You are on page 1of 20

For the best deals on Berkey Water Filters, Tattler Canning Lids, Survival Foods and Related Gear

TheSurvivalistBlog.net Home About My Disclosure Policy Comments Policy Contact Survival Tips Recommended Preppers List Donate Advertise Here Survival Guns 28

How to build your own dirt cheap fridge


by M.D. Creekmore on February 7, 2012 28 comments This is a guest post and entry in our non-fiction writing contest by Michael C I noticed that many people on this blog want to store milk, vegetables, seeds and medication in a refrigerated atmosphere but have yet to buy 2 refrigerators. Remember the two is one and one is none motto; you need 2 ways (or more) to cool your food. You could make a Zeer pot, like I did but there is too much humidity and the pots arent big enough for 2 gallons of milk. I cant buy another (let alone storing a 19 cubic footer) $700 fridge as a spare. The other problem is I might not have AC to use in the future, regardless of all the solar panels I have. So, I needed a small DC powered fridge that will hold at least 2 gallons of milk and some other stuff.

I thought of what MD Creekmore would do a Do It Yourself project. (Mr. Creekmore has a propane fridge but, even though he is a great inspiration, I want to limit my power needs to solar since, that is the only long term solution and also because I have solar) Just like the MDC made water filter or electric generator

a person can make a refrigerator. Of course, there will be some technical discussion of the actual properties of said fridge. It will be a bit more involved than the water filter project and, for good reason you want something a bit more complex. My most important consideration is that it can be service-able by me, so, the fridge is not going to use Freon. I am going to use a Peltier junction cooling unit already built for the purpose. These units are less efficient heat pumps than an evaporator/condenser cooler but are solid state, small, low power and can be ganged together for more cooling power. Did I mention cheap? At only $35 per unit you could buy 2 and have one for a spare. I added fans to the peltier heat sinks (see photo) and they are the only moving parts. They are blowing air into the heat sink an important point here; there is more exposure to cooling air than trying to suck air out of the fins. You can have lots of spare fans and they are easily replaced. I wedged some round head screws between the tapered fins to mount the fans on each heat sink. The power cord goes to a car cigar plug (negative ground) with a 10A inline fuse. For anyone who is not familiar with the peltier device it is a heat pump that is made like a silicon chip. A DC electric current will get the chip to pump heat to one side of the chip leaving the other side cold. Heat sinks (and fans) help to distribute the hot and cold. The second part is the containment box that would consist of the good ol beer casket where they get an icy bath until they meet their drinker. Yes, a cooler, the cooler I selected is 18 x 10 x 10 (1.07 cu. ft. approx.) about 20 quart. A cooler has all the fridge properties like waterproof food grade inner walls, foam wall insulation (except the lid), rugged dent resistant outer walls. The other benefits of the cooler are: light weight, portable and you probably have them lying around in a corner from all the camping trips. This cooler will actually fit 3 gallons of milk but the 2 side containers will touch the walls. Now, a cooler can be expected to work as good as a cooler was designed to work it melts 2 bags of ice keeping 12 beers cold for a couple of hours. I figured that I would improve the efficiency a little bit. I also figured that this could make for a great article so I wanted to gage any progress I made. I decided to use a 7 dollar temperature monitor with remote sensor, which eliminates the open fridge door variable in checking the temperature inside. The sensor was taped to a plastic box (see photo) to keep it off the floor of the fridge so that air temperature only would be measured. Now, what to check, since I am designing a fridge; the cooling cycle is the metric to gage. This just records the temperature as the fridge runs how fast it cools. The other metrics are lowest temperature and the warming cycle which is keeping track of the temperature after the cooler is shut off. As I add insulation I will keep track of how the numbers stack up. The lowest temperature is the temperature when loses (heat gain) are equal to cooling effort. The cooling effort is (approximately) 60 Watts that is what the heat pump and both fans consume. (A person could mount 2 cooling units which would double the total cooling power) The first task involved adding the peltier unit to the cooler. The smaller top heat sink has 2 fins that slide out from the grooves on the side. I cut the hole (to the size of the smaller, top heat sink) into the plastic (see photo) with a metal Stanley cutter; the cover is really thick in some areas. I tested the bare fridge (see graph) and found that I could only get a 17F degree drop in temperature. The graph shows a fast rise after the heat pump is turned off and the lowest temp (47F) does not really work for keeping milk cold.

