Colorado cold storage

[pfraze]

I've had good luck with Hotchkiss Meats in Hotchkiss in the past but I haven't been there for a few years. We got there late and called the number on the door around midnight and they came and opened up. We did have them do the processing. Its a little ways from Montrose but not too far.

 

[Balderdash]

This is the way. You can often even find them cheaply on Craigslist (they're really bulky but not very valuable so when people move, sometimes chest freezers don't make the "cut".) Also, if you're willing to do a temperature controller mod, since you're (probably) not actually trying to freeze the meat, you can run it at about 40F on one or two solar panels if you set it up right.

I'll have to look into this. We've gone solar for the camp. Would be nice to not have to schlep the generator and extra gas cans around.

OTOH, we sometimes use the generator to power an auxiliary heater for the tent/camper, and we've used to to power car battery chargers, etc if it's overcast.

 

[taskswap]

I'll have to look into this. We've gone solar for the camp. Would be nice to not have to schlep the generator and extra gas cans around.

OTOH, we sometimes use the generator to power an auxiliary heater for the tent/camper, and we've used to to power car battery chargers, etc if it's overcast.

FWIW chest freezers are one of the most common choices by the RV/van-life crowd as an alternative to fridges, for exactly the reason of low power consumption. When modified to run at fridge temps (just a temperature controller - lots of Youtube videos on this) they can use as little as a few hundred Wh per day, which a single solar panel can often provide (and more). A lot depends on things like what temp you set it at, keeping it out of the sun, the quality of the appliance you get, and how much work it has to do initially (let the meat cool as much as possible before putting it in).

 

[S.Clancy]

FWIW chest freezers are one of the most common choices by the RV/van-life crowd as an alternative to fridges, for exactly the reason of low power consumption. When modified to run at fridge temps (just a temperature controller - lots of Youtube videos on this) they can use as little as a few hundred Wh per day, which a single solar panel can often provide (and more). A lot depends on things like what temp you set it at, keeping it out of the sun, the quality of the appliance you get, and how much work it has to do initially (let the meat cool as much as possible before putting it in).

What watt solar system would you be using for this? And then 2 deep cycle marine batteries or something to run it through the night?

 

[taskswap]

What watt solar system would you be using for this? And then 2 deep cycle marine batteries or something to run it through the night?

You can use LiFePO4's but it would be best if they were self-heating types. Contrary to common belief, these batteries don't automatically "die" below freezing. They can't be charged below freezing, but their BMS controllers will prevent that anyway. But you lose a lot of "usability" because when the BMS shuts the battery down to protect it, the battery goes offline until it's warm again. (And self-heating pads consume current as well.) So I personally would only use a LiFePO4 in a more protected environment, like a camper or RV, or in summer where freezing temps overnight are unlikely anyway.

So on that side yes, I think a deep-cycle lead acid is best, ideally an AGM.

For wattage, every unit is different but most chest freezers will take ~400Wh/day. It's quite a range - 200-800 - but let's say 400Wh for the sake of the argument. But now let's adjust it because we aren't trying to freeze anything, so if we change the setpoint to say 38F (a common fridge temp) maybe we'll only need 320Wh/day.

Deep-cycle batteries should not be discharged below 50% of their rated capacities if you want them to live very long, despite their names. So let's say you have a 500Ah battery (kind of on the small side actually), so we'll use 250Ah as its max "capacity". P=E*I so at E=12V and I=250 that's 3000Wh of capacity. With no solar input at all, and a chest freezer "sipping" current in "fridge mode" you could in theory run that thing for over a week on a single battery. Screw a single solar panel to the lid of the freezer and you've got a pretty self-sustaining setup for most environments. You'll need a small charge controller and inverter, and those will have some losses, but either way you can see this is a pretty sustainable setup for a modest cost.

FWIW if you have a vehicle that you don't mind idling once a day (not a diesel) and a pair of jumper cables or a 7-pin trailer connector with an active 12V AUX wire, you could just use your vehicle to recharge the setup instead of solar.

