Slashdot Mirror
The Jet Powered Beer Cooler
kzadot writes: "A bit of good old kiwi ingenuity, you can make a jet engine in your own home, and keep your beers cool as a side effect. And not a single piece of Number 8 wire in sight. Full instructions included."
← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)
This is actually very common in Recreational Vehicle circles, as RVs often carry propane but don't have electricity.
The refrigeration unit uses ammonia as the working fluid, rather than dichloro-difluro-methane (R-12). This is done because of the properties of ammonia.
In a normal refrigerator, the working fluid is compressed from a gas into a liquid. In doing so, the liquid gives up its latent heat of vaporization (the energy it takes to convert a liquid to a gas), and becomes much hotter as a result. The hot liquid is then run through a set of coils to transfer the heat to the environment.
The liquid then is fed through a throttle ( a small orifice) to reduce the pressure below the boiling point of the liquid. The liquid then evaporates, drawing the latent heat of vaporization from the environment (the inside of the fridge). The gas then runs back to the compressor and the cycle repeats.
In an ammonia fridge, rather than using a compressor pump driven by electricity, a heat source is used, and a mix of ammonia, water and hydrogen gas is used to move the heat around. A good explaination is at howstuffworks: http://www.howstuffworks.com/refrigerator5.htm
Basically, they use the fact that ammonia will dissolve in water to drive the ammonia around the cycle. That's why they cannot use R-12: it doesn't dissolve in water very well.
www.eFax.com are spammers
A jet poowered beer cooler....
Doesn't this sound like a Darwin Award waiting to happen?
Finally, the Rock has come back to Slashdot.