The second test involved adding a cheap space blanket (see photo) to the outside of the cooler. I used cellophane tape to attach an old (12 year) Mylar space blanket to the top and bottom of the cooler. The improvement was noticeable; the test ran longer as the heat pump was shaving 0.3F and 0.2F bits for a while. As long as the temperature kept falling I would run the cooler.

I, next foamed the cover (see photo) and then tested (see graph) a third (and fourth time), the low temp was now down to 40F deg. good enough for milk. The fourth test was exactly like the third except for shorting the peltier leads together at shutoff, this extended the cool time about 35 minutes at the low end. Doing this made the peltier junction fight the temperature change with its own electric generation thru temperature difference. (This efficiency improvement would be adding a switch to shut off/short leads) Adding expanding foam to the cover was the biggest improvement made, so far, and the cost was small just 4 bucks. The poly-urethane foam did not stick to the poly-ethylene cover so clean up was easy. The cover is easy to foam after you have cut the hole in for the heat pump. All the later trials do not vary in the first hour of testing proving that the foam insulation was a big factor for the fridge. The next step was to replace the old space blanket with a much better insulation solution. The blanket was interesting but, contains no insulation, just pure heat reflection and with only an 80% rate. I first added aluminum foil (used for grilling) to the top and bottom of the cooler. I wrapped a heavier space blanket around the cooler then doubled the blanket over a fiberglass batt wrapped around the cooler. The space blanket will seal the fiberglass in a sandwich and also serve as a double reflective layer. I used duct tape to hold the foil against the sides and for the blanket seal. The foil gives 100% heat reflection but tears too easily, the blanket and insulation press the foil against the cooler wall and protect it. The testing (see graph) shows that the NASA cooler can now drop down to 32 F. It also took almost 4 hours to warm up to 60F. A side benefit of the added insulation is that sound levels are down by half, cant hear the fan inside.

Things to ponder
This fridge is meant to be run on solar power just one sixty Watt panel (direct connected) will provide all its power during the day. At night one can use a battery or plastic ice blocks to help keep the cold temperature. A 100 Watt solar panel would provide enough power for the fridge and a battery. I do not have temperature regulation peltier cooler does not stop at a pre-set temperature. Right now the cooler cannot go below the freezing mark (32F/ 0 C) no matter how much it runs since it does not have enough power but regulation could be added if saving power became paramount. Remember this fridge was home made and can always be upgraded. I only measured the air temperature (see chart) inside the fridge; milk (and all other things) will take longer to cool down, maybe 6 hours (per gallon of milk) with this unit. It will also take longer to warm up a cold gallon of milk will help chill the next gallon of warm milk. I could reverse the cooling into heating by adding a small bridge diode to the fan leads and putting in a reverse-able coupling. The peltier unit comes with a connector you would need to find the cord to fit the connector. Of course; I already have a solar cooker. You could go out and buy a cooler with the peltier unit inside although I think that it would cost a little more then my unit. It might be a quite a bit less efficient (no space blanket heat reflection) and the parts replacement will be a question.

Part list
Free cooler (18x10x10 size I used, yours can be different) $35 PJT-10 Large thermoelectric device (allelectronics.com) $6 2X CF-390 80mm cooling fan ($3 -allelectronics.com) $4 can expanding foam (hardware store) $1 about 8.5 ft. of thin aluminum cooking foil (free) $13 CW B250 Space (brand) blanket ( EE beprepared.com ) $3 about 8.5 ft. (4 X 16) fiberglass Insulation (hardware store, - I had this laying around too) $62 I know that this fridge does not look commercial and I would not blame you if you bought a nice $1400 Sun Cooler DC fridge but if your Sun Cooler gives out you now have the skill to convert a cooler to a

fridge. Well, what do you think?

This is an entry in our non-fiction writing contest where you could win:
First Prize ) Winner will receive a Nomad 1 Person Standard Survival Package courtesy of Shepherd Survival Supply , a One Month Food Pack courtesy of Augason Farms , a $150 gift certificate for Remington Ammo courtesy of LuckyGunner.com and a EcoZooms Versa Stove courtesy of EcoZoom stoves. A total prize value of over $875. Second Prize ) Winner will receive two (2) Rothco Sure Paks With Heater courtesy of Camping Survival , a Wise Food Vegetable bucket courtesy of LPC Survival and a Wonder Junior hand grain mill courtesy of Kitchen Kneads . A total prize value of over $509. Third Prize ) Winner will receive 3 27 Variety of Non Hybrid, Heirloom Non GMO Survival Seeds, 2 Fruit Pack of Non Hybrid, Heirloom Non GMO Survival Seeds and 2- First Aid Kit with Sutures in a Waterproof Resealable Bag courtesy of Be Prepared Now . A total prize value of over $215. Contest ends on March 30 2012. Subscribe and never miss a post! Subscribe for free via RSS or E-mail !
Share This:
Like 40 1 Tw eet 4

Stum

Or Stick Around and Read More Posts...


