Monday, February 9, 2009

Day 293 of our Green Year: Cooling Without Electricity

For thousands of years, humans have had to try and cool things without the aid of electricity. Then electricity came along and we had the refrigerator. Heralded as a wonderful invention, it eventually helped deplete our ozone layer due to chemicals in the cooling system and increase global warming by their consumption of electricity.

So, Layla and I are going to take a step back and start to cool some of our food without electricity.

First, since we live in Canada we can use the great cold weather we have to help us during the winter. By just putting items outside in a large box, we can keep them cool through the winter. As well, we can dig into the snow and store items there as well, as long as bears, wolves and neighborhood dogs are not a problem of course.

Another solution is Zeer pots, which are ceramic pots that use water inside of them to help cool the items inside. By putting a small ceramic pot into a big ceramic pot, with a bit of sand, you can cool your food without the need for electricity. You can find out more about this here.

In the summer it is a bit harder to cool items, but by digging into the dirt where it is cool and utilizing shade and other principles like that, you can cool items in the summer. Layla and I will be researching this to learn more so we can do it right in the summer.