Product Review: Marchpower Cooling Comforter

It's May and summer temps are here. Even though it still gets comfortably cool at night, it's only a matter of time before that heats up too. And this is why I am pleased to share another product with you, one that I was happy to review and can wholeheartedly recommend, the Marchpower Gradient Cooling Comforter.

Queen size Marchpower Cooling Comforter

Is it really cooling? Yes! Through advanced textile technology (called "Arc-Chill"), jade nanoparticles are woven into the fabric. Somehow, this makes something amazing happen; heat and moisture are wicked away to produce a wonderful cooling effect. 

So, how is the comforter different from the cooling blanket and t-shirts I reviewed two years ago? The comforter is triple layer. The top and bottom are made of the same Arc-Chill cooling fabric. The inner filling layer consists of a 3-D hollow structure fiber. They're cushioned with air, which makes for a delightfully lightweight, fluffy comforter.

First Impressions

• The comforter is lightweight and deliciously soft and silky. 
• A nice sleeping weight.
• Mine is a pretty gradient blue, but it comes in gray too.
• Queen size covers both of us nicely.

Laundering

• Machine wash; cool water, gentle cycle. Laundry bag recommended.
• Line dry. I know some people think this is a deal breaker if they don't have a clothesline, but I often dry blankets and comforters by spreading them over the back of the sofa and turning once. 

Cooling Tips

• During the night, the comforter may seem to loose its effect. Simply change positions or give it a shake.
• Using a ceiling or room fan on low will crank up the cooling effect.

Who would benefit from a cooling comforter?

• Anyone who wants to lower their electric bill.
• Anyone who wants to lower their carbon footprint by not running their air conditioner so much. 
• Off grid situations like camping and backpacking.
• Backup cooling in case the electricity goes out.
• As part of an emergency kit for a summer road trip. Keep cool if the car breaks down on a hot day in the sun!

Okay, I know I sound like some sort of scripted advertiser. But honestly, I'm just so happy to have cooling products in our life. We strive to be as low energy as possible, and in my part of the country (the hot, sultry southeastern US) products like this truly help us achieve our goal in comfort. 

You can see more photos and information at the Amazon link:  

Marchpower Gradient Cooling Comforter

And! You can get  10% off with the following discount code:  

WS8AZQW4 (expires Sept. 30, 2024)

Product Review: Marchpower Cooling Comforter  

© May 2024 by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

Product Review: Luxear Cooling Blanket

I get quite a few requests to do product reviews, but I rarely do them. I think consumer reviews are a great tool, but usually the products have nothing to do with my lifestyle. However, when I was contacted about reviewing a Luxear Cooling Blanket, of course I said yes! Living without air conditioning means we are always looking for ways to stay cool in summer.

When the daytime highs get like this, it's
very difficult to cool off the house at night.

The blanket uses fiber technology developed by the Japanese. Called "Arc-Chill," it incorporates microscopic (nano) particles of jade into polyester thread to create passive thermal wicking. You can read the research paper about this technology here, the gist of it being that the amount of jade and thread twist create a range of cooling effects. According to the box, the Luxear blanket has a cooling effect (known as Q-max in the textile industry) that lowers body temperature by 3.6 - 9°F (2 - 5°C).

First impressions. The blanket is double layered with an arc-chill polyester top and arc-chill nylon bottom. It isn't at all bulky, but has just enough weight to it to feel comfortable. It's soft, smooth, silky, and cool to touch. I was very curious to try it.

Test result: IT WORKS! You can feel the cooling instantly, and unlike bamboo, this one continues its cooling magic all night long. To increase the cooling effect, a room fan can be used too.

It's easy care, just gentle wash and line dry. It comes in a choice of sizes and is affordably priced too. In fact, I was given a discount code to share with you all, to get an additional 10% off the sales price at Amazon. The page offers bamboo blankets as well, so be sure to choose the Ocean Blue pattern for the Arc-Chill fabric.

Link to purchase: Luxear Cooling Blanket

Discount code: S4VQDVXN

This blanket would be perfect for anyone who gets uncomfortably hot at night. Or for those of us trying to eliminate or cut back on our use of air conditioning. Anyone suffering from night sweats or hot flashes would appreciate one of these! Passive cooling makes it great for the off-gridder, for camping, or for stuffy nights when the power is out. They would make great gifts.

