5 Gallon Bucket Uses Archives | Page 27 of 32

Swamp Cooler

Posted on July 5, 2012 by trevor

At the time of this post, July 5th 2012, a large part of the U.S.A. is ravaged by a 100F+ heat wave. Here’s a timely five gallon solution to this extreme weather:

This idea is sent in by a reader Geoff B. who has built one of these for his home. He says he is using a duct fan instead of a PC fan, but either works fine. Geoff says a single unit will not cool an entire room, but is effective for localized cooling around a single human being.

As you might already know, swamp cooler technology uses evaporation to create the moist cooling they are known for. Like the pot-in-pot refrigerator, this means the drier your climate, the better swamp coolers will work.

To make the swamp cooler, you will need the following Ingredients:

Five gallon bucket with lid
2 computer fans
Irrigation tube
Shade cloth
Fountain pump
Air conduit
12v DC power

If you think you’d like to take this project on, see the full step-by-step tutorial with lots of details and pictures on rengeekcentral.com.

See also a simpler design that will work in any climate: the 5 Gallon Bucket Air Conditioner

Refrigerator

Posted on June 24, 2012 by trevor

Category: 5 Gallon Bucket Uses

Disclaimer: This experiment was not a success when using a plastic bucket. The principle is sound, but the impervious nature of plastic prevents enough evaporation to cool the system noticeably. If I can find a 5 gallon unglazed terracotta bucket, I will try the experiment again.

The “pot-in-pot” refrigerator dates back at least 5000 years. The principle is simple, a small pot is nested inside a larger pot, and sand is packed into the gap. The sand is kept moist at all times. When the moisture evaporates through the top (and more importantly through the sides) it cools the inner pot to a surprisingly cool 59ºF (15ºC) – cool enough to keep meat for two weeks (source)

The evaporative cooling process is the same our bodies use to cool off when we sweat.

I built one of these pot refrigerators using one of my trusty five gallon buckets, but since the only contact with air is at the top, it did not evaporate enough to make any temperature difference. We tried to speed up the evaporation by putting our fridge beside a fire, so it would benefit from the heat and dry air, but it changed very little.

We live in a very wet climate, which is bad for evaporation. The drier your locale, the better this type of fridge will work.

Strawberry Farm

Posted on June 21, 2012 by trevor

Category: 5 Gallon Bucket Uses

By growing strawberries (or other plants) vertically rather than horizontally, you are able to fit several times the number of plants into the same area footprint and the same volume of soil. As added benefits, your horizontal farm will be portable, hangble, mountable and stackable!

In the following video example, LDSPrepper plants 20 strawberries into a 1 square foot footprint, which would otherwise take 6 square feet or more of room. He uses several other techniques such as sub-irrigation and automatic watering, which we will cover in another post.

A standard 5 gallon bucket has room for 20 holes, supporting 20 strawberry plants. The holes are punched out with a 1 3/4″ hole saw. The lowest holes begin 3 1/2″ from the bottom of the bucket, and are spaced out every 6″. Watch the video for a more visual explanation of the correct hole dimensions and spacing.

Update:

Watch our new Gardening with 5 Gallon Buckets video for more ideas like this.

Bike Panniers

Posted on June 2, 2012 by trevor

Category: 5 Gallon Bucket Uses

I only learned the word “Pannier” recently, we always called them “bike bags” growing up. Square pails work best, but some of the guys that work for me use round pails with no negative effects.

I have heard reports of people drilling into their buckets to add special metal attachments, but in my opinion there’s no need to make the bucket paniner so complicated, we just use cheap ratcheting straps like these ones which hold very strong and come off very easily. You will need a strong bike rack (sometimes called a “rat trap”) if you plan to carry heavy loads on your bucket cargo bike.

To double your carrying capacity, you can put a bucket on each handlebar, but make sure your handlebars are wide enough so the buckets do not interfere with your front wheel! This technique is not very safe, and should not be attempted over long distances.

When you park your bike, slip the bucket under the pedal for an instant kickstand!

Update: I have engineered a special strap that works very well for carrying buckets around with a bicycle rack, pictured on the right. These straps cost 70 cents each to make, and use a bicycle tube connected with these plastic buckles. They are strong enough to securely fasten a full five gallon bucket (20-30 lbs.) onto a sturdy rack.

Bicycle Straps Tutorial

For this project, you only need 2 ingredients:

Plastic Buckles, male and female
One or more used bicycle tubes

There are 2 widths of bicycle tubes I commonly see, 1″ and 1¾”. As far as I can tell, the former is for road bike tires while the latter is more commonly used for mountain bike tires.

For my straps, I’m using 1″ which makes a strap strong enough for most applications at home.

I get these straps by the dozen free from a nearby bike shop. They all have holes or tears in them, so they aren’t great for holding air anymore – but they work perfectly as straps, and they are extremely strong and durable.

Plastic Buckles

I buy my plastic buckets from Mountain Equipment Co-op, which is the Canadian version of REI. I get them for about 70 cents per pair male and female. Make sure you choose the right size for you bicycle tube, size 1½” or 1¼” works perfect for my 1″ bicycle tubes. You can get them for about the same price on Amazon.

Making the Straps

I cut my bicycle tube into thirds to make 3 straps. You can make your straps as long or as short as you want of course. A strap may seem short, but these straps stretch very far. In the next 3 pictures, you can see the same strap holding 2 very different sized buckets securely to a bike.

Graduated Cylinder

Posted on May 29, 2012 by trevor

Category: 5 Gallon Bucket Uses

It’s not terribly precise, but it’s easy to mark the side of a bucket with gallon or liter measurements. You can see the liquid level right through the bucket. Having volume levels on your pail is useful for brewing, soap making, soil mixing, or any other application that uses ingredients that need to be measured.

You could also mark a bucket off with inches or centimetres to gauge rainfall where you live, but I would use a lid with a hole drilled in it to prevent evaporation if you hope to measure rainfall over an extended period of time.