Friday, February 15, 2008

Thank You ,Rube Goldberg

The old ammonia refrig is now duel fuel. The wire was loose for the heating element. I wonder how many years previous owners were without benefit of a frig .When I frst got the rig nothing worked .Ian and I cleaned out the burner and got the gas part of the frig working.Now that its out of the rig Vinny and I got the electric heater working
Without teaching a Physics class ammonia refrigerators do not have a compressor.All it does is heat the ammonia in a closed loop .When it condenses it chills the unit .
It seems strange to heat something to get keep yor food cold.
What would have happened if the world ran on ammonia refrigerators,instead of freon .Maybe we would still have an Ozone layer!!!
Whats the answer uncle Syd?
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7 comments:

Syd said...

The definition of refrigeration is the transfer of heat from a less desirable place to a more desirable place and thats what your system is doing

crowldawg said...

People just an believe that you heat some thing to make the frig cold .It works We had it at 35 for 5 days

crowldawg said...

How about the ammonia .Why don't we use ammonia in our homes ?

Syd said...

I thought you told me that the volcano in Washington State did more damage to the ozone then refrigerent ever would. I don't know if you have ever seen an ammonia refrigeration condensing unit but a 36,000 btu unit probaly weighs 700 lbs and a good shot of that stuff will knock you out.

crowldawg said...

No, Volcanos didn't cause ozone depletion
Thats a good reason for home use.Let's put them on the roofs of office buildings.
The new 15,000 btu unit for the airstream weighs about 125 lbs.

Syd said...

I thought you said the dust from the volcanos stopped the flow of ozone from getting out to were it's needed

crowldawg said...

No, Uv light reacts with the oxygen in the upper atmosphere to produce ozone .
An over simplification is that the rate of ozone formation was equal to ozone depletion .Now the rate of depletion is greater than formation because the cfc's are reacting with the ozone.
its much more complicated than that but basically thats it.