fridge freezer

Step Two: Controlling The Temperature

Once you've found a chest freezer the next step is to convert it to a fridge. The easiest way to do that is to purchase a Johnson Controls Freezer Temperature Controller. We got ours for about $50 on Amazon.

With this device, there is no re-wiring or complicated configuring whatsoever. It's as simple as a plug.

Here's how it works&#8230;

Plug your freezer into the controller. Plug the controller into the wall outlet. Set the thermostat on the controller to a good temperature for refrigeration (we've got ours on 32*). Place the copper prong in the freezer, feeding the copper wire underneath the lid. The temperature in the box will raise to the new thermostat's setting, and your unit will automatically go from being a freezer to a fridge. Easy enough?

freezer fridge

We mounted the controller to the wall behind the chest fridge. You can see the copper wire leading into the fridge from the back side. It just slips right underneath the lid. My husband also mounted a power strip with timers for our chest fridge and freezer, so we can control how often they come on when our solar is low on power.

chest fridge

Here's the inside of the fridge before it's filled. You can see the copper wire and probe in the center of the fridge. We try to keep it hanging around the middle of the fridge to keep the temperature consistent. If the probe is closer to the top of the fridge, it may read warmer air causing the unit to cool down unnecessarily.

fridge probe

I try to keep the prong from touching the wall of the fridge. Not sure if that matters, but it seems like a good idea.

chest fridge

A refrigerator thermometer helps us make sure it's staying at the right temperature.

Getting Used To A Chest Fridge

chest fridge

Once I had sufficiently emptied our upright fridge/freezer, I was ready to move what remained to the new solar powered chest fridge. I was shocked by how much space was being taken up in our fridge by stuff that didn't even require refrigeration. I'm still working my way through the condiments and canned goods (I had like six jellies open in the fridge&#8230; yikes!), but when it comes down to the basics, we really only need the fridge for dairy products, a few condiments, leftovers, and more delicate produce such as leafy greens.

Down in the bottom of the fridge I put a milk crate to hold condiments and things we don't use that often. Over time, condensation builds up in the bottom of the fridge and it needs to be soaked up. Having all of the loose jars up out of the water and in one easy-to-remove container makes cleanup a little easier.

chest fridge

I've used two freezer baskets to take advantage of the space at the top of the fridge. In these I put the stuff we use most often. I've found that having our leftovers right on top where they can't get lost has really helped me use them up, where as before they would often get pushed to the back of the fridge and forgotten.

Having two baskets is a good use of the space, but it isn't as practical as I'd like. To get to anything below, we have to remove one of the baskets first. Ideally, we would just slide one basket to either side to reach the bottom. Frugal Kiwi has an excellent post on Organizing Your Chest Refrigerator, in which she shares some fantastic ideas for making the most of your space while still allowing access to the bottom of the fridge. I'd love to make shelves like her husband made, eventually.

But what about a freezer?

Yes, we still have a freezer. Instead of having an upright fridge/freezer AND a chest freezer (which is what we had before), we've consolidated all of our frozen foods into the one chest freezer. The chest freezer by itself pulls about 1kWh/day, which we can support with the solar panels alongside the chest fridge.
Drawbacks

Yes, there are trade-offs when switching from an upright to a chest fridge. Here are a few I've discovered so far&#8230;

Convenience- Obviously, having to move stuff to reach down into the fridge is a little less convenient than we're used to. But honestly, it really hasn't been too much trouble.

Condensation- The fridge does accumulate water in the bottom from condensation. About once a week I pull everything out of the fridge and dry it up with a towel.

No Instant Filtered Water- With our upright fridge, the kids were used to helping themselves to cold, filtered water straight from the fridge door. Now they have to get water from the kitchen faucet, 'cause it's too far down for them to reach into the bottom of the fridge. I'd like to get a Berkey or other beverage dispenser to fill with ice water to keep on the kitchen counter so that it's easier for the children to fill their cups whenever they need to.

No Ice Maker- Of course, we don't have an automatic ice maker now either, so it's back to the old fashioned ice cube trays. Which works just fine.

Space- Having a chest fridge and a chest freezer definitely requires more floor space than an upright model. This may be a deal breaker for you. We have chosen to be unconventional (imagine that!) and move our chest fridge and freezer into the master bathroom, which is on the north side of the house and stays the coolest. We had to sacrifice the garden tub, but honestly we probably wouldn't have used it anymore anyways since we'll have to be more conservative with our water usage. (Now I get to figure out the best way to fill the empty space where our fridge used to be in the kitchen.)

With a little adjusting it really hasn't been difficult to get over these minor inconveniences. In our opinion, it has definitely been worth the trade.
Total Cost

The total setup cost to us was about $130 for a fridge that now runs on solar power, which we quickly made back by selling our upright fridge. Your cost will depend on the deal you can find on a chest freezer, plus about $50 for the thermostat controller.

