Ice Cellar

a storage area cooled by natural ice; used for storage of perishable foods (meat, fish, milk and dairy products, fruit, vegetables, and so on). An example of the simplest type of ice cellar is a farm ice cellar with a capacity of 0.5 tons. It is a thermally insulated pit with an access hatch and with a canopy above it. Ice (40 to 60 cu m) is laid on the bottom of the pit; the products are placed on a wooden grating above the ice.

Ice-cooled areas for long-term storage of food products are also called ice cellars. A large ice-cooled storage space of the Krylov system has a capacity of 250 tons and includes 12 storage chambers located in a solid mass of ice whose volume is about 4,400 cu m. The thermal insulation of the ice mass consists of layers of sawdust or peat. Ice cellars capable of providing temperatures near 0°C are used in agriculture and sometimes in trade and the dairy industry, mainly for storage of perishable products. The temperature in an ice cellar may be lowered to — 1°C by combined brine-and-ice cooling. Refrigerator cars are used for railroad transportation of perishable products.