Selfsufficientish.com

Hey Nev,
Just spotted your cooling article - Very cool!

I have read about the pot idea before and would like to try it. I see no reason why a series of these could not replace our fridge and look kind of funky at the same time...Just wanted to ask if you used a terracotta lid? There's no mention of a lid, so did you just leave it open at the top? Or maybe use a damp teatowel or something? Or is it meant to be open?

Is there a load limit? Did you notice 6 cans cooled less effectively than one?

G'Day Boots,

Yeah I have often thought the same thing. I am going to try larger pots and see how they go. I used damp hessian, 2-4 layers as a cover although if you were into potting you could probably use terracotta just as well. I really think that as long as it is in the shade and there is air movement it would cool down whatever you want - given time. Obviously it is not as "efficient" as the old fridge at cooling quickly. Let us know how you go with it

Nev

Funny, I came across my matey Nik the other day with a terracotta box in his car. I asked him what it was for and he said;
"It's this brilliant new eco-foodstore. You just damp it down and put whatever you want inside. It keeps hot things hot, and cold things cold, and it works really well!"
"Oh," says I. "What have you got in it at the moment then?"
"I'm just going back to work," he said. "So it's three cups of coffee and some ice cream."

Well, it would be good if I could find some!

There seems to be glazed fad going on around here

Bummer Mate!

Another possibility is to make your own. I have won local clay and treated it ready for moulding but that is as far as I have gotten. My skill as a potter is second only to my good looks, which gives you an idea of the rough sort of potter I am! It is possible to win, mould and low temperature fire local clays to make your own porous, unglazed pots. Do you have any potting experience, Boots?

Nev

Well now... that is a very interesting question, Nev...

Rather than go into my experience of turning bowls (and bowls turning me mad )... I shall instead share where my brain went with your suggestion.

WHAT IF... I was to build a mudbrick fridge on the same theory... horizontal rather than vertical... with inner walls filled with sand... and an old fridge door for a roof...mmm

Workable, ya reckon?

I think the basic idea is sound, Boots of the walls are thin enough to allow permeation of the water and you fire the whole thing! Again, low temperature firing would be the way to go. Otherwise the water would turn your mud bricks into just mud!

Nev

mmm. Ok... that could be a tad disastrous...

No idea how I would fire something that big . But I could seal it... but I guess that goes against the "breathing principle", huh?

Ok. Maybe a mudbrick fridge has to go into the same file as enclosing the farm in mudbricks. Won't tell my mate about that idea either...

Sure am glad you folks are here.

Boots!

If you want to low temperature fire you could build a brushwood fire in and around it and that may get hot enough. Otherwise............back to the drawing board mate!

You might try looking up about using zeolites, I don't know much about it but it looks promising for alternatives to refridgeration for cooling.......

Nev

Boots wrote:Just spotted your cooling article

Am I daft or what?
I just thought - if you can manage without fridge in Australia, that should work here even better - so have a look at the article - and I can't find it!!! (Btw, in winter I have a walk-in-fridge - my spare room, with the window open. But in summer I still need the fridge on...)

Where is it hiding?

http://www.selfsufficientish.com/fridge.htm

G'Day Ina

It is one of the feature articles on the front page or try the link above!

Nev

If you want to low temperature fire you could build a brushwood fire in and around it and that may get hot enough.

What IN MY HOUSE!!!!!!

Can just see me mate bringing out the straightjacket if I suggested that!

Far out Nev... we are a bit civilised in the bush, mate! Mudbricks aren't too moveable once they go together. Well, I don't think they are meant to be. And we are in the middle of a major drought, which means high fire season... Can't see myself getting a permit for that...

Me thinks I will just keep hunting for big terracotta pots.

Hmmmmm.......

I thought this was an outside job, OK, OK maybe next time!

Nev

I've been following this thread with interest. I can remember when we got our first fridge - must have been back in the early 60s, when they were still quite a rare thing. It was a gas fridge, and it was a complete conundrum to me how a small gas flame burning under the fridge could make the inside of it cold.

Before that, mum used to keep the milk in a bucket of water in the cellar - a rudimentary evaporative cooler, though I don't suppose mum knew anything about latent heat of evaporation. Later I learned that people who live in deserts like to keep their water in porous animal skins, so that it can slowly evaporate. This seemed a conumdrum, too, but it is a process which keeps the remaining water inside cool.

Given the principle that an evaporating liquid needs heat to vaporise, and thus absorbs this heat from the surroundings, cooling them, I'm wondering why the pot-within-a-pot cooler needs sand in between the nested containers. Wouldn't this slow down the evaporation? Why wouldn't it be better just to fill this space with only water, so that it can evaporate as readily as possible?