Pykrete Summer Igloo

[hoeken]

Hello,

I live in Iowa, and this summer my friends and I want to do something interesting to deal with the hot summer temps. We discovered pykrete (http://www.geocities.com/Broadway/1928/pykrete.htm) and were utterly impressed. We want to try and make either an igloo or some sort of ice-wall enclosure, for us to sit and drink some brews in, using pykrete. (If you didnt follow the link, pykrete is a mixture of water and wood pulp that once frozen is about as strong as concrete and due to the insulation properties of the wood is very resistant to melting.)

We are hoping that it would be possible to create a system where cooling pipes run through they pykrete and cool/freeze the mixture. It will be located very close to our house so we will have a plentiful source of electricity.

The only real constraint that we're dealing with here is $$$. The cheaper we can do it the better. Would it be possible to freeze a sizable amount of water with a cooling unit stripped from an old freezer or maybe deep freeze? Could we build a custom unit from parts at the local hardware store? Would it be possible to take the compressor, coil, and valve from a freezer and hook that up to a custom pipe configuration that would be enclosed in the ice? Any suggestions before we waste a couple hundred dollars and make fools out of ourselves? ;)

I eagerly await your expert replies.

[rbartlett]

i understand the usa has strict laws governing the use of refrigerants

see-

http://www.epa.gov

otherwise -sure, beat yourselves up ;-)

cheers

richard

[chillin out]

Hi hoeken

don`t you think the ice would crush the pipes?
also you need a big freezer system or a very small igloo

go buy a shed and some air con. :)
you can get some cons from Mr millenium. :D

[botrous]

Nice idea hoeken , i've read the link about Pykrete and it seems good to be used for cooling a picinic fridge , but making and igloo with that without a stable source of cooling (heat removing in scientific worlds) i doupt of it

[hoeken]

Hi hoeken

don`t you think the ice would crush the pipes?
also you need a big freezer system or a very small igloo

go buy a shed and some air con. :)
you can get some cons from Mr millenium. :D

well thats kinda what i was hoping this forum could answer. let me rephrase my questions:

1. could i hack up a deepfreeze / freezer cooling system so that the cold cycle runs through pipes embedded in the pykrete? What materials do I need?

2. Can i re-use the condensor, and condensor coils from the freezer and then attach custom cooling tubes to run through my block of pykrete?

3. What can I use for the cooling tubes? I wast thinking copper tubing, since it should have good thermal properties and decent strength.

4. Will the ice crush the internal pipe structure? I tend to think that this WONT happen.

5. If the above works and I can use a cooling unit with custom cooling tubes embedded in the pykrete: What sort of arrangement of pipes would work best ?

6. Also, how do I go about calculating how big/strong/cold (whatever term you use to measure the cooling power of a unit) i will need to keep an X by Y by Z block of this stuff frozen?

The way I envision it, the cooling pipes are set inside the framework (wood for structure + plastic to keep water in) Then the water/pulp mixture is added and the cooling system turned on. The cooling pipes woudl be the coldest and i'd imagine the ice would form around them and then expand outward. The ice is quite sturdy so I hope that it would be able to support weight without putting stress on the tubes.

the whole point of this project is to create a block of pykrete that has cooling pipes built in so that as long as there is power it can remain frozen even during warm temperatures. well thats not the whole point... there really is no point other than to see if it can be done. however, i dont have much experience with cooling systems and i dont want to do something and have it explode or whatnot.

[botrous]

Hoeken , to calculate the cooling needed to keep the pekrete frozen you need to know it's physical propreties , like how many calories you have to take from 1 kg of it to make it froze . if you can find this proprety ,tha you can start dimensioning and designing the system .
You first need to calculate the heat gain (heat that the pykrete will be exposed to eg. sunlight heat , heat from people inside this structure , heat from any tv or electrical appliance working within this iglo )
After that you start dimensioning and designing the system .
As for the tubes crushing under the pressure of pykrete , i may have an idea but really i'm not sure if it will work thermally and physicly , just put the cooling tubes inside other tubes (larger tubes, maybe iron tubes) so you can make a protection for it , the thermal problem can be solved by filling the space between the tubes by alohool , the alcohool will not freeze and the efficiency of the system will not decrease in a huge way.
As for the arragement of the tubes , u must arrange it in a way that you consider that the cooling capacity arrives to all the points of the Pykrete.
And the insulation should be very good and very efficient.
As for if you can use parts from a deep freezer or others , you need to dimension your system first , and if it fits to the dimensioning why not ?
If it doesn't you sure will need to buy new parts that suits the dimensions .