Solar-Powered Air Conditioner

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Solar-Powered Air Conditioner

Postby Perry » Fri Sep 14, 2007 11:25 pm

Last edited by Perry on Sun Jan 13, 2013 2:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby HikeUp » Fri Sep 14, 2007 11:32 pm

At first glance...dunno. I'll print it out and try and recall my thermodynamics class. Is this your attempt at peer review? :wink:
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Postby Perry » Sat Sep 15, 2007 12:15 am

The senior editor of Journal of Solar Energy Engineering rejected my paper without passing it along to the associate editors for "peer review." He was not very helpful and did not discuss scientific theory. :(
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Postby Hikin_Jim » Fri Sep 21, 2007 10:55 am

Very interesting. And well written. I by and large understood the article except points where applicable technical knowlege would be necessary.

Have you tried a proto-type? I didn't look at the scale ... is this for a homeowner? Or is this something like the Spanish are doing in (I think) Andalusia?

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Postby Perry » Fri Sep 21, 2007 8:56 pm

Are you referring to this project?
http://gesoan.com/CONTENIDOS.HTML
Those are solar cells, which generate electricity (although a couple photos look like solar absorption coolers).

My design uses heat to generate mechanical energy (like a car does) which directly powers the cooling device. There have been solar absorption coolers which use ammonia and water, but they don't perform as well as my vapor-compression system does (although it's purely theoretical at this point).

Probably the main market would be businesses with large buildings in the desert because with the manufacturing costs it might as well be a large device. Given that businesses like to save money on electricity, that's where it would most likely sell, assuming the manufacturing costs are not too high.

One of the main problems I'm having is that most people have not learned how to read temperature-entropy diagrams with phase changes and really understand what is happening (some mechanical engineering students just fake it and take the cookbook approach and only solve standardized problems :-). Like the reason I have two lever systems instead of just one, somebody thought that didn't make sense. But I think more people can understand that when your wet bulb temperature is colder than the inside air temperature, then there is no theoretical limit for the coefficient of performance... So if it's 100F outside and low humidity.... And no moisture is put inside the building, only dry air.

I can't build this. It would cost too much, and I don't know how much clearance and precision the pistons should have and what kind of oil to use. I have thought about building a very simple version with no leverage-changing mechanism, just 2 pistons and 1 shaft. It wouldn't perform as well, but it would be cheap with less design issues of friction and lateral forces. The flap system and white box would be way cheaper than curved mirrors.

Overall, the solar absorption coolers might be less expensive for the same amount of heat transfer, but I don't know for sure because no experts will give me the time of day.
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Postby Hikin_Jim » Fri Sep 21, 2007 10:51 pm

My Spanish is a bit lacking, but I don't think the site you referenced is it. What I was referring to is a large, stand alone electrical generation facility capable of powering a small city.

What you're saying about likely customers makes sense. Phoenix, Las Vegas, Palm Springs, these I think would have the kind of conditions that would be amenable to your design.

I hear you on the frustration. Everyone is so freaking busy now. First thing to do is mark your idea as copyrighted I would think. Then maybe search for forums like this where you can bat around ideas? Maybe you could get a hold of a couple of the "right" students at Cal Tech, for example. Or maybe at the engineering school at the Claremont Colleges. There's got to be a way that you can find people that could do the kind of review that our friend the Sr. Editor couldn't be bothered with (what a guy).

Lastly, if you could build a working prototype, even if it were the more limited version you mentioned, that might be a very good thing. An idea on paper is certainly not a bad thing, but a working prototype speaks volumes.
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Postby HikeUp » Sat Sep 22, 2007 7:19 am

Another idea would be to do a computer simulation. The hard part is getting the funding and the CPU power. The easier part (in theory at least) would be to do the simulation - the equation of states for all the materials and physical processes are well known and can be characterized (plenty of Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian (ALE) codes out there that can handle interactions between solids and fluids). The government and Universities have access to incredible amounts of computing power. They just need a reason and the money to do it. One avenue would be to get private industry/ companies interested in the possible profits from the idea and they will fund the research. If the government (military, FEMA, NASA) could benefit from such a technology then they could also be convinced to fund the research.

I know, easier said than done, but I thought I'd throw it out there.

I agree with HJ...copyright your material and apply for a patent (not that expensive I hear). All it takes is for some smart guy that works for a large corporation to see this paper of yours, implement it, and profit from it. Good luck.
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Postby Perry » Sun Sep 23, 2007 12:33 am

Thanks for the feedback. I did file disclosure documents with the patent office before they discontinued the program back in February. They hold onto those for 2 years. At this point, a simulation or prototype would require considerably more work, and I don't know whether it's worth it because no experts will give me their two cents and I've contacted many. In theory, it performs really well, but it sounds expensive to manufacture.
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solar air conditioner

Postby jamesstephenson57 » Sun Jan 13, 2013 4:58 am

Can you please re-check the URL. Its not working, i guess
Last edited by jamesstephenson57 on Thu Jan 17, 2013 3:26 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Solar-Powered Air Conditioner

Postby jamesstephenson57 » Sun Jan 13, 2013 5:04 am

Hi, I was going though the writing of Perry. What would be the cost of solar absorption coolers and how it works?
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