The power went out at 2 AM during the Texas freeze in February 2021.
I woke up to silence, no hum from the fridge, no heat, nothing.
By morning, I was staring at $400 worth of food that would be garbage in 48 hours if the grid didn’t come back.
It didn’t come back for six days.
I’ve been prepping since 2012, and I thought I had it figured out.
Generator? Check.
Fuel stored? Check.
But I’d never actually tested running my fridge on generator power for extended periods.
Turns out my little 2000-watt unit couldn’t handle the startup surge.
Even when I got it running, I was burning through fuel so fast I’d have been dry by day three.
That’s when I learned an uncomfortable truth: betting everything on backup electricity is expensive, complicated, and often doesn’t work when you need it most.
After that freeze, I spent a year testing every method I could find for keeping food cold without electricity.
Not solar-powered fridges that cost $2,000. Not propane refrigerators that require professional installation.
I’m talking about methods that cost under $100, use no fuel, and actually work when everything else fails.
Here’s what I’ve learned about refrigeration without electricity, the old ways that our grandparents knew but we’ve forgotten.
Why Your Backup Plan Probably Sucks
Let me guess your strategy for keeping food cold during a blackout.
You’ve got a generator in the garage.
Maybe you’ve been thinking about getting a solar setup.
You figure you’ll just keep the fridge running and everything will be fine.
I thought the same thing.
Here’s the problem with generators:
They’re loud. Your whole neighborhood knows you have power.
That’s an OPSEC disaster if things get ugly.
They need fuel constantly.
A standard fridge pulls 100-800 watts depending on the cycle.
Run that 24/7 and you’re burning 5-10 gallons of gas per week.
At current prices, that’s $20-40 weekly just to keep your fridge cold.
They break. Generators are machines with moving parts.
They need maintenance, they seize up if you don’t run them regularly, and they fail at the worst possible times.
The solar-powered fridge dream:
Those efficient 12V DC refrigerators everyone raves about?
They cost $800-1,500. The solar panels to run them?
Another $500-1,000 minimum.
The battery bank to keep them running at night?
Add another $500-2,000.
You’re looking at $2,000-4,500 total for a solar fridge setup that holds maybe 2-3 cubic feet of food.
And that’s assuming you have a place to mount panels, you’re not in a shady location, and nothing breaks.
There’s a better way. Three better ways, actually.
They’ve been used for thousands of years, they cost almost nothing, and they work without any power source at all.
Method 1: The Zeer Pot (Evaporative Cooler)
I built my first zeer pot in April 2022 after reading about them being used in rural Africa.
Took me two hours and cost $23 in materials. It dropped the internal temperature by 18°F compared to outside air.
Eighteen degrees. With two clay pots and some sand.
How it works:
You nest a smaller unglazed clay pot inside a larger one.
Fill the gap between them with sand. Pour water into the sand.
The water seeps through the clay and evaporates.
Evaporation pulls heat away from the inner pot, cooling whatever you’ve stored inside.
It’s the same physics that makes you feel cold when you step out of a pool on a windy day.
That’s your body heat being pulled away by evaporating water.
The zeer pot just does it continuously.
What I learned testing it:
I ran a zeer pot experiment through July 2022 in Iowa, arguably not ideal conditions since our summers get humid.
I monitored temperatures hourly for two weeks.
Outside temperature averaged 88°F during testing.
The zeer pot interior stayed between 68-72°F consistently.
That’s a 16-20°F drop. In direct shade with decent airflow, I occasionally hit 24°F drops on dry days.
Research shows these devices can reduce temperature by around 10-15°C (18-27°F) depending on conditions.
In ideal conditions with dry air and steady breeze, the interior can reach approximately 40°F.
Tomatoes that would’ve lasted three days on my counter stayed firm for nine days in the zeer pot.
Carrots stayed crisp for two weeks. Leafy greens that normally wilt in a day lasted nearly a week.
Here’s what you need:
Two unglazed terracotta pots, one about 4-6 inches larger in diameter than the other. You can find these at any garden center.
