Off-Grid Living Group
Freesteading group focused on the discussion of off grid living.
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The “Groundfridge”, no electricity needed
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The “Groundfridge”, no electricity needed
It’s called a “Groundfridge” and I think that’s pretty fascinating! I’ve been interested in a root cellar for a long time, but while I tend to lean towards preferring tadelakt and natural building materials, these videos talking about “not needing a permit” grabbed my attention. I’m aware zoning laws in some cities make building sheds, garages, extensions on homes, and root cellars even near to impossible or just very expensive. Has anyone who lives in an area like that had any luck overcoming that red tape with a Groundfridge?
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24 Replies
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I’ve talked to this company and they only sent a few over here to the United States. It isn’t really here yet but they are working on it.
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Interesting! Thank you for letting me know! 🙏
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Good morning, this could work but you can make a small cold storage from a trash can or I like the idea of burying an old fridge or freezer with the door up. You can get these almost daily on Craigslist free. Depending on your soil characteristics you can just dig a 2×2 foot hole down about 6 or 8 feet and fashion a basket on a rope to lower in. Cover with an insulated plywood or metal cover. We had one of these at our old family homestead in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. It was used to keep milk, meat and cheese cool. There is a stone lined “refrigerator” near a cellar hole behind my land which belonged to someone who went off to the civil war and never returned. If you intend to use in the winter you need to go deeper than the frost line. The earth is roughly 55 degrees at 6 feet almost everywhere. Blessings.
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👍 thank you for sharing your experience.
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In doing a few searches $10-$15k is a bit much for me at this time. I have looked at doing the trashcan method. The challenges for me with the Trash can method living near Houston are
1) ground moisture: There are times of the year we get inundated with rains and I have standing up to 2 inches of water on the ground for days or just an inch or so below grade. Never flooded during any storm but it’s the nature of the topography of the land So I can elevate the lid a bit to avoid that
2) condensation due to humidity There are times of the year when the cold shifts to warm and my house literally sweats. So I’d be concerned that all the straw in the world would eventually accumullate enough moisture to start rotting.
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We have the same concerns in FL.
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Right! That’s why we don’t have basements in Texas. I grew up in the Houston area and I know what you’re talking about.
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So straw in cob actually does not accumulate moisture, because the clay mix sucks up the moisture and evaporates it. Cob will not sweat, it will evaporate and dry. Cob structures that have lasted for thousands of years with their integral structure still intact are in mostly rainy climates like in the Amazon basin, and in England. So a cob structure with tadelakt would probably be very moisture and mold resistant.
As for the plastic Groundfridge, I’m not sure. That might be susceptible to mold.
That said, I agree that ground accumulating water would make it hard to get into a root cellar underground. Precipitation is an issue for me too— I prefer a rainy climate for cistern water and predictable watering of the garden. But for a root cellar it’s not ideal. It’s part of the reason I was more interested in a large pantry room inside the house.
But when I saw these groundfridges, one thing that grabbed my attention is the way that people seem to create horizontal instead of vertical access— in other words, kinda like a hobbit hole, a little bit is dug into the ground but it’s almost like the make a small hill out of it and cover the Groundfridge with earth to keep it cool, while having it be slightly above normal ground level. I don’t know if that negatively impacts how effective it is at cooling foodstuffs though! 🤔
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How cooler! 😂
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😂 thank you!
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I like it, I would also consider bunkers, as this is getting into the same price as a bunker. Going just a bit bigger would allow a safe place to be for a tornado.
I have watched others build a sand bag root cellar, tons of work, but the end result was a great storage area.
Our family built a root cellar with cement block and we used horses to scoop dirt and move to the top of it. It was very moist inside but worked great to keep our food thru winter.
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I have a friend that buried a huge water tank for a bunker. Hurricane Irma came through and the water table rose 4 feet lifting the tank with it. So he piled sandbags, sand and tires around it all the way up to the top of it then put a roof over it.
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Nice…. I would be concerned if the walls could stand the weight, but I have considered an old culvert which is designed for such…
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I’ve been in it a couple of times and it seems solid.
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They may of built it right. In my research of putting shipping containers underground they have to be modified so they can deal with the weight of the ground pushing in. It can be done, just have to make sure it is done right..
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This is a plastic water tank. Would it have more strength being circular?
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I’ve seen that same research about shipping container walls not withstanding the weight of the earth when they’re buried. Also, they tend to rust out and lose integrity from that as well.
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🤞
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Interesting concept! Thank you for sharing!
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If we could dig into our yard, I would bury a fridge. Unfortunately, it’s all rock about 1 inch down. But it’s a great idea anyway. One of the perks of living in this county is that there are NO building codes. Just one wee electrical code. That’s it. I couldn’t believe it when I found out. But when I tried to get an inspector to approve a job for insurance – done by a local guy and my husband – they said it didn’t exist. Insurance had to just approve it as is because of the lack of regulations.
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Less people less craziness. Freedom exists where there are less eyes.
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👍
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Man I would love that level of freedom in building. My family lives in the country, but some places even the country has some tough zoning and building regulations. I’m looking into moving somewhere a little more free and relaxed on that front— but I honestly don’t know how much time we have before a SHTF situation happens… So I’m making do with the best we can here. And I keep praying for enough time, needed resources, and for certain important situations in my life to align correctly to build a loving home somewhere faster and sooner if possible. 🙏
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