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Store your cooling in ice? Solar thermal AC, what the heck

hot_rod
hot_rod Member Posts: 23,816
in THE MAIN WALL
http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1386&doc_id=281209&cid=nl.x.dn14.edt.aud.dn.20160812.tst004t

In the current issue of Mechanical Hub, Bill Guiney has been around the solar industry for decades, this is his new company Arctic Solar. One market being solar thermal powered chillers. This technology dates back to the gas fired Servel refrigerator and air conditioners seen at the NY Worlds Fair 1939.

http://mechanical-hub.com/sites/hydronics/solar-thermal-energy-why-the-wait/?utm_source=Email+86&utm_campaign=Email+86&utm_medium=email

Same concept as the solar thermal power plants in NV and CA, where super heated oils are used to flash water to steam to power the turbines.



Here is a school project in Arizona with solar AC . SOLID is the same company designing the large district solar systems in Europe.

Viessmann had a big ice storage device at the ISH show a few years back.
Bob "hot rod" Rohr
trainer for Caleffi NA
Living the hydronic dream
delta TChrisJ

Comments

  • Jamie Hall
    Jamie Hall Member Posts: 25,262
    Don't know where else to put this -- but if your dewpoint is low enough and you have enough water, you can actually make ice through evaporative cooling and clever use of chimneys. The Persians did this 4,000 years ago, more or less...
    Br. Jamie, osb
    Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England
    Harvey RamerSteve Minnich
  • Harvey Ramer
    Harvey Ramer Member Posts: 2,261
    @Jamie Hall
    Is there anything that you don't know? :)
    Steve Minnich
  • ChrisJ
    ChrisJ Member Posts: 16,360
    Harvey Ramer said:

    @Jamie Hall

    Is there anything that you don't know? :)

    If he's like the rest of us, he has no clue what his wife really means.

    If he's decoded that, he must be "the one".

    Single pipe 392sqft system with an EG-40 rated for 325sqft and it's silent and balanced at all times.

    Zman
  • bob_46
    bob_46 Member Posts: 813
    @Chris When are you going to convert a Crosley Icyball or a Servel to steam ?

    There was an error rendering this rich post.

    ChrisJ
  • ChrisJ
    ChrisJ Member Posts: 16,360
    bob said:

    @Chris When are you going to convert a Crosley Icyball or a Servel to steam ?

    Wow,
    Not many know what an Icyball is! :)

    Single pipe 392sqft system with an EG-40 rated for 325sqft and it's silent and balanced at all times.

  • ratio
    ratio Member Posts: 3,819
    Hmmmm. Not sure I want to google that!
  • njtommy
    njtommy Member Posts: 1,105
    I've gotten to work on two ice bank or storage systems. The first one was attached to a Trane air cooled chiller that ran only at night or off peak hours. During the day it would just use the ice to maintain chilled water loop temp.

    The other one was for a cow farm. It was hooked up to a 20-25 ton condenser. They sent milk through it to chill it down. Pretty cool system just a crappy place to work and they didn't take good care of the equipment.
  • ratio
    ratio Member Posts: 3,819
    I condemned a Trane chiller that was part of an ice storage system once, due to neglect, one screw bad & circuit flat, only 30% of the condenser fans working, most of the controls bad/missing, and not having been mothballed properly before being shutdown for several years. 100's of gallons of not-glycol-any-more in the system too. The owners didn't like that, & hired a maintenance guy to "repair" it. Two years later and we're still getting calls about it.

    It really piqued my interest in ice storage though, I was pretty gung-ho for a while. Fortunately I managed to not do anything about it until the feelings passed. :smiley:

    I don't know what it is about people. If you can't afford something, what ever makes you think that you can spend less money on something different & still end up with the thing you couldn't afford before? <smh>

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