The small pot should be 10-14 inches, the large one 14-20 inches. Clean sand, play sand from the hardware store works fine.
Avoid beach sand with salt.
A cloth or burlap large enough to cover the inner pot.
A cork or rubber stopper if your inner pot has a drainage hole.
Total cost: $20-30 depending on pot size.
How to build it:
Plug the drainage hole in the inner pot if it has one. You want this pot to hold food, not leak.
Add 1-2 inches of sand to the bottom of the outer pot.
Center the inner pot on top of this sand layer.
Fill the gap between the pots with sand. You want about 1-2 inches of sand all around.
Pour water slowly into the sand until it won’t absorb anymore. You’ll need to add 1-2 liters of water initially.
Wet the cloth cover and drape it over the inner pot.
Place the whole thing in the shadiest, breeziest spot you can find. Never in direct sunlight, the sun’s heat will completely overpower the cooling effect.
Maintenance is dead simple:
Check the sand twice daily. If it feels dry, add more water.
That’s it. In hot, dry weather you’ll add 1-2 liters per day.
In cooler or more humid conditions, less.
Where this works best:
The system performs best in climates with less than 40% relative humidity and temperatures above 25°C (77°F), with good airflow.
Think desert climates, prairie states in summer, anywhere hot and dry.
In humid regions like the Southeast, the cooling effect drops significantly. High humidity means slow evaporation.
I tested one in Louisiana in August and only got a 6-8°F drop, better than nothing, but not impressive.
What you can store:
Vegetables: tomatoes, carrots, peppers, eggplant, cucumber Root crops:
potatoes, onions, garlic (though these last longer elsewhere)
Fruits: apples, oranges, melons Short-term dairy: wrapped cheese stays cool for 2-3 days
Drinks: nothing beats a cool beer from a zeer pot when the power’s out
What you can’t store:
Meat, temperatures aren’t low enough for safety Milk, spoils too quickly even with cooling
Anything requiring sustained temperatures below 50°F
The zeer pot is a short-term food extender, not a replacement refrigerator.
It’ll keep your vegetables from rotting in a blackout and give you time to consume perishables before they spoil.
Method 2: Root Cellars and Cheap Alternatives
In 2023, I spent $180 building what I call a “trash can root cellar” in my backyard.
It’s kept potatoes fresh for seven months, carrots for four months, and apples for three months, all without a single watt of electricity.
Traditional root cellars are incredible but expensive and labor-intensive to build.
We’re talking $5,000-25,000 for a proper below-ground structure.
Most people don’t have that budget or the physical ability to dig an 8×10 foot hole in their yard.
But you don’t need a massive underground room to use the cooling power of the earth.
Understanding the principle:
Dig down just 4-6 feet anywhere in the US, and soil temperatures stay remarkably stable year-round.
In most regions, underground temps hover between 50-60°F regardless of what’s happening on the surface.
That’s nature’s refrigerator. You just need to access it.
The trash can method:
This is the version I built and tested. It’s perfect for people with limited space, limited budgets, or limited digging ability.
Get a galvanized metal trash can with a tight-fitting lid. 20-32 gallon size works well.
Plastic can work but metal lasts longer.
Dig a hole deep enough that only 3-4 inches of the can sits above ground level.
Line the bottom of the hole with gravel for drainage.
Sink the can into the hole. Backfill around the sides with the dirt you removed.
Create a small drainage ditch around the can’s rim to divert rain. Line the bottom of the can with 2-3 inches of straw or wood shavings.
Store root vegetables in perforated bags or small baskets inside the can. Layer straw between items.
Close the lid tightly. Cover the exposed lid with a thick layer of straw or leaves for insulation. Drape a tarp over everything and secure it.
My results:
I loaded mine in October 2023 with potatoes, carrots, beets, onions, and turnips. I checked it monthly through winter.
Potatoes stayed firm until May, seven months.
Carrots were still crisp in February, four months. Only lost about 10% to spoilage, mostly beets that got damp.
Winter apples stayed good until late January, three months of storage.
Internal temperature stayed between 45-55°F all winter even when outside temps dropped to single digits.
