Quote:
Originally Posted by MarKoBrow
Sammy, what does this mean or are you being contrary again? Please explain.
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second post in this thread.
As with a propane fridge, heat can be used as a pumping force. In other words it can replace the compressor which theoretically could save energy.
But propane refrigerators are very inefficient and weak. They are only reasonable where there isn't enough electricity to run a compressor.
BTW here's how refrigeration or air conditioning works:
You take a chemical that has the correct boiling and freezing points, hopefully pretty close together.
It also has to have a fairly strong phase change absorption.
You pressure it up with a compressor, and cool it with a heat exchanger until it turns into a liquid at near ambient temperature. Cooling coils and a fan are typical for this step. Condenser.
Then you run the cooled liquid through an orifice and allow the pressure to drop significantly. The transition from liquid to a gas, along with the rapid expansion of that gas, makes it get cold.
It then flows through an evaporator where warm air from the house blows through the evaporator and gives off some of it's heat. The air get cooler and the gas inside the tubes gets warmer. Then the compressor grabs it and the cycle is repeated.
Now to this system: similar to a propane fridge, they use the solar heating to heat the gas and cause the pressure to increase (boyles law) and then cool it down in a condenser, so the solar heating would take the place of the compressor.
Onliest problem is, that would be incredibly inefficient. It would have to be at least 10 times the size of a conventional system, would have to cost 10 times as much as a conventional system, and the payback would be several decades if ever.
A better system would have tubes buried deep in the ground, and pump heat exchanging fluid through the tubes to give off heat into the ground, and then pump it through the house to cool it down.
that would be as efficient or more than that solar heating scam, but the initial cost would still be fairly high. Much more than a conventional system and the maintenance and upkeep would be much more too.
Hey, install an underground heat pump system and put in an acre or two of solar panels to run the pump!