A couple of months ago, I saw a description or reference I can no longer find on this site. If anyone can steer me there again, I'd appreciate it.
A man has a large container of water in his basement, with a copper coil in it (IIRC), and that water will become ice. The copper coil goes up and outside, and is connected to a heat exchanger/radiator mounted on the soffit above his garage door.
When the outdoor temp drops to 20 degrees F outside, the refrigerant in the system condenses in the radiator and gravity takes it down to the basement, which is warmer. The water/ice warms the refrigerant, and that vapor rises again to the outside heat exchanger. When the outdoor temp rises, the refrigerant is all vapor and nothing more happens.
The ice block lasts until August. When I read the description, the system had been operating 17 years. It is an ingenious system, inexpensive, and couldn't be more simple. Can anyone tell me where I saw that system documented?
Peter
Comments
I know the exact article
I know the exact article you're talking about, but I can't find it either.
Exact article
Sun, 2010-08-01 06:13
I know the exact article you're talking about, but I can't find it either.
Any luck, yet, Rod? I might remember better if I stop thinking about it for awhile, and start fresh is a couple of weeks.
Peter
Ice production with no moving parts. Here it is:
http://fourmileisland.com/IceBox.htm
My idea is to connect the cooler to a vertical storage box. Access would be through a pie-wedge door on the top. The food would be stored on a Lazy Susan with several tiers, each tier with a wedge cut-out for access to the tiers below.
Not as convenient as a front door access, but it would conserve the ice by:
*The cold wouldn't fall out the door.
*Kids wouldn't stand there with the door open for several minutes while they stare at the food.
*The slight inconvenience of a top-load might minimize recreational grazing.
G'pa
That's it! (ice box)
Sun, 2010-08-01 08:58
You found it - EXCELLENT !!! Thanks, ChainsawGrandpa!
Peter
Way to go G'pa. That's the
Way to go G'pa. That's the one.
article
Is this it? http://greenupgrader.com/3680/solar-ice-maker-no-moving-parts-no-electricity/
Very clever
Sun, 2010-08-01 06:10
That solar ice maker is very cleverly designed. The production is only 14 pounds, though. I could see it being useful for an ice box.
The approach is entirely different from the one technique I originally saw. The original one did not use solar energy. It depends on outdoor temp dropping to 20 degrees F, or thereabouts, and the overall cycle is a year, not a day.
Thanks for looking, Hemlock!
Peter