The Walden Effect: Farming, simple living, permaculture, and invention.

Refrigerator root cellar foundation

 refrigerator root cellar digging hole

We decided to dig the refrigerator root cellar down a bit deeper to accommodate a large cinder block in each corner. I thought two post holes in the middle might help to increase the cold surface area that will hopefully stream a steady flow of cool air up through the refrigerator and out the soon to be installed vent pipe.

This post is part of our Fridge Root Cellar series.  Read all of the entries:



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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



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Refrig root cellar
Interesting concept I would like to know more.
Comment by Rick Harrison — Wed Nov 18 00:05:50 2009
comment 2
Stay tuned --- we've nearly got the root cellar completed and will be posting about the finishing touches soon. Then we plan to monitor the temperature and humidity inside all winter to see how it compares to a traditional root cellar.
Comment by anna — Wed Nov 18 13:34:35 2009
fridge root cellar
Do you have to put the fridge in a hole? Could you just sit it outside your house and use as a root cellar?
Comment by Sonja Pander — Sun Sep 7 09:41:35 2014
Above vs. below ground cellar
Sonja --- The soil is what helps mitigate the warmth of autumn days and cold of winter nights, so you won't get nearly as good results by just sitting a fridge outside your house. In addition, the earth keeps the contents damp, which is important for maintaining root crops. So, short answer --- you can, but your food won't keep as long or as well.
Comment by anna — Sun Sep 7 09:48:48 2014
Refrigerator root cellar results

Hi! I was just wondering if the refrigerator root cellar ended up holding a good temperature all year long? I saw you comment you’d be tracking it, but I didn’t see a comment in the results.

Thank you, Laura

Comment by Anonymous — Thu Oct 15 14:37:12 2020
Fridge root cellar temperature
Laura --- Here's an update on the fridge root cellar temperature. Hope that helps!
Comment by anna — Wed Oct 21 13:18:54 2020
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