Wednesday 21 July 2010

Continuous operation of solar ice maker


Dan found a brilliant article about a cheap and simple solar cooling system which can reach temperature low enough to freeze water (solar ice maker)

The only problem is that the system does not operate continuously - first it has to recharge with ammonia then it can evaporate it of to induce cooling.

As suggested in the article this could be solved by having several systems all operating simultaneously on staggered cycles - so as one recharges there are others which are still working. So the quicker a cycle can be completed the more efficient it would be (instead of each unit doing one cycle per day it could do N per day)

According to the article once the generator has gathered enough heat (which takes 3 hours), it is covered to from the sun to cool down to complete the cycle. Now it dosnt say how long it takes to cool down by just covering it from the sun but I reckon it would be much faster to cool it by evaporating water on its surface. This could be done by sticking a pipe with tiny holes to pour little drops of water (which would evaporate on its surface in the sun) when it need to cool down (as shown in diagram below).


If this works, it could have incredible implications for cold storage and air conditioning in developing countries.


8 comments:

  1. Nice Design ! ! I have been contemplating the same design with Two or Four units. It seems that the cooling power of one unit could help assist the recharge of the next unit by helping to "Draw In" the hot vapors coming from the other units reflector heat. Extreme heat on one end and freezing on the other end will allow the ammonia to "Recharge" much faster. My design had a sliding shade rack that would block out the sun for one reflector while uncovering the other one for reheat, then when it's done the sliding shade would slide back over covering the charged one and uncovering the spent one. Your water spray system would increase the cycle time even further - if you would like to collaborate on a design You can contact me at OCT1113@hotmail.com any time..... it may be several months or years before I can afford the time and money to actually build one but one can always dream and trouble shoot before groundbreaking day comes ! ! ! lets talk about it .... FYI my main interest is not ice; it is to create a 40° to 50° F flow of water to cool the cold side of a special "ELECTRONIC STIRLING ENGINE". HOPE to hear from you soon
    Harold Westrich

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  4. Nice design and very thoughtful. We have to find a way to drain the water in the generator back to its reservoir.

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  6. What is the proportion of amonia(refrigerant) to any of the absorbers(Calcium Chloride, water, etc)?

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