Can you tell I'm enthusiastic about this product? I'm genuinely pleased with ours and recommend it highly.

Product Review: Luxear Cooling Blanket © June 2022

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

Chest Freezer to Fridge Conversion

Between my book giveaway and kidding, I haven't had a chance to share my progress on our solar pantry project. I left off about a month ago, when I showed you how we adjust our solar panels. The next step was replacing my old energy-guzzling pantry refrigerator with a low-energy DIY chest fridge.

My freezer and new 5-cubic foot chest refrigerator on the back porch. The
7-cubic foot size is more common for this, but this is what I had room for.

There are caveats, criticisms, and a couple of challenges that I'll discuss in just a bit, but first I want to show you how I did it. It was a simple procedure.

These are more energy efficient than uprights because cold sinks.
With a chest, cold doesn't fall out onto the floor when it's opened.

All that's required is a refrigerator thermostat/temperature controller.

This one cost about $55.

It hangs on the wall behind the fridge (the hanger chain was included) and the probe is placed roughly midway in the unit. The knob on the front lets you set and adjust the fridge's internal temperature.

The freezer's electrical cord is plugged into the back of the controller plug, which is plugged into the outlet. That's all there is to it.

In my case, I plugged the controller into a Kill-a-Watt meter because I want to see how much electricity my new appliance is actually using. The meter is what's plugged into the outlet, as you see in the set-up photo below. The power strip is plugged into the house (grid) electricity.

It's upside-down because of the placement of the power
strip. We use that because the outlet is behind the freezer.

The fridge surged to 80 watts when I plugged it in. I used a digital probe thermometer to adjust the setting. Now that it's cold, I'm finding it uses only 0.08 kWh per day—a huge difference from my pantry fridge which uses 2.6 kWh/day! The chest fridge will use less in one month than the old fridge uses in one day.

Caveats? Refrigerator/freezer experts say such a conversion isn't a good idea because a freezer compressor isn't built to operate at refrigerator temperatures. That means appliance longevity may be compromised.

The other problem is condensation inside the unit, since it is operating at temps above freezing. (In a freezer this becomes the ice that needs defrosting.) This is especially true of units which have the compressor in a box that forms a shelf. So the interior must be wiped out regularly.

Criticisms? Bending over to get food items is considered an inconvenience. Some people can't or don't want to bend over, others think it would be too much of a hassle finding things—although I can't say that an upright with shelves is any easier. The thing I'm looking for is always shoved to the back on a different shelf! The trade-off would have to be the desire for considerable savings in electricity and a willingness to develop new habits.

Challenges? For me, it's how to organize it as conveniently as possible. Most people use the milk-crate style file storage boxes. They have straight sides, are stackable. For the 7-cubic foot size chest fridge, they fit nicely, but for my 5-cubic foot model, they are just a tad too big.

The basket is too long to fit the width of the unit,

and too long to fit between the wall and compressor shelf.

The next size smaller milk crate is the 13-inch square. But I'd lose too many inches of storage space to make that a desirable idea.

Width from freezer wall to condenser unit shelf.

My pantry refrigerator is my auxiliary fridge. I use it for storing mostly homegrown foods such as fresh goat milk, eggs, whey, cheese, and garden produce. This chest fridge is going to take its place. I figured out that I can fit nine half-gallon jars of goat milk in the bottom and somehow place the crate on top of that. But how? Here's what Dan helped me come up with.

A stand made from PVC corner molding and PVC glue.

I'm thinking jars of the freshest milk can be cooled on the shelf first, then
moved to the bottom. The crate can hold leftovers, fruits, cheese, & veggies.

I still have some room above that, for which a sliding basket or two would be perfect for things like condiments and salad fixings. Unfortunately, the one basket that came with the unit is too tall if I use the crate.

The basket itself is 6.5-inches tall, but with the hangers it's 8 inches.

A six-inch depth including hangers would be perfect. Unfortunately, I couldn't find them that size. Happily, I found two totes that will do the job.

At only $4 each, how could I go wrong?

Two fit perfectly side by side.

I may look to replace the crate with a tote if I can find the right size. I like that the totes have bottoms, so spillage remains contained and easy to clean up.

Once we get the old fridge out of the pantry, we can start working on phase two of our plan, improving pantry insulation.

