Styrofoam

[bacpacker]

I was looking at how to build a root cellar without going underground. Anyway I ran across an article about building an Icebox to store ice in. Within the article was a link to this place to purchase various size styrofoam from. I think it would be perfect for most anything needing insulating. I have not had time to check sizes or prices yet.

http://univfoam.com/

[ak474u]

There's a company called R-Max that makes foam board in various thicknesses for the construction industry. I used to live down the street from their warehouse, and saw some pretty thick stuff come out of there. Since foam is easy to cut, panels can be bought in relatively large sizes and cut down. I do insulation, fiberglass and spray foam mostly, and I can see an advantage to foam panel over fiberglass where spray foam isn't an option. If making a cold room, or an ice box, you'd probably want 4+ inches of foam. Minimum. My foam installers came up with a pretty sweet idea. They have those giant fishin coolers (the five foot long ones) with another cooler inside them. They've sprayed open cell foam in the space around the inner cooler, and used a hole saw in the outer lid to make cavities they then filled the void in the outer lid, most coolers have a hollow lid. It keeps ice over a week and a half.

[Sniper-T]

I know a few guys who snagged old fridges/deep freezers. Dig a hole to just cover it, pack the bottom and outsides with straw, and then cover the top with a pourous piece of plywood. cover that with sod. the sod grows into the plywood and anchors itself, then just tilt the plywood up and you have access. In remote hunting and fishing camps, they are indispensible all summer. In the winter, pour them about 1/2 full of water and leave the lid open until it freezes. then fill a pile of ziplocks with water and lay them on top. 100F in the summer and we've frozen beers in them by accident. and you can grab a ziplock for your day to day cooler, or to bust up for ice in your drinks.

anything similar with styro would work just as well, but you'd need a frame to support it, and if you have any groundwater (ie runoff) it might float up.

[Taz Baby]

look on Craigslist around you. That is where we found all of ours from and the were cheap

[ElevenBravo]

Cool ideas! Thanks guys!

EB