"Building a 55 gallon Plastic Drum Root Cellar"
It is January and they are working great.
Additional info: you do have to put a drain hole in the bottom for condensate. Just pour some water in the bottom and drill a 1/2' hole in the center of where ever the water pools. The lids are uninsulated and in Jan and Feb with nightly lows in the teens, the temperature inside was 34F. This was with 4" of straw thatch and 18" of course thatch, covered with a tarp. Note that 34 degrees is ideal for a lot of vegs like cabbage. However, potatoes and fruits like it around 40-45F. I would recommend additional insulation on the exposed barrel and also insulating the lid. Also fruits like it drier and right now the barrels are at 95% humidity because I didn't put the heavy thatch on until later. I would recommend for fruits to thatch the barrels completely from the start so the temperature inside does not go up slightly during the day - which causes it to breath in humid air at night when the barrel top cools. Over time this condensing drives the humidity up.
Check out the video here: http://youtu.be/7LQ6HgCwm2M
The longest I have tested this for at low temp was just below freezing for a month (daily) with average nightly lows of -20C (-5F). During this period the temp in the cellar was about 4C or 39F which is good for some things, actually too cold for others (like apples) I was storing potatoes so I didn't worry about it, but if I wanted to raise the temp I would have to put straw on top with a tarp. Usually I just have a coarse thick stick mat of thatch that is coarser than straw. To help with air flow, you might want to dig that hole a bit deeper, put some cinder blocks down on bottom, drill holes in the bottom of the barrels and lay fine screening on top of that and put the barrels on the cinder blocks. That will take care of any "liquid" build up and might prevent it
http://survivalofthemostprepared.blogspot.com/2012/01/building-55-gallon-plastic-drum-root.html
It is January and they are working great.
Additional info: you do have to put a drain hole in the bottom for condensate. Just pour some water in the bottom and drill a 1/2' hole in the center of where ever the water pools. The lids are uninsulated and in Jan and Feb with nightly lows in the teens, the temperature inside was 34F. This was with 4" of straw thatch and 18" of course thatch, covered with a tarp. Note that 34 degrees is ideal for a lot of vegs like cabbage. However, potatoes and fruits like it around 40-45F. I would recommend additional insulation on the exposed barrel and also insulating the lid. Also fruits like it drier and right now the barrels are at 95% humidity because I didn't put the heavy thatch on until later. I would recommend for fruits to thatch the barrels completely from the start so the temperature inside does not go up slightly during the day - which causes it to breath in humid air at night when the barrel top cools. Over time this condensing drives the humidity up.
Check out the video here: http://youtu.be/7LQ6HgCwm2M
The longest I have tested this for at low temp was just below freezing for a month (daily) with average nightly lows of -20C (-5F). During this period the temp in the cellar was about 4C or 39F which is good for some things, actually too cold for others (like apples) I was storing potatoes so I didn't worry about it, but if I wanted to raise the temp I would have to put straw on top with a tarp. Usually I just have a coarse thick stick mat of thatch that is coarser than straw. To help with air flow, you might want to dig that hole a bit deeper, put some cinder blocks down on bottom, drill holes in the bottom of the barrels and lay fine screening on top of that and put the barrels on the cinder blocks. That will take care of any "liquid" build up and might prevent it
http://survivalofthemostprepared.blogspot.com/2012/01/building-55-gallon-plastic-drum-root.html
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