Having alternatives to your conventional appliances will make life easier and, more importantly, aid survival in SHTF scenarios. Most of our everyday refrigeration appliances operate on electricity, and therefore having manual substitutes for them will cut down on your bills, and the money that’s saved will, in one way or the other, improve your lifestyle. Also, these DIY projects will help to keep life convenient even when disaster strikes.

2 Alternatives to Your Conventional Refrigeration Appliances

Refrigeration

How are your foods & medicines refrigerated in the absence of a fridge or power? Granted, there’s a costly technique that involves connecting your 12v fridge to a solar system, but this cannot be improvised when need be. Besides, this cannot be afforded by everyone. Another solution, likely to be suggested by science students, is the vortex-tube technology, but this is hardly efficient enough to serve you in real-life situations, and even, how do you intend to make the hardware?

Let’s look at simple systems you can make yourself to keep your foods refrigerated.

Root Cellar

Root cellars have been in use for hundreds of years. I remember seeing the local cooling system in many homes while growing up. The system uses the ever-cool temp found beneath the ground & the huge thermal mass of the earth to prevent decay & degradation of foods, medicines, and even batteries! The logic here is that the higher the room’s storage temp, the quicker the foods kept in it break down, including long-shelf foods. For example, MREs will have their shelf life reduced by half for every 10° spent about 60° Fahrenheit. I suggest using a root cellar even if there’s easy power. 

Constructing a root cellar is quite easy, save for the digging, which can be exhausting. If you can’t do the digging yourself, you can hire others to do so. Dig your root cellar into a hillside or just dig as a dugout. In rocky terrains, you may have to first frame the room or building in masonry & then pile dirt against it, so it looks like a hill.

Pot-in-a-Pot

This system engages the cooling, evaporative ability of Terra Cotta to refrigerate a space, just like some water filters being produced recently. Terra Cotta is available in different pot sizes, so you should go for which meets your refrigerating needs. This is a capable alternative if you cannot make a root cellar or do not have the room to dig it.

To make, nest 2 Terra Cotta pots. That is, put one in the other, although you have to ensure that about ¾” between both. These pots typically come with drainage holes, so seal them using cork, clay, plastic, or any item. You can caulk the object to enforce the sealing.

Line the outside out with ¾” of clean, rough sand, although this layer can be thicker depending on the size. Proceed to fill the space between both pots with the same sand, leaving only the top-level unfilled. Pour water in the sand filling & cover the filling with plenty of layers of cotton cloth or cheesecloth, leaving the end of the cloth in the space that wasn’t filled. 

Fill the main pot with the foods to be refrigerated and covered. Have cool water nearby as you’ll have to replace water as soon as it evaporates. 

Concluding The Alternatives to Your Conventional Refrigeration Appliances

With the two alternatives to your conventional refrigeration appliances discussed above, the aftermath of a disaster should be easy enough. With a working manual refrigerator, you can keep your foods in excellent condition. Also, under normal circumstances, you get to pay less for electricity.