Chest Freezer to Fridge Conversion © March 2020

by Leigh Tate at http://www.5acresandadream.com

Solar Energy Isn't Free Energy

One of the things I used to admire about folks who are off-grid is that they have no electric bill. Many of them say it themselves, they love the financial freedom of not having to pay for electricity. Still, we all know there are costs involved, and some people might be inclined to ask how long it will take for the system to pay for itself. A low-end off-grid system might cost roughly $35,000 not including shipping, installation, and interest if buying on credit. Neither does that include backup, i.e. a generator. The average American electric bill is said to be $104 per month. Do the math, and you'll likely agree that it takes more than a monetary advantage to go solar.

For some people it's a sense of environmental responsibility. For Dan and me, the motive is food preservation. Since we rely more on what we grow than on a grocery store, this is important. The cost of a year's worth of groceries more than offsets the system paying for itself. We've spent roughly $2450 on it, so compared to having to buy all of our groceries, our little system will "pay for itself" in about three or four months. Savings on the electric bill will be lagniappe.

Now that we are in the midst of the project, however, I see something I didn't consider during my feasibility study—eventual replacement costs.

Having recently purchased our batteries, this is forefront in my mind. Our solar panels should last 25 to 30 years, but flooded lead acid batteries average about five years; longer if we take good care of them—shorter if we make mistakes. The fact of the matter, is that we have to be ready when they need to be replaced. Our income is low enough that we must budget for everything, so I need to take this into account now.

What am I looking at for replacement cost? Our six batteries totaled $880, with $100 of that for the core charge since we didn't have old batteries to trade in. If the batteries last 5 years, and I want to have $780 available for replacements, then I need to save $13 per month. Because prices always go up instead of down, it would probably be wise to bump that up to $15. If we want to upgrade the battery bank—in terms of battery type, amp-hours, or both—then we need to set aside more.

We could have bought a different type of battery, one with a longer lifespan, but these come with a heftier price tag. As it was, we did the best we could, and I have no complaints about that. I would be curious if the cost per year for different battery types is comparable to $13 a month, but for now, that's a moot point.

Of course, I'm curious about how much lower our electricity bill will be once we get the freezer (and hopefully fridge) on solar. Will it be enough to offset the savings for replacement batteries? Time will tell! Either way, our ability to preserve our harvest without being dependent on the grid gives me great peace of mind. And that, is priceless.

Next - Figuring Out the Wiring

Solar Energy Isn't Free Energy © Dec 2019

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

Solar Pantry Part 3: Alternatives

Continued from "Solar Pantry Part 2: Analysis."

Trying to solve my potential problem of losing refrigerated and frozen food during a prolonged power outage sent me scouring books and websites for affordable ideas. People preserved their food for millennia before they had electricity and refrigerators, but like other traditional knowledge and skills, the how-to has been forgotten, lost, or simply discarded in favor of high-tech alternatives. Unfortunately, not all of the technology we laud has been terribly smart: the processing and overuse of fossil fuels for example. The simpler the better, I say.

So while Dan and I are discussing options and forming a plan, I've been collecting ideas. This is what I've got so far, pretty much organized from lower tech to higher. Obviously, not all of them are feasable for everyone, because they depend on regional resources and conditions.

Spring house - If one is lucky enough to have a wellspring on their property, this would be an excellent option. A spring house is a small structure built over the spring to take advantage of its cold water. The water flows through shallow troughs into which food containers (usually milk cans) are placed.

Graphic from Barns, Sheds and Outbuildings by Byron D. Halsted.
Water enters under the window and drains at the ends of the troughs.

I had friends who used an old chest freezer in a similar way. Spring water flowed through it via inlet and outlet pipes. The chilly spring water kept their milk quite cool.

Ice house - For those living with long hard freezes, this is an idea. Ice is harvested in large blocks from solidly frozen lakes.

Photo: Library of Congress (https://www.loc.gov/resource/det.4a05655/)
There's an interesting ice harvesting photo story at A Continuous Lean.

Then it's packed in saw dust or straw in an ice house.

Indiana ice house. Photo from Library of Congress
https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/in0268.photos.065885p/

Drawing of an ice house interior. Graphic from 
Barns, Sheds and Outbuildings by Byron D. Halsted.

The saw dust or straw acts as insulation and slows melting. Some farmers made their own forms to make their own ice blocks.

