goin to build my first beetle chest

[livingtrophytaxidermy]

ive been searching and searching and there is enough information to write a book.its great.i got an old chest.figured out how to make it heated,take care of rust spots, and make it look great from you guys.but the question has been asked how to keep them cool in the summer.and somebody said put them in the shade with a fan on them. i live in west texas in the desert.and its about to get pretty damn hot.it can get up to 110-115 on a regular basis.dry ass heat. is there some kind of way i can rig my freezer to blow some cool air.im in a steel building with no airconditioning.a room in my shop is insulated though.dont have a lot of funds.im about to get laid off in the oil field.
also i was wandering stupid question, if its hot out side of the freezer it would be hotter inside right.do i need to go with a different set up?sorry so many questions.thank you
rick

[Jeff.]

I've recently moved my colony over to a chest freezer setup, and it's already in the nineties here this week.  My colony is hitting 85, and it's beginning to worry me.  If we hit 110-115 in the summer, they're goners and that can't happen.  Keep in mind, mine are in an insulated shed in an insulated freezer. 

One problem is that since the shed gets hotter than the freezer - when the fan goes on it sucks warmer air from the shed, not cooler air.  That needs a fix somehow...

Second, my shed has a bathroom fan that exhausts out of the shed wall...The idea was to evacuate the hotter "top" air in the shed and pull through the "Cooler, fresher" air from the bottom vent in the shed.  It is still hotter outside than in the shed, so this could actually be working - just slowly or inefficiently.

My thought (still to test) is to freeze a few 2 liter bottles and place them in a tray on the shelf in the freezer.  Even with the fan running every hour, it should help in keeping the temps more constant without adding (too much) moisture.

I am also entertaining the idea of adding a VERY small (hopefully efficient) AC unit to the shed wall if continuing hot weather necessitates it and my bottle trick doesn't work.

Another note...if you find a working freezer, you can rig it up to a thermostat and it will go briefly on to combat the heat...but, this will not be efficient as far as energy consumption goes.  Also, a note of warning...building a false floor and lower wall portions would be a must since the surface of the freezer will get cold almost instantly - not good for the beetles.

One note of warning that I never saw posted in all of the forum archives...When drilling holes through the walls of your freezer - GO SLOW - WATCH OUT FOR FREON LINES!  I went through a brand new $40 hole saw bit on the first of two holes...not too stoked on that one.

Even with these kinks - you'll love the chest freezer idea.  After 2 days of acclimation, my workers went to town harder than they have before on a pig.

Anyway, sorry for the mini-novel, and good luck.

[jrm123]

Jeff
I also have mine in a insulated shed I have to cool mine on hot days.  I bought a portable air conditioner at Target it has a 4" exaust tube and is thermostat controled.  The down side is the fan runs constantly.  I leave it set at 85 deg. I live in Mn and still have to heat at night some times.

[jward]

I ran a 4" pvc through the lenght of the freezer and made a cut out section with a piece angled into the pipe and used the fan to blow through.  The angled piece give it a suction effect.  I covered the hole with screen.  It may not be the best idea, but it is working so far.  It was hot today and my freezer is right in the open sun.  I turned the fan on today and it dropped the temp from 92 to between 76 and 80 throughout the day.  My fan is just small so maybe a higher volume fan is the trick when the heat hits the 100's.

[Jeff.]

Can you post a picture maybe?  I'm having trouble visualizing what you did. 
(If you did post a pic, I apologize, my work blocks every hosting site out there).

[hamman]

I have my bathroom fan running constantly during the day.  Mine fan is mounted on the inside of the freezer.  Without it it would easily get up to nearly 100 and the humidity would be 80%-90%.  If it is running from sunup to sundown it runs about 80 degrees and 50%-60% humidity.  I know that is not perfect but it will have to do until I finish building my house.  I have already drew out plans for a shop with a seperate room sealed off to keep the bugs in and control the humdity and temp in it.  Sort of there own little humidore, LOL.
It may sound extreeme to some on this site but when they are doing the majority of the work cleaning skulls I feel that they deserve to be taken care of.

[jward]

Not the most engineered, but it works.

[Jeff.]

Thanks for the pics.  Interesting approach.

[jward]

Like I said it isnt pretty, but I used what I had and it seems to be working good so far.

[Jeff.]

Just thought I'd update.  We had a 104 degree day.  I let the beetle chest get to 91 degrees, and the shed got to 95 before my intervention.  At 11:30 a.m. the temperatures were as described.  I put in 3 frozen containers (2 liter bottle, milk jug, etc.) in a tub on the shelf in the freezer (23 cubic foot freezer).  In 20 minutes the temperature had dropped to 83 degrees and in one hour the temperature had gotten down to 75.  I took out 2 of the largest containers and with the heater, the chest was hovering at about 81 degrees. 

I'd call my "air conditioner" a success.