Energy Matters Forums

[gyro]

With the Ice maker it continues making ice as long as there is heat and water if the ice was to be melted and the cold water passed through a radiator say off a small car with the fan connected to a small pump to return the water to the ice maker it would have nearly as much cooling BTU as the heat intoduced. Trouble with this setup is sheer bulk ice maker weighs aprox 500 kilos without the ice so the whole thing possibly could be around 700 kilos but it would work on gas or solar because it isn't fussy where the heat comes from.

[Tracker]

If there were some way to send the cold air forward without the water it would be great.

As suggested, It would be possible, and depends on how creative you are.. You could have something like a Tucker-box-freezer with the Amonia system freezing the water/ice, and you could have a simple car-radiator like device for removing the cold (HeHe), and a pump and Glycol heat-pump feeding a commercial-freezer/blower..
The issue is that you then need power for the pump and the fan..
OR - you might be able to feed the amonia to an evaporator, directly, but then you would not have any storred energy..

I do admit that I am not all that familiar with Ammonia system hardware, and I do think I would prefer it "OUTSIDE" the van, just in case there is a leak and you wake up dead...

....you couldn't run a small to medium air conditioner with a high EER/COP on a suitably sized stand alone system.

Gordon - considering normal RAC's, is there much variation in COP.. I would have thought there was minimal difference.
..
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[gyro]

The older kero refrigerators were very efficient coolers with only a small anount of heat input, however they were also extremely well insulated compared to modern day appliances. I thought about using one of these years ago mounted on a swivel to follow the sun and using a large magnifying glass to concentrate the heat onto the expander. The other possibilty is to have a fexible expanded line to the fridge so it can stay stationery a gas strut from a car tailgate or bonnet could be used to make automatic sun follower. When i finish my mini-hydro system and gas producer I may look into making one.

[Gordon-Loomberah]

....(No reason)...you couldn't run a small to medium air conditioner with a high EER/COP on a suitably sized stand alone system.

Gordon - considering normal RAC's, is there much variation in COP.. I would have thought there was minimal difference.

There is a huge variation between brands and types and sizes of AC, and generally the larger they are, the less efficient.
See here: http://www.energyrating.gov.au/compare-products/