Cool chamber - A variation of the simple ice house.

Graphic from Barns, Sheds and Outbuildings by Byron D. Halsted.

The ice house is built into a hillside with a room underneath for storing milk, fruits, and vegetables.

Drips through pipe in ceiling and drains through pipe in floor.
From Barns, Sheds and Outbuildings by Byron D. Halsted.

Chamber Refrigerator - Similar to the cool chamber.

Graphic from Barns, Sheds and Outbuildings by Byron D. Halsted.

The chamber is built so that top, back, and both sides are surrounded by ice. The space under the ice is for ventilation.

Ice Box - No electricity required for those with a source for ice!

Israeli, I believe. Attribution: יעקב [CC BY-SA 4.0
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)]

The top compartment holds a large block of ice which cools the contents in the compartment below. Note the drip pan to catch melting water underneath. Ice tongs hang on the side.

Well shaft - For those who have an old-fashioned well!

LOC, https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2017782495/

A food box or bucket is lowered and tied off just above water level, where the contents stay cool.

Silos (trenches) - These aren't the grain silos we're familiar with. The French term means "underground excavation used to preserve foods."

Illustration from Preserving Food Without Freezing or Canning
by The Gardeners & Farmers of Terre Vivante

This example measures 16" x 32" and is 20" deep. A lining of brick keeps rodents out. Vegetables are packed in layers of dried leaves. The wood cover is heavy and air tight. A well-drained location is important.

Root cellar - A more familiar form of food storage. It is basically a handmade cave built into a hillside or of mounded earth. In modern lingo we could call it geothermal cooling.

Root cellar in Itasca County, Minnesota. Photo: LOC
https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/mn0482.photos.342773p/

Root cellars tend to get damp and musty, however, so good ventilation is very important.

Windcatcher - This isn't for food storage, but rather a middle eastern house cooling system.that seems to lend itself to food preservation, providing one has wind and a qanat (underground water transportation channel). The basement would the perfect place for a root cellar.

Click to enlarge. Attribution: Wind-Tower-and-Qanat-Cooling-1.jpg:
Williamborgderivative work: Monsih [Public domain]

It's an example of evaporative cooling. The principle is that water absorbs heat in order to evaporate, cooling dry air significantly and with much less energy than refrigeration. It's best suited to dry climates, because it apparently gets very musty in humid climates, where it's earned the name "swamp cooler" because of the odor it produces.

Zeer Pot - Another ancient middle eastern technology that takes advantage of evaporative cooling. Also known as a pot-in-pot "refrigerator." A small clay pot is placed into a larger clay pot and the space between is filled with sand. The sand is kept damp and evaporation keeps the contents of the smaller pot cooler than the ambient temperature.

My experimental zeer pot.

I tried this method when I was researching off-grid eggs, cheese, and meat storage for Prepper's Livestock Handbook. Unfortunately, my experiment was a fail because of our humidity. The higher the humidity the slower the evaporation. There's a techy explanation of all that over at the Rebuilding Civilization blog. If you have a dry climate this won't actually refrigerate, but it will act as a cooler to increase longevity of some foods.

Cold shaft (a.k.a. cool cupboard or California cupboard). Heat rises and this is what the cool cupboard takes advantage of. The shaft is open at top and bottom to allow a cooling air flow. Wire shelves inside the shaft hold food items.

Illustration from How To Live Without
Electricity and Like It by Anita Evangelista

Screens at top and bottom keep rodents out. These work best if they are built on interior rather than exterior walls. You can see a modern one in use at the Lewisham House and Farm blog.

DC (Direct Current) Refrigerators and Freezers

SunDanzer fridge or freezer.

These 12- or 24-volt appliances can be powered by solar, wind, fuel cells (hydrogen), or batteries; sources that deliver DC (direct current) electricity, as opposed to the alternating current (AC) we receive from the grid. They're pricey, however, ranging from $700 for a dorm-size 1.8-cubic-foot fridge or freezer, to $1600 for a 13-cubic-foot freezer or a 15-cubic-foot fridge. Solar panels or wind turbine and batteries not included.

Thermal mass refrigerator - From Earthship Volume 3 by Michael Reynolds.

Attribution: KVDP [CC BY-SA 4.0
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)]

It's designed around a DC refrigerator (above) run on solar panels. For the diagram key see the summary at Wikimedia Commons.