1. 2. 3. 4. 5. How To Build A Solar Water Heater For $5 Weatherization on a Dime Part Two Weatherization on a Dime Part Three Raising Goldfish for Food : A Cheap and Easy At-Home Survival Food Build Your Own Underground Root Cellar Plans and Advice

28 comments

Matt in Oklahoma February 7, 2012 at 10:19 am That is awesome and something I will attempt soon!

JP in MT February 7, 2012 at 10:38 am Wow. I have a similar need for a small fridge for medications. This looks like it would do the trick.

templar knight February 7, 2012 at 11:49 am What do I think? I think this is brilliant, and I really appreciate you coming on here and showing us

how its done. And thank you, MD, for sponcering this contest. I have a couple of older ice chests that would work. This is great, one of the best entrys Ive seen.

j.r. guerra in s. tx. February 7, 2012 at 1:39 pm That is SO cool (pun unintended), thats just what the doctor ordered down in in deep south Texas. A diabetic might also want one of these units, should the main refer die at an inconvenient time. Thank you for posting this.

Jumbo February 7, 2012 at 2:56 pm Veeery interesting! I wonder about the feasibility of converting the smaller chest freezers into fridges with this technique? Ill be looking for a broken/junked chest freezer to try this out, maybe with two heat pumps, run off a solar powered battery bank. :)

chloe February 7, 2012 at 11:28 pm I too thought about using the concept with a chest freezeronly it would not be as portable as the abovevery good ideayou guys are really clever

TG February 7, 2012 at 3:00 pm Michael C, I will admit it, this went right over my head. But I know someone who would understand it so I am printing it out and as soon as I get a chance DADDY Lol. I will learn how to make it and he will enjoy showing me. Thanks a bunch.

michael c February 7, 2012 at 10:11 pm Any questionsjust ask.

Digital_Angel_316 February 8, 2012 at 9:54 pm Interesting article, good concept. Id like to see more on the battery charger/controller and the backup battery, and a short run down on the battery charge scenario.

It seems that a fully charged 12V battery run for 12 hours at 5A would require 720WH to fully recharge: (12V x 5A) x 12H. At the end of running the battery overnight for 12 hours the battery would be discharged by that amount. Does the battery charger/controller deep cycle (bulk) charge at higher currents or do you propose a continuous charge rate of 5A again over the new days 12 hours of sunlight to restore the battery to full charge? This seems like it would take an additional solar panel to be dedicated to battery charge. I understand that the proposed design requires less than 70W leaving approximately 2.5A (~30W @ 12V) available for continuous charging, cutting my calculations in half, but still it seems the battery would be undercharged and would need an additional source of charge current. Please advise. P.S. All of this seems to presume solar powered dairy barns and grocery stores or other alternate sources of energy when SHTF. On line (grid) power the proposed design would cost less than a quarter ($.25) per day depending on your utilities charge per KWH. Another approach to keep that power on and around will be to help take out all those refrigerators/coolers from the bottled beverage coolers at every corner mom and pop store and the walk in coolers at McDonalds as well as to cut the power used by the widget, gadget and whatchamacallit factories still in the U.S. Regards, Digital_Angel_316

michael c February 10, 2012 at 3:29 pm D A, Here in Michigan I get more than 12 hours of light (in the summer) so my fridge would keep going with just a 100W panel. I also measured the power taken by the cooler (w/ fans) at just under 60 Watts. You are right if you only have 12 hours (or less) to charge a battery you need more than twice as much for running both. A 140W solar panel would work. You can set up a smaller charge controller to run a load by connecting it up to load terminals. The controller will shut off the load with a LVD (Low Voltage Disconnect) when battery voltage is down. You set where down is. P.S. Arent cows solar powered dont they eat green? The AC to DC power supply should supply at least 5 amps at 12 volts. That would be a load off our grid.

cooolwoods February 7, 2012 at 6:08 pm yup. that post was very good. gotta try that myself. wow going to be tough to beat that one, homemade low voltage fridge. stay safe

blindshooter February 7, 2012 at 6:58 pm I have one of the igloo coolers that use this same peltier junction to cool or heat. Me and a buddy used it for a week at the national rifle matches at Camp Perry for a week. Stood it up with the cooling element up top and the door opening like a home refrigerator. The only problem we had was condensation pooling and running out when the door was opened. Not a problem in a WW2 prisoner of war hut on the edge of lake Erie but could be a problem if the box was on its back like a chest type. I guess a drain could be installed and probably in a grid down situation the thing wont be opened as much so the condensation might not be as bad. Good read, Im saving the parts list for sure.

