Do you have or use these? I'd appreciate any comments!

[Judi Dial]

I'm in love with all of these ideas as after you build them they mostly are self-sustaining. Anything I can build that is almost free after the initial capital investment AND helps me overall use less power and/or other resources is a hit as far as I'm concerned. I'm much more likely to do these than get off the grid, or at least do these FIRST!

I've looked at and am attracted to the idea of green roofs. We have a utility shed (all wood) that needs significant maintenance, and I'll probably badger DH until he lets me try a green roof there. I know it's a losing battle for a while on the house roof, alas.

The green pool idea I love too, but have no place to use it. If/when we get a greenhouse ell, maybe, but that's really unlikely right now.

Drying closets used to be fairly normal, people put a closet where there was a warm air draft to dry their clothes. We have such an area where it would work, but it would be ugly. I'm working on this one!

Last one: a cold closet. There's something about these in the Goldberg's "perfect" kitchen design book. My kitchen has an area where if we added like 2 square feet, we'd clean up a problem area on the roof and this would be an easy addition. There's also a cold closet in one of the kitchens in Rodale's harvest kitchen.
book.

Do you have any of these? If so, can you tell me unexpected problems that have come up? Problems with the installation?

Thanks in advance --

Judi

[Thevail]

For a cold closet...I have a big, unheated cement basement. Works great...unpleasant to be in, but works great.

[Grainlady]

No personal experience with a cold closet, just using logic to think it through....and I find it more of a "romantic" notion to a by-gone era, not actually all that safe or practicle for use today - 365-days a year.

The cold closets I've seen were on TV and were in old homes. They were built-in, tin or zinc-lined ice boxes with a drain hole that went into a catch-pan that must be dumped, for water draining from the blocks of ice in the bottom portion of the units. Ice was delivered to homes - you'd have to provide your own.

I've also heard about wooden boxes being placed in windows (similar to a window air conditioner) to keep food cold - using ambient air temperature, not ice. In fact, I could see an old window air-conditioner being gutted and refited for use in a window. Naturally, this was only used in the winter.

I'm not sure how you would control temperature in a cold closet, which would place it on my questionable-for-use list. If you used blocks of ice to maintain a food-safe temperature, you might want it "contained" (blue ice blocks or water-filled plastic bottles/jugs, or other plastic containers, of frozen water). Otherwise you will have to have a drain hole and a pan to catch the water.

It also sounds like a recipe for mold growth if you didn't have proper ventilation. I'm betting a well-designed cold closet has some aspect for ventilation. If you used homemade blocks of ice it would need a drainage hole (another place for mold-growth).

One reason food poisoning isn't as prevelant these days is the wide-spread use of refrigeration. You wouldn't want to be placing food in something that gets 40°F or warmer - the "danger zone".

You would need to be sure you chill food BEFORE storing it in a cold closet. Placing hot food in a cold closet would most certainly bring the temperature down to an unsafe temperature for food storage. Most people don't follow those food safety suggestions using a refrigerator, I doubt they would using a cold closet.

Example: when you cook a pot of soup/stew/chili, you are supposed to quickly chill it in a sink full of iced water before placing it in smaller containers and placing it in the refrigerator. NOT let it sit at room temperature to cool.... If you place a large quantity of hot or warm food in a refrigerator it takes a long time for the refrigerator to bring the large bulk of food to a cold temperature. It will actually bring the temperature down in the refrigerator for a prolonged period of time. In the meantime, bacteria growth can take place in the middle of the bulk because it sits there at an unsafe temperature for a long period of time.

Perhaps I've taken one too many food safety classes....

I'd suggest getting a small refrigerator/freezer, much like Europeans use, to reduce the use of electricity. You can find Eco-friendly refrigerator/freezer units. http://www.eco-fridge.com/ Just think of the saved energy if everyone with multiple freezers and refrigerators reduced it to one SMALL energy-efficient model. But I digress...

Drying Closet-
When we moved into our home (almost 3 years ago) we converted a small unfinished room in the basement to a drying room for laundry. We have 6-lines and two drying racks. There is also a clothes rod on one wall where we hang things that we place on hangers to dry. We completed the whole thing by installing a ceiling fan to aid in air movement and faster drying. During the summer we run a dehumidifier in the basement.

Now I dry clothes inside more than outside. There are more advantages to inside drying...
-wash and dry ANYTIME day or night
-no bird poo
-no hidden wasp or bug in a sleeve
-no sun bleaching colors
-no wet clothes from an unexpected shower
-no wind whipping clothing and breaking fabrics, which shortens the life of clothes (as does bleaching from the sun).
-no allergens carried on the fabric surface

[Judi Dial]

More clarification:

The cold closet I was thinking about wasn't a substitute for a refrigerator, but to supplement it. The design in the Goldberg's book uses cold air from the basement/crawlspace to cool it, has wire mesh shelves or slatted wood shelves and a vent out the roof, no ice. It's for fruit, veggies, crackers, etc.

The one in the harvest kitchen book opens outside and the person whose kitchen it was uses it to store grains and other shelf-stable foods: wheat, rice, etc. It's a sealed shelf unit basically in unheated space. I don't remember where they lived, but the idea of tramping through snow to get at my food midwinter didn't appeal.

Of the two designs, I'm in favor of the first as it seems more reasonable. I'm worried about keeping it rodent free, not having it adversely affect the house's heating, etc. The space I'm thinking about is almost exactly the size of a commercial rack, the sort that takes the large commercial cookie sheets so I thought I could find one used. The idea of being able to wheel out the food from the closet has appeal too.

Thanks for the comments guys!

Judi