Solar ice maker - About ten years ago four engineering students at San Jose State University made a solar ice maker for about $100.

Solar ice maker. Photo © San Jose State University

It was an example of absorption chilling, not a new technology, but their project seemed to create a renewed interest in the process. Absorptive chillers use heat (like the sun) instead of a compressor. A refrigerant (like ammonia) is heated, cooled, and circulated to produce temperatures cold enough to make ice. Combine a solar ice maker with an ice box, and that would be a wonderful non-electric way to have refrigeration. I'm still looking for DIY plans. [UPDATE: How-to at Knowledgeable Ideas, although it's too big for an ordinary small family.]

The absorption refrigeration cycle was discovered in the mid-1800s by Ferdinand Carre. He invented and marketed the IcyBall around 1858 as a cooling device in homes.

IcaBall refrigerator. Graphic from the Crosley IcyBall Manual.

The device was sold during the 1920s and 30s, but apparently was discontinued when a number of them exploded. I suspect this was because it required the owner apply heat to activate it. Getting distracted for even a few moments could chance disaster! There's an interesting webpage on it's history here.

Solar Refrigerator - Was invented in the mid-1930s by Otto H. Mohr. It also uses absorption cooling technology, and was said to only need two hours of sunlight per day.

Source: Modern Mechanix Aug. 1935 issue. Click to enlarge.

Mr. Mohr received a patent for his design in 1940, but it doesn't seem to have ever made it into production.

Wood burning refrigerator -  Another example of absorption chilling.

Click to enlarge. Image from Mother
Earth News. Click here for full article.

Developed by Dale Degler (in the 1970s I think), he calls it an intermittent absorption refrigerator. It only needs a 20-minute fire every 24 hours! I'm not sure he ever actually made one, however.

There are other ideas out there, like propane and LP refrigerators and freezers, but I stuck with ideas that use renewable energy sources. I don't mind buying the materials to make and set up the system, but the idea is to not rely on buying the energy or fuel to run them.

Obviously not all of these ideas are applicable to Dan and me, but they do show how it's possible to preserve food without electricity. And they have kept me from being too discouraged after my solar pantry feasibility study.

Next → Solar Pantry Part 4: The Plan

Solar Pantry Part 3: Alternatives © Aug. 2019

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

Solar Pantry Part 2: Analysis

Now what? In "Solar Pantry Part 1" I shared my calculations and conclusions about the feasibility of putting the fridge and freezer in my pantry on a small dedicated solar energy system.

A photo from my archives! This one of my pantry was taken in 2010
soon after we bought the freezer. The refrigerator came with the house.

The conclusion was that such as system would cost considerably more than my available funds at this time. That was not only disappointing, it also left me with a big question mark regarding my goal of minimizing food loss in the event of a prolonged power outage. I had to ask myself, are there other alternatives? How did people in my part of the country keep food before electricity? (I've mused on that topic before - see "Food Storage in the South.")

Dan and I have taken small steps toward a simpler, less complicated lifestyle, but we are still products of the 20th century. That means our solutions to problems are usually based in modern methods and technologies, simply because that's what we know. It's taken some time, but we've gradually been learning how to think outside that box. We've moved along with some of the 21st century's technological advances, and rejected others because they require more time and resources to maintain than we are interested in giving. While solar energy does take time and resources to maintain, it does seem like the best option for my goal. Now I had to ask myself, if I can't afford the technology what else can I do? Is there another way? Is there anything I can change?

As I pondered that, I had to question how I use my freezer and two refrigerators. So much of what we humans do is by habit, and habits form routines. We become so accustomed to our routines that we rarely question them. In the light of my goal, now was the time to question them. Have my routines caused me to be too dependent on my freezer and extra fridge? Have I fallen into inefficient habits? Is there anything I can do to make food processing and storage more energy efficient?

My first step was to make a list of everything I keep in these appliances. Then I asked myself why and categorized my list. Some items are listed twice because they are in more than one category.

