From: The Butterfly (salsbury_at_sculptors.com)
Date: 12/12/02
Date: Thu, 12 Dec 2002 15:28:40 -0800 From: The Butterfly <salsbury_at_sculptors.com> Message-Id: <200212122328.gBCNSed08055@bootstrap.sculptors.com> Subject: Re: Solar Cookers
In article <Pine.SCO.3.96.1021014120605.8888A-100000_at_deepthought.armory.com> you write:
>On Sun, 13 Oct 2002, Patrick Salsbury wrote:
>
>> And for folks on the clean-water list, here's another idea we should kick
>> around: Using solar-collectors and concentrators to provide the heat for
>> ammonia-absorption or propane-based (or other) refrigeration systems. Then
>> we could run condensers to pull water out of the air using solar powered
>> devices as well. I know I mentioned the solar-powered ice making machine
>> available through Real Goods at some point in the past. This is the same
>> sort of idea, but tweaked to just generate condensing (below dewpoint)
>> cold, not freezing cold.
>
An update on this, which I found while talking with John Belt's
students in Oswego, NY last month:
http://www.solarcooking.org/docs.htm#Refrigeration
That's a link to a group in Germany who's worked out a hand-pump
and solar method to use vacuum and water to create cold. I think it was
commercially available for about 355 Euros (which is currently also about
$355)
No need to reinvent the wheel. It looks like there's a cheap solar
refrigeration system available, which should make it easier to attach to a
condenser system.
Pat