 

[BucksNBulls]

Kinikins meats in Montrose.

 

[ELKhunter49]

Bring a chest freezer and generator with you if you can. Easier than driving all the way down into town and hoping there will be a spot open.

 

[S.Clancy]

You can use LiFePO4's but it would be best if they were self-heating types. Contrary to common belief, these batteries don't automatically "die" below freezing. They can't be charged below freezing, but their BMS controllers will prevent that anyway. But you lose a lot of "usability" because when the BMS shuts the battery down to protect it, the battery goes offline until it's warm again. (And self-heating pads consume current as well.) So I personally would only use a LiFePO4 in a more protected environment, like a camper or RV, or in summer where freezing temps overnight are unlikely anyway.

So on that side yes, I think a deep-cycle lead acid is best, ideally an AGM.

For wattage, every unit is different but most chest freezers will take ~400Wh/day. It's quite a range - 200-800 - but let's say 400Wh for the sake of the argument. But now let's adjust it because we aren't trying to freeze anything, so if we change the setpoint to say 38F (a common fridge temp) maybe we'll only need 320Wh/day.

Deep-cycle batteries should not be discharged below 50% of their rated capacities if you want them to live very long, despite their names. So let's say you have a 500Ah battery (kind of on the small side actually), so we'll use 250Ah as its max "capacity". P=E*I so at E=12V and I=250 that's 3000Wh of capacity. With no solar input at all, and a chest freezer "sipping" current in "fridge mode" you could in theory run that thing for over a week on a single battery. Screw a single solar panel to the lid of the freezer and you've got a pretty self-sustaining setup for most environments. You'll need a small charge controller and inverter, and those will have some losses, but either way you can see this is a pretty sustainable setup for a modest cost.

FWIW if you have a vehicle that you don't mind idling once a day (not a diesel) and a pair of jumper cables or a 7-pin trailer connector with an active 12V AUX wire, you could just use your vehicle to recharge the setup instead of solar.

So, a 200Watt panel and a 100AH battery would work as a system that you could rely on to maintain indefinitely with adequate sun, given your 320-350Wh/day assumption for useage? That system would only take a couple hours of sun a day to recharge?

 

[mxgsfmdpx]

From meat scientists.

Haha. You should tell all the meat scientists that 10s of thousands of hunters every year keep quartered and deboned meat in coolers on ice for days and even weeks at a time. Let us know what they say

 

[taskswap]

So, a 200Watt panel and a 100AH battery would work as a system that you could rely on to maintain indefinitely with adequate sun, given your 320-350Wh/day assumption for useage? That system would only take a couple hours of sun a day to recharge?

I mean, a lot depends on the components you choose and how well you set them up. I'm not making a blanket guarantee. But yes, by the math, if you do it well, that should be more than enough.

There are just so many "it depends" though. Go Google "solar panel shading". Depending on the panel you get, shading even a single "cell" on the panel can drop its output way more than you think - with lower quality panels, it can be a >80% drop. That means even a small shadow from a tree can have a huge impact on your charging. There are lots of details like this where you need to be thoughtful about stuff you may not have had to factor in before, like if the area where you park has a lot of trees it can change things dramatically. Mostly these are things you just learn to adjust for as you go, so I'm just providing one example here.

 

[S.Clancy]

I mean, a lot depends on the components you choose and how well you set them up. I'm not making a blanket guarantee. But yes, by the math, if you do it well, that should be more than enough.

There are just so many "it depends" though. Go Google "solar panel shading". Depending on the panel you get, shading even a single "cell" on the panel can drop its output way more than you think - with lower quality panels, it can be a >80% drop. That means even a small shadow from a tree can have a huge impact on your charging. There are lots of details like this where you need to be thoughtful about stuff you may not have had to factor in before, like if the area where you park has a lot of trees it can change things dramatically. Mostly these are things you just learn to adjust for as you go, so I'm just providing one example here.

I'm gonna PM you.