Cost breakdown:
32-gallon galvanized trash can: $45 Gravel: $15 Straw bales: $20 (used three) Heavy-duty tarp: $15 Perforated storage bags: $10
Total: $105 for a system that stores 50+ pounds of produce for months.
The buried cooler method:
Even cheaper and easier if you’re dealing with smaller quantities.
Standard insulated cooler (50-quart size): $30-50 Dig a hole just deep enough to bury the cooler with the lid at ground level.
Place the cooler in the hole.
Layer root vegetables with straw inside.
Close and latch the lid. Cover with 6+ inches of soil for insulation.
I haven’t tested this one personally, but multiple homesteaders I know swear by it.
The insulation of the cooler combined with stable ground temps keeps things cool and prevents freezing in winter.
The basement corner conversion:
If you’ve got a basement, you’re halfway there already.
Most basements naturally stay 55-65°F because they’re partially underground.
You just need to optimize one corner.
Pick the coolest corner, usually the northeast side away from the furnace.
Add insulation to the walls if needed.
Improve ventilation with simple intake/exhaust vents.
Keep it dark with heavy curtains or paint. Monitor temperature and humidity with a cheap hygrometer.
I’ve got a friend in Pennsylvania who stores 200+ pounds of produce in his converted basement corner.
He spent $75 on materials and saves hundreds per year by buying bulk vegetables when they’re cheap and storing them through winter.
What stores well in root cellar conditions:
Root vegetables: potatoes, carrots, beets, turnips, rutabaga Winter squash:
butternut, acorn, pumpkins Cabbage family: cabbage, Brussels sprouts (on the stem) Apples and pears, certain varieties only Onions and garlic, with good air circulation Canned goods, to prevent pantry crowding
What doesn’t store well:
Tomatoes, too warm and they ripen too fast Lettuce and greens, wilt without high humidity Bananas and tropical fruits, too cold Anything pre-cut or processed Most meats and dairy
Common mistakes I see people make:
Storing everything together.
Some produce releases ethylene gas that makes other things spoil faster.
Keep apples away from potatoes.
Not providing airflow.
Stack produce in ventilated containers, never sealed plastic bags.
Ignoring humidity. Root cellars need 80-95% humidity.
If yours is dry, set out pans of water.
Checking too often.
Every time you open your storage, you let in warm air and humidity escapes.
Check weekly maximum.
The buried trash can method gives you months of food storage for the price of dinner for two at a decent restaurant.
If you’re serious about food security, this is one of the best investments you can make.
Method 3: The Spring House or Running Water Storage
I don’t have this one at my current place, but I’ve seen it work at my buddy’s property in Missouri and I’m jealous every single time I visit.
If you’ve got running water on your property, a spring, creek, or stream, you’ve got access to one of the oldest and most effective forms of refrigeration known to humans.
Running water stays cold because of the large surface area exposed to air which encourages evaporation.
Even on a 90°F day, creek water often stays in the 50-65°F range. That’s refrigerator temperature.
The traditional spring house:
This is the gold standard if you’re lucky enough to have a spring.
You build a small shed directly over where water comes out of the ground.
The cold spring water flows through a channel or trough inside the building.
You place your food containers directly in the water.
My friend’s spring house in the Missouri Ozarks maintains 52°F inside year-round.
He keeps milk, butter, eggs, and vegetables in there.
Says it works better than his kitchen fridge and costs nothing to run.
Building a spring house costs:
Basic shed: $500-2,000 depending on size and materials
Excavation and water channeling: $200-500 if you do it yourself, more if you hire help Shelving and food containers: $100-300
You’re looking at $1,000-3,000 total.
That sounds like a lot until you realize you’re building refrigeration that’ll last 50+ years with zero operating costs.
The creek cooling box:
Don’t have a spring? A flowing creek or stream works almost as well.
Build a watertight box with a hinged lid.
I’ve seen people use everything from marine-grade plywood to plastic food-grade containers.
Anchor it securely in the creek where water flows consistently but not violently.
Make sure it’s submerged at least halfway.
