living without a fridge/freezer

[Tarrel]

(30 June 2013, 22:10)Highlander Wrote: But how did the Iceman make his ice?, we can only just buy Ice cream and get it home in a cool box from the shops an hour away,... how did he transport it after making it,... I feel a google moment coming on

Believe it or not, some of it was imported from Scandinavia! Ice in large quantities will stay frozen for a surprisingly long time. The larger the chunk, the smaller the surface-to-volume ratio.

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(30 June 2013, 21:41)Highlander Wrote: After an event where we find ourselves without power, we will still have our fridges and freezers, they will still have their uses,.. Bury them in the ground and use them like a chest freezer, and keep the ground around them wet, this will almost certainly be cool enough for medicine, and I suspect for most other foods as well,.... after all, we are most likely to be eating anything fresh as and when we get it,..our stored food doesn't need refrigeration

They will be more of less rain proof, although you could always cover the door with plastic under the rock cover

I have only just remembered, SDs post reminded me but I also have a 12v fridge in the attic from my caravaning days,... thanks SD..

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I have just been talking to the other half about this, and she suggested that because a fridge or freezer is insulated that the fridge wouldn't keep cool enough if placed in the ground as I have suggested.
So, with that in mind, maybe a single skinned metal box may work much better

....any thoughts?

I think it depends on whether you want to make things cool or keep things cool. On a warm day the ground will be cooler than the ambient air. So putting food in an uninsulated box in the ground will cool it down relative to ambient. On the other hand, if you have already cool food and want to keep it cool, then putting it in an insulated box in the ground will help. The ground will be less warm than the air, so the insulated box will need to work less hard to keep the heat out.

(Bear in mind it's always about keeping the heat out, never keeping the "cold in". Cold is simply the absence of heat)