Refrigerators generally don't cost that much to run for a year, especially newer more efficient models. But when your power is limited and every watt adds up in a big way, converting a chest freezer to a fridge is a great way to significantly reduce your household energy load.


----------



## Tirediron (Jul 12, 2010)

The chest fridge is a great idea, and I really like how simple this conversion is


----------



## hashbrown (Sep 2, 2013)

We had a concrete spring box on farm when I was a kid. We didn't use it for refrigeration but it was damn nice to go in when working on a hot day. It was maybe 10x12 and the spring basin was probably was 4x12. When we would catch too many catfish we would put them in the basin for weeks at a time. Mom would tell us to go get a catfish and we would net one out and bring it up to the house. I can see how these would work really well if you have a good spring.


----------



## LastOutlaw (Jun 1, 2013)

hashbrown said:


> We had a concrete spring box on farm when I was a kid. We didn't use it for refrigeration but it was damn nice to go in when working on a hot day. It was maybe 10x12 and the spring basin was probably was 4x12. When we would catch too many catfish we would put them in the basin for weeks at a time. Mom would tell us to go get a catfish and we would net one out and bring it up to the house. I can see how these would work really well if you have a good spring.


I WISH I had a spring on my land there!


----------



## Woody (Nov 11, 2008)

I had a stone foundation basement in PA that did stay cool year long. It was not cool enough for dairy and such, but would keep veggies fine. There was a spring fed creek (pronounced Krik) out back and I used that for stuff what needed to be cold. It would have been nice to make a concrete bin for it, but the thing would flood several times a year so just a wooden box had to do. Yeah, if I wasn’t thinking ahead you did have to go look for the box downstream.

Friends did have an official spring house and that was great. The basic concrete tub with an overflow gave them enough water for gravity feed to the house. And as stated above, was a great place to spend some time watching the frogs on a hot summer day.

In NC, not so lucky. The ground temps were in the upper 50’s so not cool enough to store anything. I had to get by with canning everything and drinking fluids ‘cowboy cool’ or ambient outside shaded temperature.


----------



## RedBeard (May 8, 2017)

Country Living said:


> We have two 1,000 propane tanks as a lesson learned from this forum when the propane shortage hit the northwest three or four years ago. If we choose not to run the residential generator, we'll have propane for the fridge and the stove (burners) for years. We have a Sun Oven for baking. A Bison hand-pump on our water well. We added a 200' leach line to our aerobic septic system a few years ago (I had an epiphany one day about what would happen with our aerobic septic system should be power or the pump go out... the answer is - the sewage would flow out the top of the holding tank onto the yard). A wood stove heats the house so it's important we keep at least three years of cut wood on hand at all times.
> 
> The biggest lesson to learn is the time to get something is when you don't need it.
> 
> ...


When your propane runs out you can use that fancy poop pump and pump it into a methane digester.... Free fuel


----------



## RedBeard (May 8, 2017)

hashbrown said:


> We had a concrete spring box on farm when I was a kid. We didn't use it for refrigeration but it was damn nice to go in when working on a hot day. It was maybe 10x12 and the spring basin was probably was 4x12. When we would catch too many catfish we would put them in the basin for weeks at a time. Mom would tell us to go get a catfish and we would net one out and bring it up to the house. I can see how these would work really well if you have a good spring.


It was popular up here to use a spring as refrigeration.


----------



## Country Living (Dec 15, 2009)

I have spring house envy.... I want one; however, I don't know how practical one would be in the Texas heat/humidity.


----------



## crabapple (Jan 1, 2012)

Country Living said:


> I have spring house envy.... I want one; however, I don't know how practical one would be in the Texas heat/humidity.


https://www.hcp4.net/Community/Parks/Jones/RedbudHill

http://www.hobbyfarms.com/6-food-storage-alternatives-to-root-cellars-2/

http://www.greenhomebuilding.com/QandA/storefood/rootcellar.htm


----------



## LastOutlaw (Jun 1, 2013)

crabapple said:


> https://www.hcp4.net/Community/Parks/Jones/RedbudHill
> 
> http://www.hobbyfarms.com/6-food-storage-alternatives-to-root-cellars-2/
> 
> http://www.greenhomebuilding.com/QandA/storefood/rootcellar.htm


I looked in to a root cellar around my area. According to the ground temp charts I found I would have to dig in around 60 feet to get to cooler ground temps. 
Yes the side of a hill would cut down dig time..


----------



## LastOutlaw (Jun 1, 2013)

Country Living said:


> We have two 1,000 propane tanks as a lesson learned from this forum when the propane shortage hit the northwest three or four years ago. If we choose not to run the residential generator, we'll have propane for the fridge and the stove (burners) for years. We have a Sun Oven for baking. A Bison hand-pump on our water well. We added a 200' leach line to our aerobic septic system a few years ago (I had an epiphany one day about what would happen with our aerobic septic system should be power or the pump go out... the answer is - the sewage would flow out the top of the holding tank onto the yard). A wood stove heats the house so it's important we keep at least three years of cut wood on hand at all times.
> 
> The biggest lesson to learn is the time to get something is when you don't need it.
> 
> ...