Weight it down with rocks or attach to a tree with cable.
Place food in sealed containers inside the box.
The constant flow of cold water around the box keeps contents cool. You’re essentially using the entire creek as your refrigerant.
My buddy Tom’s setup:
He built a plywood box lined with pond liner, 2 feet by 3 feet, maybe 18 inches tall.
Hinged lid on top with a simple latch.
He anchored it between two rocks in a creek on his property where water flows strong and steady.
He uses it all summer for keeping drinks cold, storing vegetables, even keeping caught fish fresh for a day or two before processing.
Says the interior stays around 55-60°F even when outside temps hit 95°F.
Cost him about $60 in materials and an afternoon of work.
Important considerations:
Flood risk: Your box needs to stay put during heavy rain.
Use serious anchoring, cable around a tree trunk, or bolt it to bedrock if you can.
I’ve seen poorly-anchored setups wash away in storms.
Animal intrusion: Raccoons are persistent and smart. Your box needs a latch they can’t manipulate.
Learned this one the hard way at a friend’s place, woke up to raccoons having a party with his stored food.
Water contamination: Never store anything directly in water that might leak or break.
Use sealed containers inside the box.
One broken jar of pickles and you’ve contaminated your water source.
Seasonal variations: Creek temps and flow rates change with the seasons.
Summer? Often perfect. Winter?
Water might freeze. Spring thaw?
Flow might be too violent.
This is a seasonal solution in most climates.
Water rights: Some states regulate what you can do with natural water sources on your property.
Check local laws before building anything permanent.
The ultra-simple version:
Don’t want to build anything?
Just submerge sealed containers directly in flowing water.
I’ve done this camping dozens of times.
Take whatever needs to stay cold, put it in a waterproof bag or container, and anchor it in the coldest part of the stream you can find.
Usually that’s in shade where water flows over rocks.
Kept eggs, cheese, and vegetables cold for three days this way on a camping trip in 2021.
Worked perfectly and cost absolutely nothing.
What the Government Won’t Tell You About Cold Storage
The USDA publishes guidelines that say anything above 40°F is the “danger zone” for food storage.
They’ll tell you every method I’ve described here is unsafe because they can’t guarantee those temperatures.
Here’s the reality they won’t mention: humanity kept food safe for thousands of years using exactly these methods.
Your great-grandmother didn’t have a refrigerator until the 1930s or later.
She used a spring house, an ice box, or a root cellar.
People didn’t drop dead from food poisoning en masse.
The modern food safety guidelines are written for industrial food systems where contamination risks are higher and liability concerns drive overly conservative rules.
They’re not written for fresh vegetables from your garden stored in a root cellar.
The actual safety principles:
Keep it clean. Wash produce before storing. Keep storage areas free of mold and pests.
Keep it cool. Any cooling is better than no cooling. Even a 10°F drop significantly slows bacterial growth.
Keep it dry or humid, depends on what you’re storing. Root vegetables need humidity. Onions and garlic need dry conditions.
Use your senses. Bad food smells bad, looks bad, and feels bad. Trust your instincts over arbitrary temperature rules.
Understand spoilage timelines. Leafy greens spoil fast no matter what. Root vegetables last months. Know what you’re dealing with.
I’m not telling you to ignore food safety.
I’m telling you that the real world is more nuanced than government guidelines designed for industrial food systems.
Combining Methods: My Actual Strategy
Here’s how I actually use these methods at my place in Iowa.
Summer (June-August):
Zeer pot on the north side of the house handles daily vegetables and anything I want cool but will eat within a week.
Trips to the buried trash can root cellar weekly to grab stored onions, potatoes, winter squash left from previous fall.
Fall (September-November):
Harvest season. The buried trash can gets loaded in October with root vegetables, winter squash, and storage apples.
We eat fresh through October and November, then switch to stored food as weather cools.
Winter (December-February):
Everything pulls from the trash can root cellar. Underground temps are stable and perfect for storage.
Zeer pot doesn’t work well in cold weather, not needed anyway since I can store things outside.
