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passive cold storage
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    haywirefarmer
     
    March 2012
    • This summer I built a cool storage room in coastal British Columbia that has so far performed very well without further energy input, the upcoming summer will be a real test, but it was kept from freezing in -30c temperatures by a few tea lights, while maintaining good air flow. More dedicated testing is necessary regarding performance.  Due to location, flooding and water table restricted the construction of a traditional root cellar. Now I have a walk in root cellar that maintains temperatures within a few degrees of 3 centigrade, passively while providing excellent airflow. A problem I am encountering is placement of vapor barrier. On this iteration the vb is on the outside of the insulation, in keeping with the principal "put the vb on the warm side of a building envelope" but the warm side changes depending on time of year, and condensation issues have arisen this winter. It is hoped that sufficient airflow will ameliorate the black mold problem when the summer comes again, but this may need a bit of a rethink. General Idea is:
    • above ground R 30thermal envelope/vapor barrier
    • intake air is routed through thermal mass rich "basement"(I used 55gallon drums of water)
    • exhaust air is passively ventilated via stack effect enhanced with heat produced by lighting (5"galvanized duct)
    • vapor barrier on the outside
    The current design allows for use of ice to cool incoming air, which could be cut in the winter and stored in another thermal envelope structure.
    Cost to build was around 3k for a 6x10 room under an existing roof.

     
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    Deaner
     
    March 2012
    Hey they HayWire, I have some neat documents and have been experimenting with the idea of creating a live solar driven ice hockey table. Trying to work with small and then scale to size for a hockey arena. Any interest? Also located on Coastal BC.
    Some of the things that have been contributing to my devices are low powered dc fans and simple evaporative cooling techniques. Also certain rocks and metals have higher cold attributes than others.

    egakcerw at g------il.com
     
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