I wanted to share with everyone the possibilities of constructing yourselves short term food storage.... cost effectively. A few years ago I put a system in place that we could just "shop" from on a daily bases. Buy items on sale over time and use at a later date. Because we live so far from the city, have livestock that we couldn't leave... and have only one bridge in and one bridge out, I thought it was wise to get set up for the short term.
At an auction I purchased an old (in awesome shape mechanically) pepsi cooler. Tore it apart, modified it and hooked it up outside of a 10"x10" well insulated room. It is powered 4 different ways, 1. by electricity, 2. by a diesel generator, 3. by a wood fired hydronic boiler and 4. by solar storage. Eighty percent of the time the room is cooled hydronically. The space stays at a constant 32-34 degrees. A very efficient setup and it uses less energy than a flat screen TV.
Today while the wife was in the city ...and of course I'm starving to death without her... I grabbed a 4 year old block of Balderson cheese and commenced to building myself a turkey and cheese sandwich. Three hours later and I'm still alive.....
Here are some pics of my set up:
Nice setup!
zz
Very nice setup indeed.
80% of the time by wood fired hydronic boiler? and is the boiler manualy loaded for this, A greater explaination of how you are doing that would be appreciated, and If possible a picture may help me understand the process better. Your modifications must have been extensive for this, and I cant imagine the efficiency to be great( operating in hydronic boiler mode) even at the 10x10 room size, but if the wood is plentyfull what does it matter I quess.
Also by soar storage, do you mean chilling a large mass?
The boiler is filled once a day in the winter and once every three to four days in the summer. I burn about 7 cords a year to heat about 8300 sqft. My home, my shop, domestic water, hot tub and my cold storage is heated/cooled for about $8.00 a month ... electricity to run my pumps when the solar batteries are depleted or offline. I trenched everything underground to a main distribution room in my shop and it is dispersed from there as needed. The modification used was a ten plate heat exchanger, copper tubing, expansion valve and spray insulation.
And wood is certainly not an issue.
Spent some time researching the wood fired hydronic boiler and it seems very interesting indeed.......I just know I am goignt o now be spending way to much time tonight reading more and more and trying to figure out how to make it all work. Thanks buddy!
http://www.nextlevelsolutionz.com/index.htm
This was my starting point, now to keep delving.
zz
Just reread your post, I goofed you said 7 cords not 8 for heating 8300 sqft. by heating do you mean short sleve comfortable through the winter, or areas like your shop at maybe just above 0 C , and the wood used, it dosent look like it but is it tamrack?
what is the division of floor space? eg 2000 sqft home, 6300 sqft shop?
Sorry for all the questions it just that I take my heating serious,and as a fellow wood only burner, if your doing 8300sqft @ 7 cords with only a outdoor boiler I need need to know how, maybe that is tamrack?
Impressive set up!
DaScribbler
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Hi,
Question if tshtf lasts a long time, over a year, your gas for the machines.....chain saws, ATV, trackers, etc....would of gotten old and of no use what is the other source of fuel you are planning to use?
I also heat with wood and about 4 cords a year and was wondering what other routes I could go beside arm strong. I'm getting too old to do that...but then again I may surprise myself. A Real Canadian Women...can cut a cord of wood a day! 😆
there was an interesting episode of Doomsday Preppers that featured a family who had built some sort of a hydraulic wood splitter. seemed very efficient and simple enough to make, although they didnt go into details. perhaps if anyone has knowledge of how to construct a wood gassifier, you could have the engine for the splitter running on that. Chopping wood to power itself so to speak lol. I cant remember exactley which episode it was unfortunatley.
See you all after.
Is not that difficult to build an hydraulic wood splitter. However, if you get quality parts i.e. Honda engine and you put it on a a frame and wheels so that it can be towed it can be relatively expensive. In the order of $1500. Now if you wait for a sale you can pick up and electric splitter for around $200 from Canadian Tire. Cheaper to do it this way and use the wood gasifier to power the generator. That is my plan anyway.
See you all after.
I really enjoy all those pictures...When I see pictures like that, I think I have such a long way to go...we live in the city so our options are limited...but I've decided that anything we do is better then doing nothing...! More pictures please!!!
Rain 🙂
It wasn't raining when Noah built the Ark.....