building a cold storage
 

I have been browsing the great ideas throughout the various forums on this great site long enough that I thought it was time to jump in. My project begins with the fact that in this area ( Digby County Nova Scotia) our falls and springs are warmer than past years which causes our stored fruits and vegetables from our garden/orchard to perish prematurely in our small cold room.
Our plan of action is to upgrade the storage each year with a set budget which includes:
1/ insulate.
2/ mechanical cooling instead of passive.
3/ mechanical removal of produce off gassing to prolong storage.
4/ controlled moisture addition and removal.
5/ data collecting and alarms when set points are passed.

We begin with the storage room which was used as a wood storage area in a previous life. The room is 9ft by 11ft concrete walls and floor, shed style roof 6ft 10 inches high end 5ft 4 inches low end. Ceiling hatch of 3ft by 5 ft. At the present time the room houses the oil tank for oil fired boiler which will not be used as we will be running on heat pumps.
more info and pics to follow.

Sounds like an interesting project Brian. Can't wait to hear and see more.

the existing basement wall (house foundation) had been insulated with 2 inches of SM and drywalled before the wood shed addition. the three wood shed walls will have 2 inches of grooved truefoam with wood strapping anchored in concrete, 2 additional inches of foam oriented 90 degrees will be laid over this with all seams taped. 1/4 inch plywood with 3 1/2 screws will hold second layer of insulation. R-value of insulation has manufacturer rating of 3.85/inch giving a 15.4 foam rating. Since my heatcalc manual is at office I didn't do a complete wall R-value calculation.
The ceiling has been spray foamed (rough job as it was my first attempt) with about 1 to 1.5 inches then will have cavity filled with fiberglass R20 and covered with 1/4 plywood.
We left 4 inches of exposed concrete at floor level since the original wall concrete form construction left wood bracing through wall and we need to examine perimeter drainage to ensure dry floor. At a future date we will be examining floor insulation.
Following pics show work in progress.

the insulating and construction has advanced where the storage walls and ceiling are to the painting stage, the exterior hatch has to have exterior waterproofing and interior insulation. The entry has been partially completed (with its construction of 1/2 plywood 2 inch styrofoam and R20 in framed wall cavity) and air conditioner platform is done. The air conditioner will exhaust its heat into the basement space to reduce alternate space heating.
circuit board will be removed completely and controller wires will be connected as per original schematic.
Still need to attach air exchanger louvers, lighting and control/sensor wiring.

Any updates?

I could easily feel the cold bleeding from my cold storage closet into my basement via the floor which is just one connected slab. All that I did was lay down sheets of 1.5" XPS in the cold closet and put some plywood on that to stop the shelve legs from going through it. Made a world of difference.

cold storage
 

This has been a long project but it is slowly coming to an end. We finally finished the inside of the room and have finished (kind of) the controls. In the picture below it shows the humidifier used to keep the room at 80 percent moisture. The control unit is a dehumidifier control which requires a relay (grey box) to make it a humidistat control or reverse acting.

http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1390226739

Some produce is shown in this attachment.
Next post will show more controls.

http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1390226756

http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1390226756

The controls are all used items taken from the scrap/ save for a rainy day pile.
A cabinet was gutted to put the control relays in and stats were mounted beside cabinet.
The outdoor stat will shut down the air conditioner and start the air exchanger if the outdoor temp is below the 35 deg F storage set point. and a cooling demand is initiated.
One problem encountered is the freeze-up of coils on air conditioner, this required an additional stat to sense the air temp leaving the conditioner and shut down the compressor. With compressor off and fan still turning, the frost is removed and sent into the space to preserve the moisture level.
The timer shown in center of control box is a trial unit and was meant to energize the fan for ten minutes every hour to remove air stratification, it does not seem to be programmable for this and will be replaced later.

http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1390226847

http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1390226847

http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1390226847

http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1390226847

Wow, that looks like quite the setup Brian. Thanks for sharing!

So how do you like the HRV? Do you have it running to your central heating system? Or does it run to the cold store?