OhioPrepper February 7, 2012 at 9:02 pm blindshooter, national rifle matches at Camp Perry eh? Before my eyes got bad I did some shooting up there, and our club is taking some of our youth rifle team there this year. Were lucky in that its only a few hours north of here. Its not the grand canyon, but its still a national attraction for the right kind of folks.

michael c February 7, 2012 at 9:14 pm Well, Im not going to stand my fridge up so I will use a wash cloth to sop up the water at the bottom.

Harold Dean February 7, 2012 at 7:45 pm They have made and sold Peltier Effect beer coolers for years that you place on the seat of your car and plug into the cigarette lighter. They normally hold a six pack but in 94d when I bought the last one, they had increased the size to two six packs. JC Whitney in Chicago used to sell them a lot. The Peltier Effect is a little known phenomenon unles s you happen to be an electrical engineer specializing in solid state circuitry. A large scale usage of this peculiar effect is in Scotland where a plate is at the bottom of the ocean and one on the mountaintop near a small village with the cable being tapped in the middle to provide electricity for the village. Harold

OhioPrepper February 7, 2012 at 10:20 pm Michael, Good article. Ive worked with Peltier devices, but hadnt realized that the higher capacity ones had gotten so inexpensive. Thanks also for the part list and the supplier. Ive purchased things from All in the past but had pretty much forgotten about them. Im thinking that two devices, a couple of deep cell batteries, and 2 or 3 60 watt panels could make a very good setup. With some very simple circuitry you could make a thermostat to keep track of the temperature inside the box and turn on either one or two devices as needed. I hadnt heard of shorting the junction together to keep it cooler, longer (if Im understanding this correctly), and a quick Google search turned up nothing of value; however, I may not have been using the correct terms. Could you give a brief explanation on the why and how of shorting the junction. All in all this is a very inspirational article, and has me making some plans to play with this technology again.

michael c February 8, 2012 at 11:06 am OP, The chip can generate power from a cold & hot source in reverse of the usual input voltage/get cold out way it is used. Shorting the leads together gives feedback voltage to the chip. The feedback power causes the chip to run trying to make the cold side cold, against the cold trying to get out. When I was running the tests, I noticed that the top heat sink got real cold and figured that the thin chip inside was letting a lot of cold escape. I also remembered that wind turbines use shorting to brake the blade spin. Shorting the PM motor generates electromagnetic fields that are opposite the direction of rotation. I would find a bigger cooler if I was planning on putting in 2 peltier devices. Other then that sounds like a plan.

OhioPrepper February 9, 2012 at 2:39 am michael, I know that Peltier devices are in essence thermocouples and can be used to generate power, but I hadnt thought about using that fact to self generate and keep the two sides at temperature longer. Good idea and worth playng with. Thanks for the idea and the explanation.

2slim February 8, 2012 at 6:25 am Great Post. Always cool to see ingenuity come forth. I used to live on a sailboat in Florida, and had a

fridge that ran off of AC, DC, or propane. A nice option to have 3 power sources to cool things off. They come in differant sizes, and can usually be found at RV supply stores.

Rodney Langley February 8, 2012 at 10:28 am Ive been experimenting with this for a while. FYI, you can find the Peltier devices a lot cheaper than that place. Check ebay. I picked up some for about $3 a piece (used) but they work great, and even had some thermo paste on them :)

Repair Mama February 8, 2012 at 11:01 am Now that is one cool project!!

Doug in Arkansas February 8, 2012 at 11:02 am Excellent post Ill be forwarding it to my daughter whose husband is diabetic. Back in the early 90s I had a friend who had a chest with a Peltier junction cooler. He left it plugged in to his lighter socket overnight, and ran his car battery completely down. I believe a person would want to add some sort of cutoff switch to keep the battery from going flat.