Refrigerators

To increase longevity:

• dairy
• milk (up to 10 half-gallon & quart jars)
• butter (to keep it from melting)
• cheese: fresh, brined, & stored in olive oil
• kefir (1/2 gallon)
• primost
• whey (gallon+ for leavening, lacto-fermenting)
• brine for cheesemaking (1/2 gallon)
• eggs (6 dozen or more)
• bread
• some fresh fruit such as figs and berries for immediate use
• vegetables: lettuce, greens, cut tomatoes
• root veggies: potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic
• condiments
• ketchup
• mayo
• mustard
• pickles
• lacto-fermented: kimchi, sauerkraut, sauerruben
• salsa
• salad dressing
• maple syrup
• jams and jellies (opened jars)
• peanut butter (natural, to prevent oil separation)
• fresh meat
• beverages except water
• opened jars or cans of food
• leftovers

To protect from insects:

• pantry moths (always a problem):
• flours
• grains
• bread
• fruit flies (frequently a problem):
• strawberries
• blueberries
• ants (occasionally a problem, items refrigerated as needed)

For long-term storage (such as a year's supply):

• onions
• garlic
• eggs
• rendered fat

To save until I get enough to process:

• green beans

To stock up (because I found a deal I couldn't pass up):

• case of organic coconut oil mayo (75¢ per pint jar!)

Livestock and garden supplies:

• veterinary antibiotics & vaccines
• essential oils
• homemade insect spray
• garden seeds
• bulk seeds for pasture and hay

Freezer

Preservation (for hopefully a year's supply)

• meat
• cheese: grated mozzarella, paneer, halloumi
• primost
• powdered rennet
• cream
• goat colostrum
• berries (for smoothies, pancakes, and oatmeal)
• melon chunks (for smoothies)
• pureed winter squash
• okra
• chopped peppers

To save until I get enough to process:

• bones for bone broth
• fat to be rendered
• tomatoes
• blueberries
• strawberries
• figs
• fruit juices from small batches of fruit for mixed fruit jellies

Convenience foods

• unbaked pies
• breads, baked goods
• jars of leftovers for winter soups

To protect from insect damage:

• flours
• breads and crackers
• grains (up to 50 pounds or more of homegrown grain)
• nuts (mostly in-shell pecans from our trees)
• bulk seed: grain and pasture seed

It's the only way to keep:

• ice (one tray and two cooler inserts)
• ice cream (or at least my Cuisinart ice cream freezer tub)
• ricotta gnocchi

The thing that stands out most to me is that many of these items don't actually need to be kept in the fridge or freezer. That's just been the way I've addressed my food storage challenges.

My primary challenge is our temperatures in summer, especially July and August. After we get a string of days in the mid-90s°F (35°C) outside, my kitchen and pantry temps gradually rise to about 85°F (27°C) during the day and drop to around 80°F (27°C) at night. When we get to about 100°F (38°C) in the shade outdoors, my pantry thermometer can reach 90°F (27°C). Not an ideal temp to store food.

This is why I refrigerate items that wouldn't otherwise need refrigeration. (You can find a list of these at the Farmer's Alamac website.) Unwashed eggs, for example, have their own protective coating called the bloom, which keeps them fresh without refrigeration. Even so, I know from experience that summer eggs I refrigerate immediately will keep all winter for me, whereas eggs left on my countertop in summertime will start to fail the float test before autumn arrives. That points to my temperature problem.

Until I started looking into shelf life, I didn't realize there is a formula to describe it! Called the Q10 temperature coefficient, it's defined as the measure of the rate of change in a biological or chemical system for every 10°C (18°F) change in temperature. Starting with a baseline of "room temperature" or 22°C (72°F):

• For every 10°C (18°F) increase, shelf life is halved. 
• For every 10°C (18°F) decrease, shelf life is doubled. 

You can see why storing even canned and dehydrated goods at cooler temperatures is important. And that makes me realize that I need to address more than just the fridge and freezer.

My other big problem is pantry moths. They infest not only grain products, but they also love dried fruit! I can't tell you how much food I had to throw away before I started dry-pack vacuum canning most of my dry goods. (How-to here). But that only covers quart and half-gallon amounts, and I also have moth problems with the bulk grains we grow and the farm seed we buy. Even the barn isn't safe from them, so bulk quantities end up in the freezer.

If you're still with me, you might have noticed was my "To save until I get enough to process" category. This is because my food production is small scale. I don't have a huge prepper's garden; in fact, I've downsized my garden quite a bit over the years to keep it one-person manageable. Besides, I don't have a crowd to feed, it's just Dan and me.

