Friends,
On 8/14/2014 2:54 PM, Big Daddy wrote:
Gentlemen,
I live in the tropics (Puerto Vallarta), and have a very keen desire
to power a refrigeration system from gas… I always assumed it would be
some sort of ammonia refrigeration system, or a super-big version of
an RV fridge. Currently, I build charcoal retorts and charcoal
gasifiers… Just haven’t had time to dive into the refrigeration
sciences yet.
Additionally, there may be a way to use “waste heat” from a retort vs.
direct flame… I just don’t have the numbers yet, but am very
interested in this thread.
I am ignorant in a vast array of subjects, including the fine points of
the physics of refrigeration. That gives a context for my saying that I
have heard that absorption cycle refrigerators (ACR)-- that is, those
which are passive, using only convection to pump fluids-- are far less
efficient than technologies which rely on active pumping and/or
compressors. ACRs are often quoted as having single digit efficiencies,
and further that in general it is more efficient to generate electricity
and use that to power a refrigerator; although of course YMMV. If this
is the case, then whether the working fluid is ammonia/water or some
other, and again speaking generally, one would probably use ACR where
there is no electricity, or where there is an abundance of heat which
would likely otherwise be wasted, etc.
Or use a better ACR. Interestingly, Albert Einstein shares a number of
patents directly and indirectly related to ACR technology with Leó
Szilárd (another physicist, noted as a science fiction writer), and some
say that their technologies offer better efficiencies.
But the final fly in the soup is that few ACR refrigerators are still
manufactured, and as such while a discussion of the technology may be of
interest, few of us have the machine shop, the knowledge and the skill
to translate any of that into reality.
d.
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