SrvivlSally February 9, 2012 at 12:10 pm Hmmmadding an opening and closing spout in an outside corner (?) for water drain off, maybe inserting a waterproof board at a very slight angle to catch the condensation/water. A little clear silicone for sealing around it a bit-to keep the cold in? Great idea and well worth a try.

Uncle Charlie February 10, 2012 at 2:35 am All rocket science to me. You should work for NASA, or did you?

michael c February 10, 2012 at 3:10 pm No, never worked for NASA. I am a design engineer.

mexneck February 16, 2012 at 12:48 am Nice article, Reminded me of all the ingenious stuff Joe would come up with in the desert. Give us just a little scrap and we could build a cabin, gym, and bar with a refrigerator. Nothing this elaborate but cool water was better than super heated. Also I got tired of drinking water, I dont know if its happened to

anyone else but I recommend having some type of flavoring in your preps at least for the kids.

dragon5126 February 26, 2012 at 8:36 am before anyone goes and builds this, (all due respect to the author) Go to Wally World and check out the inexpensive compressorless 120 volt dorm refrigerator they sell (dont recall the name, its off at college with my daughter). It is a peltier operated cooler. Two years agoit seemed to stop working in her dorm turned out ambient temps were too high for efficent heat transfer so I just took the back panel off and all went well BUT, I discovered an important trick and been trying to talk the kid ( who is a prepper herself out of it and she wont budge). It is a bigger and better design of this very same cooler presented here, bur runs off a built in 120v to 12v power supply which could easily be removed or bypassed in several ways to run in a camper, tent, or off emergency power to be sure you found the right one in the store it does not have a freezer and is extremely light. If you wanted to even improve it more buy a can of great stuff spray foam, and disassemble the unit and fill every non essential gap with insulating foam especially the door.

dragon5126 February 26, 2012 at 8:42 am Oh one other point, on units like this the cooler the OUTSIDE temp is the better they work as peltiers work off temerature differential principles. That is the hot side must be able to cool down in order to cool the cold side. so if its 120 degrees it wont get very cold inside, this is true with all peltier devices so a wick type evaporative cooler over proper sized air flow tube on the hot side cooling fan may help you increase efficency but remember the tube gets wet not the air going through it like a turbo intercooler Comments on this entry are closed. Previous post: 5 Days Without Power Next post: A Healthy Gut Is Your Key to Good Health and Survival

Join The Wolf Pack


Join 13,288 Members and get FREE updates by Email or RSS! Grab The RSS Feed Get Posts By Email

All Ammo in Stock!

This blog is an Amazon affiliate. Help support TheSurvivalistBlog.net by making your Amazon purchases through the Amazon link above.

Popular Posts
A homemade mosquito trap that really works! Are Russian Troops Operating Inside America? How to Stop Procrastinating and Start Prepping Q & A with The Wolf Pack : Homemade beef jerky and The Goal Zero Escape Combo Wednesday miscellany 3 Good Reasons Why You Should Have a Hidden Camera in Your Home Dont buy a Smith & Wesson M&P .40 without reading this review! Preppers List : 10 Things To Do Now! Free Small Cabin Plans that will Knock your Socks Off

Posts by Category
Bugging Out Tips Canning & Preserving Communications First Aid / Medical Food Storage & Cooking Hunting, Trapping and Fishing Miscellany Personal Opinion Product & Book Reviews Retreat & Home Security

Site News & Events Survival Gardening Survival Guns Survival Retreat Locales The Survival Homestead The Survival Mindset Uncategorized Survival Tips Videos Water Storage & Purification

Archives
Select Month

Thermoelectric Modules CN
PeltierModules.com Cheap Peltier Thermoelectric Module 15-267 Watt From China Manufacturer

Solar Energy Systems


w ww .alibaba.com Choose from 1M+ Verified Suppliers. Contact Directly & Get Live Quotes!

Can-Cooler & PartyCooler


w ww .Gastro-Cool.com Promotion-, POS- & Displaycoolers with your branding & design

milk cooling tanks


w ww .mondialcom.de used milk cooling tanks second hand bulk milk tanks

Camitek Ecology System


w ww .camitek.com ecological restoration flues with sheaths in composites waterbased

Find it Here:

To search, type and hit en

A prudent person foresees the danger ahead and takes precautions. The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences. Proverbs 27:12

Copyright 2006-2013 The Survivalist Blog.net - Emergency preparedness and survival strategies for families, preppers and survivalists - All rights reserved. Dedicated IP Address: 173.201.144.10 Sitemap

You might also like