One example of this category is tomatoes. When I harvest tomatoes, I don't pick them by the bushel, I get a dozen or two at each picking. That isn't enough for a canner load of tomato sauce, so I toss my tomatoes into the freezer and then process and can later in the year. This routine works very well for me, even to the point of draining the water from my defrosted tomatoes and using it to can tastier dried beans. Plus I don't mind waiting until cooler weather to do some of my canning.

Some folks tell me I'm overly analytical, but identifying the factors involved and closely examining them is the only way I know to problem solve. In looking over my list, one thing that stands out to me is that of all the items listed under "refrigerator," all but the dairy category could be stored elsewhere. And actually, that could be too if we had the right resources. For now, I'm researching and collecting ideas. Some old, some new, but all with a view to develop a plan for better food storage. I'll share what I come up with soon → Solar Pantry Part 3: Alternatives

Solar Pantry Part 2: Analysis © Aug. 2019

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

Something I'm Glad I Recently Bought

Blogging this morning from the public library because our internet is down. Here's why -

What we woke up to Sunday morning.

After an inch of rain on Saturday, we got three inches of snow overnight. Plus, everything was coated with ice.

I dread ice worse than snow. While our northerly neighbors get snowed in under feet of snow, we get iced in by as little as a quarter inch of ice. It coats absolutely everything and makes it near impossible to drive (or walk) anywhere. It's not uncommon for tree branches to be so heavily laden with ice that they break and fall onto power lines. That can mean days or weeks without electricity.

These two pine trees didn't fall on power lines, but they fell on pasture fence!

What's interesting is that Dan was just talking about thinning out some
pines to mill into posts for his carport repair project. Here they are!

Fortunately, we only lost power for two hours. I know some areas in the Southeast are still without, so I'm thankful we didn't have it worse. Still, it made me glad I recently bought something that has been on my winter preparedness to-get list for several years - an Ecofan.

Top of the line AirMax 812 model

It sits on top of the woodstove and makes its own electricity from heat differences between the top and bottom of the fan (technical explanation here). It's a brilliant off-grid way to help circulate heat, because heat from a woodstove typically tends to stay in one room and be slow to move to other parts of the house. Our ceiling fans help with that, but when we lose power they're of no use. That's why I've had my eye on an Ecofan.

It's a bit pricey, however, so when I noticed a huge price drop for it on my Amazon wishlist, I thought, I can live with that. Most folks seem to agree that we're in for a severe winter, so it seemed prudent to finally invest in one. I clicked on the link and discovered that the nice price was for Prime members only. The rest of us would just have to pay the not-so-nice price (unless, of course, we wanted to join Amazon Prime, hint, hint).

That annoyed me. I immediately deleted the Ecofan from my wishlist and set off on a search for a better price. I found it too, at Tractor Supply. Fifteen dollars cheaper than Amazon's exclusive price and with free shipping to my home. I bought two.

So what do we think and how do we like it?

I'd hoped for a photo with blurred spinning
fan blades, but my camera wouldn't cooperate. 

Dan was dubious at first, but after using it for a week or so, we both agree that the house is warmer. And with smaller fires. We can position the fan to direct heat toward us, into the next room, or down the hall. That means that rooms which rarely benefit from woodstove heat are warmer than without the fan.

Whirling away on the back of the wood cookstove.

We still do other things to help the house stay warm: close off rooms that aren't in use, keep curtains closed unless the sun is hitting the windows, and open or close specific room doors to direct heat where we want it.

The only thing I wish I'd known before I bought it is that the Ecofan has a little motor which is recommended to be replaced every several years. Looking back over various web advertising, I can't find that information anywhere, but it was in the leaflet in the box. That's not a deal breaker, but it's disappointing because I'm not keen on things that need me to keep buying stuff for them. It would have been nice to know this beforehand, but that's the downside of shopping on the internet (and fodder for another soapbox).

Still, I'm happy to have another useful item crossed off my preparedness list. It's well made and has some heft to it, so in spite of the one downside, I would still recommend it. For the mechanically minded, here's a link for a DIY model.

A technician is coming out tomorrow to look at our modem, so hopefully, I'll be able to respond to comments and return blog visits soon.

 Something I'm Glad I Recently Bought © Dec 2018 
by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Solar Power Baby Steps: Room Fan!

