Going without a fridge

[pietfriet]

Last month /me was also thinking of living without a fridge. As stated above there's a difference between no fridge and no refrigiration. Putting things outside or in de garage in the winter is about the same as a fridge.
Otoh a fridge is real handy for keeping leftovers good for a week or so, not possibly without a fridge.

A tip I read somewhere for reducing the electricity usage when you're using only a part of the fridge: fill the rest with bottles of water. It 'captures' the cold better, instead of the air (which has lower temp capacity) that flows out of the fridge instantly when opening it (replaces with warmer air from outside).

[Colibri]

@Loner, smartypants !
and yes I have seen "la glacière" in older Montreal apartments. I know they worked well. But I have no idea how they were able to lift all that ice on 2nd floor apartments...
Would be easier to collect snow instead of ice for me, I am too far from a lake. Some very keen individuals from my town organized a ski "race" in May 2012, making the racing track with snow kept under huge piles of saw dust. Instead of a ski race, I could make a cooler box with the snow, cover it with insulating material. Less enternainting though....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cy9vE0M0Ecw

I agree that it is much easier having a natural way to refrigiration.

@tonyedgecombe I heard about these cooler pots, such a great idea.

[Nomad]

I don't use a fridge much but I do use a freezer a lot - just so handy. I never eat bread - it's just empty carbs.

[SavingWithBabies]

@Colibri Why not put plastic water jugs outside to freeze and swap them into a cooler inside? That seems like less of a hassle in terms of harvesting snow or ice.

[UK-with-kids]

When we go on holiday in our caravan we survive without a fridge for about a week at a time, and that's during the hottest part of the year. We try to take a few pre-frozen meals, and these keep the perishable food cool as they gradually defrost and get eaten during the week. Some campsites have a freezer where you can put your own icepacks, which we do on a kind of rotation system - so you have one shared ice-producing freezer powering multiple "fridges" across the site.

Back at home I've often thought about how inefficient it is to power a fridge to cool food inside a heated home when the outdoor temperature is about right for perishable food for most of the year. I wondered how practical it would be to build some kind of outside cupboard also accessible from inside the house via an insulated door. In most parts of the UK we don't get very extreme temperatures so it could work well if it was out of the sun.

[chenda]

@uk-with-kids Maybe you could build an ice house of old: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_house_(building)

[UK-with-kids]

@uk-with-kids Maybe you could build an ice house of old: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_house_(building)

Love it, I'll look out for these at historic houses we visit. Hopefully with modern insulation they don't need to be so big!

[Diego]

Hey, this thread has inspired me to try to do the same. I'm currently living in Germany, so it's not a big deal to have the food outside at least during winter. I just need to protect it well from the humidity. I live in a very tiny house (I think it's called studio here) and I have a tiny balcony, but it's enough for storing some food in it.

My diet is based on meat (this is definitely what I'll eat first), vegetables, legumes and fish. In my job we have free milk (as well as other less healthy drinks), so I don't have to buy or store any milk. I always eat the same each week. For me it's easier to buy, to cook, etc.

The problem I see is the fish. I usually buy frozen fish, which comes in 1kg bags for 4 euros. In the work we have kitchens with fridge/freezers, but I don't see myself taking some fish fillets out of the fridge in front of my coworkers... Any ideas on this topic? My current options are:

• put the fish fillets inside jars with ice and leave them on the balcony. This, of course would only work during winter (and I'm not sure if this will work 100%)

• buy the fish in another format (i.e. in packets of 2 fish fillets, but more expensive), and take them for example in two consecutive days

• put some olive oil in the fish fillets (this will keep them better), store them in a tupper and put them in the work's fridge