Re: ice age

Posted by HH56 On 2012/8/11 17:34:23

Keith, heat is still an interesting idea and I know you have mentioned it more than once. It is funny there doesn't seem to be many attempts at coming up with something to get rid of the compressor with all the fuel efficiency work of the last few years -- or at least not much info if there has been.

One thing I'd be curious about would be the approximate physical size of the absorption unit components needed. Most of the smaller units can't handle much more cooling than an average well insulated refrigerator box and the typical solar units of decent capacity for residential are fairly good sized and expensive. It might be that both cost and size is still a big obstacle in why they are not considered in a car.

Early AC into the 50's were fairly high capacity -- around 2 ton or roughly 24,000 BTU. Today, maybe around half that size with their better efficiency and insulated car bodies. At those sizes, might still be a fairly large amount of heat input needed for a decent output. Guess another question might be whether they have to run off a separate burner and would that fuel use negate any advantages or could they work with captured exhaust heat in a small enough package.