It is relatively common in the world of (beer) home-brewing to create "walk-in coolers" where kegs of beverage can be kept cold. But unlike a commercially manufactured, walk-in refrigerator that can cost tens-of-thousands of dollars, these enterprising folks retrofit ice-fishing shanties (Canadians are ardent home-brewers) with common, window-mounted air conditioners with the factory thermostat "jumpered out" and with an alternate thermostat wired in series.
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| INKBIRD, 1800W plug-in thermostat. |
I don't know how fast this would pull down the temperature of three, newly killed Whitetail Deer or a 300 pound hog, but if a fellow knew in advance he could pre-chill (or freeze) jugs of water starting 48 hours in advance and they would assist in pulling heat out of the carcasses.
We built a cold room in a corner of the garage/shop several years ago along these lines. In our case we completely bypassed the internal thermostats so the units would run continuously no matter how cold it became.
ReplyDeleteTo control the units we wired in a relay controlled by a PID controller and a thermocouple to an outlet the ac units plug into. Our room will pull a beef animal with a hung weight of 650 to 800 lbs, quartered, from a kill temp of around 100 degrees f to 37 degrees f at the bone in about 24 hours.
A few things to note. There is a lot of moisture being pulled out of a carcass and we found setting up the controller to drop the temperature no more than 3 degrees f an hour helped prevent frosting of the ac units. Installing two ac units is a must as it reduces the load on a single ac unit and a backup in the event of a critical failure of either unit.
Our cold room is 9' X 12' with an 8' ceiling. Installing a couple of 20" box fans really helped to circulate the air and evenly cool all carcass pieces.
If you go this route lots of insulation on all four walls, the floor and ceiling is your friend.
We hang beef, hogs and wild game and do all of our own cutting and wrapping.
wes
wtdb
THANK-YOU, sir.
DeleteGreat information!
You can try the Storeitcold.com website and buy the cool bot unit.
DeleteI used one for years. Works with a
window ac.
Grumpy Old Macdonald
When we had the restaurants, we had a similar "cold Box" on a trailer that we could move to a place with a non working walk-in to keep the food fresh until the walk-in could be fixed. It was good enough to get an approval from the department of health.
ReplyDeleteA 10,000 BTU unit could keep a 12X7 insulated box at 34 degrees even in the hot sun in the summer. It would even cycle on and off.
If we did it over, we'd have used two 7500's instead with a 2 degree differential setpoint. .
YMMV
Thanks. Our deer season in SoKY tends to be 50-70 degrees . I hesitate to shoot deer when it's that warm out of fear of them spoiling. I could frame this out on the barn where there is a window for the AC.
ReplyDeleteI am in the middle of setting up a10 x 12 shed as a wood fired sauna. R13 insulation on walls and ceiling, 1 x6 tongue and groove pine. Linoleum floor.
ReplyDeleteYour post has my mind cranking now...
I just finished mine last year just in time for deer season. It's a 6'X8" shed insulated to R-24 with a 10,000 BTU AC and a Cool Bot. Hung 2 deer for a little over 2 weeks. Meat is much more tender than when we had to hurry up and get them in the freezer without any ageing.
ReplyDelete