What can you leave in an unheated cabin over winter ?

Started by cbc58, Today at 12:21:17 PM

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cbc58

Have a general question about building an off grid 3 season cabin that will remain uninhabited (without power) over winter.  It would be vacant from December through March and the temps can get down to 15 below... 

What can you leave in it that will survive the temp drops and temp fluctuations ?  Will food items like spices and powdered drinks be ok -- or maybe people have figured out unique ways of storing things over the winter so they don't have to bring it back each spring.

Any info. or tips appreciated.

MountainDon

Spices, anything dry (oats, flours, seeds.....) have not suffered at all over the many winters our cabin has gone through winters unheated. Olive oil turns solid in the cold but turns liquid again when warmed with no discernable harm.

Just because something has been done and has not failed, doesn't mean it is good design.


MountainDon

We also used to have a system for storing things like canned goods that should not be frozen. I cannot locate the particular portion of my build thread where this was detailed. So here goes a description.

I had a polyethylene tube 7 feet long  x 24" diameter. An old playground slide tunnel tube. I dug a hole to drop that into. Then I built a box unit over the upper end. I cot an XPS foam plug for the upper end. That fit inside the upper end of the 24" poly tube and had a bicycle tire tube fitted as an o-ring to air seal. The box unit was well insulated around the tube upper end and had a heavily insulated hinged lid.

I had a dozen or so 4" diameter thin wall pvc pipes, dropped in vertically. This was large enough to load with canned goods from one end. The bottom ends had a pin that kept cans from falling out. The top ends had similar pins used as a handle to raise and lower the tubes.. With the insulated lid the inside of the poly storage tube never dropped below about 50 F. The heat from that depth in the soil kept it frost free.

The humidity in the hole was high enough to cause labels to get wet and come loose. Some cans did begin to rust lightly but that was never a serious issue through one winter.

 
Just because something has been done and has not failed, doesn't mean it is good design.