Ecocooler
27-01-2011, 07:32 AM
Thanks for having this forum, I need all the help I can get!!
First up about me so you know what I am about.
Live in south eastern Australia, have about as much idea about refrigeration as what to say to my wife when she asks "what are you thinking?" I do know that air tools get very cold so moving air at speed can do more than cool soup and I am a qualified sheetmetal guy with plenty of experiance with plumbing, welding, soldering etc. I am about to start building what I hope is my dream house and I want it to be more than just a bricks and morter, I want it to be as energy efficient as it can be while still being a comfortable home.
As for why I have come to this forum????
In the midst of my research on heating and cooling I recalled our trusty kero fridge of 40 years ago and the mystery of how heat from a flame froze our food!! This combined with a new solar hotwater unit I put in got me to thinking. If the solar hotwater unit is boiling why can't I use this energy to cool and warm the new house???
It seems there is no commercially available (ad or ab) sorbtion units designed for domestic use. The best I can find has the capacity to cool 200-600 cubic metres but has a cost of the bare unit alone of AUS $40k which seems a bit pricey when all the rest of the ducting and management of the system is yet to be added.
This leaves me with the thought of either making or commissioning a cooling/heating unit myself, but where do I get the specs?????? I recognise the technical pitfalls of this idea (no cooling once the sun goes down etc) but I really think there is scope for this idea. By the way, evacuated tube solar hot water systems really work well. I can set up a 40 tube collector that produces a claimed 26kw so solar energy supply is a practical option.
If you are still reading by the time you get to this line, thanks for your interest and hopefully, thanks for your help!!
BJ in Australia
First up about me so you know what I am about.
Live in south eastern Australia, have about as much idea about refrigeration as what to say to my wife when she asks "what are you thinking?" I do know that air tools get very cold so moving air at speed can do more than cool soup and I am a qualified sheetmetal guy with plenty of experiance with plumbing, welding, soldering etc. I am about to start building what I hope is my dream house and I want it to be more than just a bricks and morter, I want it to be as energy efficient as it can be while still being a comfortable home.
As for why I have come to this forum????
In the midst of my research on heating and cooling I recalled our trusty kero fridge of 40 years ago and the mystery of how heat from a flame froze our food!! This combined with a new solar hotwater unit I put in got me to thinking. If the solar hotwater unit is boiling why can't I use this energy to cool and warm the new house???
It seems there is no commercially available (ad or ab) sorbtion units designed for domestic use. The best I can find has the capacity to cool 200-600 cubic metres but has a cost of the bare unit alone of AUS $40k which seems a bit pricey when all the rest of the ducting and management of the system is yet to be added.
This leaves me with the thought of either making or commissioning a cooling/heating unit myself, but where do I get the specs?????? I recognise the technical pitfalls of this idea (no cooling once the sun goes down etc) but I really think there is scope for this idea. By the way, evacuated tube solar hot water systems really work well. I can set up a 40 tube collector that produces a claimed 26kw so solar energy supply is a practical option.
If you are still reading by the time you get to this line, thanks for your interest and hopefully, thanks for your help!!
BJ in Australia