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Old 06-25-21, 12:45 PM   #4
jeff5may
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Dguzzi,

Google ammonia absorption refrigeration.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absorption_refrigerator

Same basic thing as phase change refrigeration, but without the power hungry compressor. The ammonia cycle leverages ammonia's affinity for water. Lithium bromide and calcium chloride can also be used in similar cycles. I've used road runner ice melter to make a solar dehumidifier slash clean water source, and it worked pretty well. So...

Down another rabbit hole we go...

I was thinking about trying absorption refrigeration out with a couple of flat plate solar collector panels I'm building right now. The idea behind the experiment is to utilize the solar thermal panels to assist the HVAC system year round.

In winter, the thermal energy harvested can directly heat up the basement. Super simple: space heater rigged to a car radiator and a washing machine drain pump will do it. Heater thermostat call energizes the fan and pump, and presto: heat!

Summer heat gathering is going to outpace the domestic hot water needs by a fairly large margin, so it looks like I'll have gobs of energy leftover. The absorption cycle uses raw heat to boil the ammonia out of the water (or the water out of the salt) rather than mechanically compressing the refrigeration gas. So once my hot water tank is satisfied, I can divert the scalding hot water to run the ammonia refrigerator.

The objective of this contraption is to have zero moving parts: no heater, no pumps, just the hot water makes it do its thing. If I'm lucky, it will start doing its job somewhere close to the cutout temperature of my DHW store tank. Yes, stratification and blah blah blah, but I don't need skin melting heat store water.

Last edited by jeff5may; 06-25-21 at 08:05 PM.. Reason: Link
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