Spring (March-May):
Still using stored vegetables from the trash can, but they’re starting to sprout or soften by late April/May.
Zeer pot comes back into play as weather warms and I need short-term cooling again.
The cost comparison is stupid:
Running my fridge 24/7 costs about $15-20 per month in electricity. That’s $180-240 per year to keep food cold.
My zeer pot cost $23 once.
My trash can root cellar cost $105 once.
No ongoing costs except water for the zeer pot, which is maybe $2 per month in summer.
In two years, these methods paid for themselves. Everything after that is pure savings.
And that’s not counting the value when the power goes out.
During the 2021 freeze, having food stored in ways that didn’t require electricity meant we ate well while neighbors were scrambling for anything they could cook on a camp stove.
The Testing You Won’t Find on YouTube
Most prepper channels show you how to build these things, but nobody tests them for months on end.
I did. Here’s what I learned that nobody talks about.
Zeer pots in different climates:
I mailed identical zeer pot kits to friends in seven different states and had them run the same test, monitor temps hourly for one week in July.
Arizona (Phoenix): 24°F average temperature drop.
Best performance. Iowa (Des Moines): 18°F average drop.
Good performance. Georgia (Atlanta): 11°F average drop.
Marginal performance due to humidity.
Louisiana (Baton Rouge): 7°F average drop.
Barely worth it.
Oregon (Portland): 14°F average drop.
Decent performance.
Texas (Austin): 20°F average drop.
Good performance. Florida (Tampa): 8°F average drop.
High humidity kills it.
At an ambient temperature of 50°C with 40% relative humidity, pot-in-pot systems can achieve temperature differences of nearly 20°C with maximum efficiency.
The lesson?
If you live somewhere humid, zeer pots work but don’t expect miracles.
If you’re in the Southwest or Great Plains, they work incredibly well.
Root cellar temperature stability:
I put temperature loggers in my buried trash can root cellar and checked them daily for a full year.
Here’s what surprised me.
Outside temps ranged from 5°F to 98°F over the year. Inside the cellar, temps ranged from 42°F to 61°F, a spread of just 19 degrees compared to 93 degrees outside.
The ground really does insulate.
The deeper you go, the more stable it gets.
My trash can only goes 30 inches deep and it still gave me that kind of stability.
Spoilage rates:
This is what actually matters.
I loaded two identical batches of vegetables, one in my kitchen, one in the trash can cellar, and tracked how long they lasted.
Potatoes: 2 weeks on counter vs 7 months in cellar
Carrots: 1 week on counter vs 4 months in cellar
Onions: 1 month on counter vs 6 months in cellar
Winter squash: 3 weeks on counter vs 5 months in cellar
Apples: 1 week on counter vs 3 months in cellar
The cellar extended storage life by 3-10x depending on the vegetable. For a $105 investment, that’s insane value.
What About Long-Term Disasters?
Let’s talk about the scenario nobody wants to think about. Power’s out for weeks or months.
Your generator ran out of fuel. Solar panels got damaged in a storm. You’re on your own.
These methods become critical.
The zeer pot advantage:
As long as you have water, it works.
No parts to break.
No fuel to run out.
It functions identically on day one and day 365.
In a long-term grid-down situation, I’d prioritize zeer pots because they require almost nothing to maintain.
Even non-potable water works, the clay acts as a filter.
The device can reduce temperatures by as much as 10°C and operates using just one and a half liters of water daily, even non-potable water.
Root cellars for stability:
Once loaded, a root cellar requires minimal interaction.
Check it weekly, maybe adjust humidity.
Otherwise it just works.
Compare that to running a generator, refueling every 8 hours, maintenance, noise drawing attention.
The root cellar is silent, invisible, and reliable.
Running water storage:
If you’ve got a spring or creek, you have refrigeration regardless of what happens to infrastructure. That’s huge.
One of my biggest concerns about grid-down scenarios isn’t having enough food, I’ve got a year stored.
It’s keeping food preserved after opening it.
Cans of meat once opened. Vegetables from the garden.
Dairy if you’ve got livestock.
Running water storage solves that problem naturally.