When we bought this property 2 years ago the owners had just gone through a bad ice storm the winter before. They said the power was out for 2 weeks and they had to melt icicles for drinking water. They also said if the wind blows the power goes out.

We installed a Generac 22kw that runs off of propane. it will power pretty much the whole house. The seller had a deal through our electrician and we got it with installation for a bit less than 5 thousand.


----------



## RedBeard (May 8, 2017)

LastOutlaw said:


> When we bought this property 2 years ago the owners had just gone through a bad ice storm the winter before. They said the power was out for 2 weeks and they had to melt icicles for drinking water. They also said if the wind blows the power goes out.
> 
> We installed a Generac 22kw that runs off of propane. it will power pretty much the whole house. The seller had a deal through our electrician and we got it with installation for a bit less than 5 thousand.


Generacs are great! I used to install them. 22kw should be more than enough to power a whole house. I power mine with a 8kw so you should be golden.


----------



## Country Living (Dec 15, 2009)

We had a 16kw Generac for ten years and switched to a 14kw Kohler in spring.

Have any of you heard about the new heat pumps where the heat strips don't come on until it's 10 degrees outside? We need something that can run off the generator when the power goes out.

We're looking at options on how to heat the house when we are no longer able to cut wood for the wood stove a part of our "aging in place" plan. There's no room for a gas (propane) furnace. Right now we see our only option as a gas space heater. It's got to be something the generator can support.

Any thoughts?


----------



## Flight1630 (Jan 4, 2017)

What about wood pellet stoves?


----------



## Tirediron (Jul 12, 2010)

Country Living said:


> We had a 16kw Generac for ten years and switched to a 14kw Kohler in spring.
> 
> Have any of you heard about the new heat pumps where the heat strips don't come on until it's 10 degrees outside? We need something that can run off the generator when the power goes out.
> 
> ...


a radiant propane heater would probably be a possibility, especially if you can find one with a manual pilot and thermo couple


----------



## terri9630 (Jun 2, 2016)

Flight1630 said:


> What about wood pellet stoves?


Pellet stoves require electricity. One of my neighbors got around that by pulling the battery from his RV and keeps it in the garage on a trickle charger during the winter. When the power goes out he puts an inverter on it and runs an extension cord from the pellet stove to the battery.


----------



## Flight1630 (Jan 4, 2017)

terri9630 said:


> Pellet stoves require electricity. One of my neighbors got around that by pulling the battery from his RV and keeps it in the garage on a trickle charger during the winter. When the power goes out he puts an inverter on it and runs an extension cord from the pellet stove to the battery.


I found this. 
http://www.pelletstovefires.com/non-electric-pellet-stove.html


----------



## terri9630 (Jun 2, 2016)

Caribou said:


> One option might be to burn coal. You would still need yo haul it into the house but no cutting, splitting, or stacking.
> 
> I currently heat with natural gas. As a backup I plan to install a chimney in the living room and get a wood stove that I can install when the need arrises. I currently have no place to put a stove but in an emergency the love seat would become surplus. if it came down to it I'd rather that my friends sat on the floor than I sat in the cold.
> 
> My plan is to get a trailer and load it up with coal then cover it with a metal roof. I won't have to worry about termites or rot. There are a few projects ahead of this one.


Make sure it's a coal stove. Coal is supposed to burn hotter than most wood stoves can handle. I didn't know that until I got my little "FATSO" and did research on it looking for parts.


----------



## terri9630 (Jun 2, 2016)

Flight1630 said:


> I found this.
> http://www.pelletstovefires.com/non-electric-pellet-stove.html


I've never heard of those. Probably because of this little quote from the page you posted.

"None except the Wiseway has a UL certificate, so insurance for a dwelling using them will be hard to get.".

The places around here only carry the UL approved stoves.


----------



## Flight1630 (Jan 4, 2017)

terri9630 said:


> I've never heard of those. Probably because of this little quote from the page you posted.
> 
> "None except the Wiseway has a UL certificate, so insurance for a dwelling using them will be hard to get.".
> 
> The places around here only carry the UL approved stoves.


Oh ok I didn't know about UL sertificats. I guess if your out in the middle of no were, it probably won't matter to much.


----------



## Flight1630 (Jan 4, 2017)

Found a wood pellet company that looks like a UL sertificats.
http://wisewaypelletstove.com/


----------



## terri9630 (Jun 2, 2016)

Flight1630 said:


> Found a wood pellet company that looks like a UL sertificats.
> http://wisewaypelletstove.com/


The link you posted said that was the only company that was certified. I've never seen them so I couldn't tell ya. When we get to the point where we are ready to put in a wood stove at the other house I'm getting a pioneer princess cook stove. I quit looking after I found those.


----------



## Tirediron (Jul 12, 2010)

the purpose of the passive cooling system is to freeze the ice in place, kind of cutting out the middle man


----------

