Hi Kim and Garth and All ;; > They had to store food here > before electricity, all I > need to find out is how.
I think there were many ways of storing food before electricity, but only one involved the cold temperatures that you indicated : Ice storage. In other words, make lots of ice when the weather permitted, and store it under sawdust for when it is needed. As you know, other ways of storing food without refrigeration are drying, canning, salting, smoking, fermenting, etc. The fermented fish they eat over here stays (festers?) for months without refrigeration (but I won't go near it!). > if possible I would like to build a natural system that > does not require energy. Your idea is a good one. If I may recommend, please see a fascinating web site for a solar ice machine which uses not electricity at all : http://www.energy-concepts.com/isaac.html This one uses water/ammonia system, and needs a heat sink (they call it a thermosyphon) for correct operation. A heat sink is a body of water or a large radiator that can dissipate large amount of heat. The write up doesn't make a big thing about it, but it is necessary for correct operation. Check out the rest of the site for good info about absorbtion. It has been in use for about 100 years. Before that there was only one way to get cold temperatures : ice storage. About 5kg ice per m2 of collector area. 11 m2 system about $7,000. That's pretty good. For another clever system which doesn't need a heat sink, download the pdf file at : www.homepower.com/files/solarice.pdf Also, please search for "ammonia ice solar". There is enough info to build your own system. Concentrated ammonia is highly toxic but biodegradable. With proper precautions, operator training, and correct maintenance, the system would be safe. Another interesting possibility is if you have a generator running already for electricity, then the heat of the exahaust gasses (which is waste heat right now) could be utilized to drive the absorbtion process per these links (or free ice!). The exhaut gasses are at least 250 degrees F. In that case no solar collectors would be needed. Hope this helps. Best Regards, Peter G. Thailand _______________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Shop for Back-to-School deals on Yahoo! Shopping. http://shopping.yahoo.com/backtoschool _______________________________________________ Biofuel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://wwia.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/biofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuel archives at Infoarchive.net (searchable): http://infoarchive.net/sgroup/biofuel/
