"Iceberg" Cooling Idea Worked-- As Long As The Ice Lasted

"Iceberg" Cooling Idea Worked-- As Long As The Ice Lasted ENERGY Alternative Fuels 26-1-37 Cooling or refrigerating with a giant pile of ice instead of a mechanical refrigeration system works well, says Dick Kutter, Kutter Cheese, Corfu, New York. A 1984 FARM SHOW article entitled "Build Yourself an Iceberg" detailed how Kutter, under the direction of Theodore Taylor, an industry consultant, had made a large mountain of about 900 tons of ice to cool the plant's cheese storage and to also air condition offices in the summer. The ice pile stood in a pond about 5 ft. deep and 60 ft. across. During winter, water was sprayed from five nozzles. "We'd keep freezing until the ice was built up 2 to 3 ft. above the top of the reservoir," Kutter tells. "Once we had the ice mound built up, we covered it and insulated it so it would melt slowly in the spring." While the idea worked well and saved a lot of money, Kutter says they abandoned the system after about 10 years. "The problem was, no matter how well we insulated the ice pond, we always ran out of ice in July and had to go back to mechanical refrigeration. While it didn't cost much to build the ice pond, covering it was quite a task and we still had to have both systems. In the end, we felt that it was more economical for us to maintain just one refrigeration system. Since we had to have mechanical refrigeration for half the year, anyway, we decided to go back to that year round," he says, noting that the idea might still work for other situations. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Dick Kutter, Kutter Cheese, 857 Main Road, Corfu, N.Y. 14036 (ph 716 599-3693).

To read the rest of this story, download this issue below or click here to register with your account number.