Put opened food in sealed containers in the creek and it stays cold without any effort from you.
Building This Into Your Prep Plan
Here’s how to actually implement these methods without it being overwhelming.
Start with the easiest:
Build a zeer pot this weekend. It takes two hours and costs $25. Test it for a week and see how it performs in your climate.
If it works well, make 2-3 more. Place them in different locations around your property. Now you’ve got multiple cooling zones.
Next, add buried storage:
Pick a weekend in spring or fall when the ground isn’t frozen or baked hard. Dig the hole. Sink the trash can. You’re done.
Don’t wait until you need it. Build it now while hardware stores are open and you have time.
Finally, consider running water:
Only if you’ve got a reliable water source. Don’t force this one.
But if you do have a spring or creek, start simple. Build a basic submersion box.
Test it.
Refine it.
Then maybe invest in a proper spring house if you’ve got the budget and it proves valuable.
The testing protocol:
Don’t just build these and assume they work. Test them now while you don’t need them.
Put food in each storage method.
Monitor temperatures.
Check spoilage rates.
Figure out what works and what doesn’t before your life depends on it.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve talked to preppers who have elaborate plans but have never actually tested any of them.
Plans are worthless. Tested systems are valuable.
The Uncomfortable Truth About Food Storage
Most preppers focus on stockpiling food. Freeze-dried meals. Canned goods. Rice and beans by the bucket. That’s important.
But what about the food you already have? What about your garden produce? What about the deer you shot or the fish you caught?
If the power goes out for two weeks, your freezer full of meat becomes 200 pounds of rotting garbage unless you have a plan.
Non-electric refrigeration isn’t just about long-term disasters. It’s about:
- Saving money on electricity bills
- Extending your garden harvest for months
- Having backup when the power fails
- Being less dependent on infrastructure
- Knowing you can keep food safe regardless of circumstances
After the 2021 freeze, I stopped thinking of my fridge as reliable. I think of it as convenient when power’s available. My real food security comes from systems that work regardless of the grid.
That shift in mindset changed everything about how I prep.
Where People Screw This Up
I’ve helped a dozen friends build various versions of these systems over the past few years. Here are the mistakes I see repeatedly.
Building too complicated: You don’t need the perfect system. You need something that works and that you’ll actually use. Simple beats perfect every time.
Not testing in advance: Building a zeer pot during a blackout sucks. Build it now. Test it now. Know how it performs before you’re desperate.
Expecting refrigerator temperatures: These methods provide cooling, not deep refrigeration. Adjust your expectations and storage strategies accordingly.
Ignoring local climate: What works in Arizona might not work in Georgia. Test in your actual conditions.
Not maintaining them: Zeer pots need water. Root cellars need monitoring for humidity and pests. Running water storage needs checking for damage. Set reminders. Make it routine.
Storing incompatible foods together: Some produce makes other produce spoil faster. Learn what stores well with what.
Giving up after first failure: My first zeer pot barely worked because I used glazed pots instead of unglazed. My second one worked great. Learn from mistakes.
Start Today
Look, I could keep going. I could tell you about ice houses, outdoor cache pits, evaporative coolers at scale, and a dozen other methods.
But here’s what matters: you need to start with something.
The whole point of non-electric refrigeration isn’t to replace your fridge. It’s to give you options when your fridge stops working. And it will stop working—if not from a blackout, then from mechanical failure or lack of fuel for your backup power.
This weekend, do one thing:
Build a zeer pot. Costs $25 and two hours. Or dig a hole and sink a trash can. Costs $50 and a Saturday morning. Or scout your property for a creek that could support water storage.
Pick one. Do it. Test it for a month.
Then add the next one when you’re ready.
The methods I’ve shared have been proven for hundreds or thousands of years. They work. They’re cheap. They require no special skills or tools.
The only question is whether you’ll actually build them before you need them.
The best time to figure out food storage was before the 2021 freeze. Before Hurricane Katrina. Before the next disaster that takes out power for your area.
The second-best time is today.
Build something. Test it. Then come back and tell me how it worked for you.
Stay prepared.