Ron, Here is a partial answer, as I know too little about the starting torque etc. of the AC unit, and what is possible with a water turbine. I recently busted the pulley bolt on my diesel truck's AC compressor. This compr. simply takes off the power on the main engine belt at the front of the engine. The mechanic who dismantled it for me, discharged the refridgerant, and then simply disconnected the hoses to the unit. I now need to drill out the broken fixing bolt, and rethread/replace the pulley. This is something I can do myself, and all that is stopping me from restoring the system. I just reconnect fixed compressor, refill gas, and I am good to go!
I dont see why you couldnt do the same thing if you removed the AC system from a car or something carefully. You would simply need a suitable coupling from pulley to AC compr. shaft! A strobo' could tell you what speed the AC is spinning, justy make sure to rev the engine to the ideal "working" rev. In my truck this would be 2000-2500 rpm. but that is engine speed and not necessarily the AC compressor shaft speed. There are not many other components needed in the case of a car AC but the fan/blower which pushes the air around. This could be done too with a turbine, quite easily too! Even the water from the discharge of the watermotor could be used to spin a cage type fan....Then again, are you interested in space heating or just to cool an superinsulated space to subzero? But back to the AC unit, I do notice a drop in engine power when I switch the AC on. With my gas car, this used to be significant, as the AC unit was serviced "new" when I got the car, to the point that I used to use the AC to "brake" the car as I went downhill etc. or coming up to a stoplight in the distance..I used to ease off the gas and turn the AC on and get a feel-good of getting "inertia" energy, to convert to cooling for me..WIth the mass of my diesel workhorse, the braking effect doesnt seem as great. Since I have no means of checking the torque I cannot answer that bit more than to encourage you to try it with maybe an AC from the junkyard.... pity that you in the mountains wouldnt need the AC as much as we would here in the plains... :-) I think what people have done is answer "around" the question, and answer the areas that they know rather than give you a full go-ahead which may be wrong. Can you do it with a turbine? I believe so. You may have to use clutches and flywheels etc to overcome initial startup inertia, but I say give it a try. Can you leave this running 24-7? Here again, I know too little about compression cycles, but I do know about simple electric/electronic release or safety discharge switchgear that could afford you to couple discouple appropriately! You could even have a type of solenoid operated clutch system which would cause the compressor to engage and disengage, cyclically. This can be mechanical, pneumatic, electrical, hydraulic.... possibilities abound. Start the research and find out about the initial torque, using a junked compressor. Post your results. Write an exciting post a week later saying how you plan now that you got free AC/freezing cooling to couple it so as to overcome heat losses, thermostat "mis"-control, excessive wear on the compressor, etc, and Im sure, you will get 10 emails telling you how to do it better..... hehehehe. Hey sorry, we humans are just like that....!! Have fun, wish I was closer to help! Mike JAMAICA ----- Original Message ----- From: "davis ron" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, October 17, 2005 8:58 PM Subject: Re: [solar-ac] Re: auto a/c system directly driven by small waterpowered turbine I don't think that I received a clear answer to my question. Could one simply remove a functioning air conditioning system from a car and use it as a stationary refrigeration unit driven by a turbine? What would be the ideal rpm to run the compressor? If one didn't have enough power for maximum output, could you run it slower? Would it be advantageous to use a water jacket over the condenser coils? Would it be possible to gettemperatures below freezing ? --- Ken <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Look into a cooling system from a refridgerated semi > trailer. They are > usually powered by a small diesel engine which may > be swapped out for > you turbine. You may find one with the evaporator > and condensor on the > same chasis and still have all the freon in it. Used > ones here are $1500 > CAN and up depending on condition. The diesel would > be easy to sell on > a bio diesel board. > > Ken > __________________________________ Yahoo! Music Unlimited Access over 1 million songs. Try it free. http://music.yahoo.com/unlimited/ Archives of solar-ac messages are at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/solar-ac/messages Yahoo! Groups Links ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/FGYolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Does your company feature in the microhydro business directory at http://microhydropower.net/directory ? If not, please register free of charge and be exposed to the microhydro community world wide! 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