I have been very inspired since reading and reviewing Prepper's Total Grid Failure Handbook. Except for our stand-alone solar devices (we have a solar charger for our electric fence, a solar-powered attic fan, a solar barn light, a solar flash light, and a solar car battery recharger) I have virtually zero experience with generating solar energy. Most books and articles on the subject get way over my head too quickly, so that I have no clue as to how to apply the information. As a hands-on learner, I needed the simplest project I could manage in order to get an experiential grasp on the basics. After reading the Grid Failure Handbook, I began to see ways I could expand our use of solar electric power, especially in the area of preparedness. For example, it's not uncommon for us to lose electricity during lightning storms, ice storms, or hurricane aftermath.

Most of us are familiar with rechargeable batteries. We recharge them by putting the batteries into a little holding device and plugging that into the wall. Then we pay the electric company to recharge the batteries for us. Solar powered devices may or may not have a battery (our attic fan, for example, only works when sunlight hits its PV panel), but the barn light, fence charger, and flashlight each contain their own small battery for after dark use. My new project was going to use the sun to charge a 12-volt car-type battery that I could use with the 12-volt device of my choice.

There are a lot of 12-volt appliances out there. Many common items are wired to run off of car batteries for RVs, boats, camping, tailgate parties, over-the-road truck hauling, etc. Any appliance you use at home probably has a 12-volt version out there. As a truck driver, Dan already has a small 12-volt oven (looks like an old-fashioned lunch box), clip-on fan, cooler, 1.5-quart slow cooker, and a DVD player. All of them use the same kind of electricity as the battery stores (DC or direct current) and simply plug into the vehicle's cigarette lighter.

Typical 12-volt plug

In choosing an appliance, I thought about our preparedness needs. I can cook and heat without electricity, wash clothes without it if I need to; even lighting isn't the greatest need. If we lost power during summer, however, the thing we'd miss most is our fans. Since we've stopped using air conditioning, we use our fans a lot! They help keep us cool, but also, by circulating air in the house, they help prevent mildew and mold. Because of our humidity, that's important! After searching around on the internet, I found a 12-volt room fan.

12-volt fan, 3 speeds, 920 CFM.

To attach it directly to the battery I got this eyelet terminal battery clamp with a 12-volt socket.

You can also get them with alligator clips.

The battery is a deep cycle battery.

12-volt AGM deep cycle battery.

This is not the same kind of battery one typically puts in a car. In a vehicle, a starting (cranking) battery is used. It has to supply enough juice to get an engine started, i.e., rotate the crankshaft. It can bear a high load for a short duration. Something like my fan, however, doesn't take much energy for start-up but must draw continually to keep running. A deep cycle battery can bear a light load for a long time, so it is better suited for these kinds of applications.

Another note about this battery is that it is a "maintenance free," aka sealed battery. It has a shorter lifespan that the flooded cell batteries you have to add distilled water to, but also, there's minimal off-gassing and no chance of spillage. For those reasons I felt it was the best choice for indoor use.

To monitor the battery, I got a small digital voltmeter.

I don't have the best camera so I couldn't get a good shot!

When it gets to between 12.4 and 12.1, then I'll know it's time to recharge the battery. In general, frequent top-ups without letting the voltage get too low will increase the life of the battery.

The set-up is super simple.

The clamp and volt meter attach directly to the battery (red on red and black on black). The fan plugs into the cord's 12-volt socket. I was actually impressed with the breeze the fan creates, even on low!

Since the amount of electricity being delivered (12 volts) is the same as is required to run the fan (12 volts) nothing more is required. If I want to power a typical household device (which uses alternating current or AC), then that's another story (and another project). As long as I use 12-volt devices with this set-up, then I'm good to go.

So what about recharging the battery? This is where the car battery recharger comes in. We bought it not too long ago from Northern Tool: a 20-watt solar panel with a 12 Amp charge controller.

The purpose of the charge controller is to control the charge to
the battery, i.e., prevent it from being overcharged or drained.

The set-up: solar panel > charge controller > battery.

Now we'll see how long my fan can run on the one battery, how often I need to recharge it, and how long that takes. I can see the need for a second battery for a quick switch when one needs recharging.

We're still a long way from energy self-sufficiency, but in terms of preparedness it's a good step. Next I'll tackle something a bit more complicated.

Solar Power Baby Steps: Room Fan! © July 2017 

by Leigh  at http://www.5acresandadream.com/