Refrigerators To Cool With Sound (Cool!)

T-Kir writes "A very interesting report from the BBC where researchers at Penn State University are developing a prototype fridge that cools using metal plates and sound waves. If successful, this technology would help remove the dependance on gases that contribute to global warming. Talk about Cool!"

Comments

old!

[Jafafa Hots]

I remember reading an article about this tech over TEN YEARS ago... maybe 15. Nothing has come of it since then...

I'd stay away from this one

[Anonymous Coward]

My uncle had one of these - it makes the ice taste really sour, and the wilting you get on fresh lettuce is totally unacceptable. Plus it iced up really easily and it's a bitch to defrost. Serious freezer burn also. Hold out for a Kenmore.

Also on CNN!

[Anonymous Coward]

They even have an mp3 file of the sound used to cool. But before listening to it, we advise you to turn the speakers way down, and to put wax plugs into your ears. You really don't want to hear this mp3. You've been warned.

Wow the BBC uses /. math!

[t0qer]

Humans feel pain when they hear sounds of 120 decibels, a level typically reached next to the speakers at a rock concert.

The sounds pumped through the Penn State fridge reach 173 dB, tens of thousands of times more intense than any rock concert.

So let's see then (simple arithmatic)
173
-120
-----
53

Hardly what I would call "tens of thousands"

Re:Wow the BBC uses /. math!

[omega_cubed]

WRONG!!!

Decibels are, by definition of "bels", on a LOG scale. It is based on Log 10:

dB = Log( I/I_0) * 10

where I is the Absolute Intensity in power/area, and I_0 a constant, which for sound is at 10^-12 Watt/Meter^2 (I think, or is it -10?)

So a db different of 53 translates to

10^(53/10) = 10^(5.3) which is approximately equal to 20 thousand times more intense.

Werd

Re:Ice cream?

[callipygian-showsyst]

Maybe you should post a link to that Ice Cream to Rate My Poo!

This system cannot scale

[flikx]

Unfortunately, this technology is only practical for use with very small systems. Sure, it might be able to cool a small ice cream cone, but this sort of system has no hope of scaling to the point that it cool 45 kg of groceries. Because of diminishing returns, the amount of power consumed would far outstrip the power needed for conventional Rankine cycle refrigeration units. However, this technology could be used in a laboratory to cool substances down to about -450 C. Very interesting indeed.

Re:This system cannot scale

[flikx]

You know, I don't have the endless time to waste like our resident celebrity trolls. I'm a busy engineer, and speed trolling is all I have time for. YOU EXPECT QUALITY?? IN SOVIET RUSSIA ...

But they still can solve the *real* problem...

[Randolpho]

... the heat generated by the fridge. It's still more proportionately than the cooling it offers. Mark my words... global warming comes not from chloroflourocarbons (or however the hell you spell that), but from the heat let off by our refridgerators.

Re:Oh yeah...

[Per Wigren]

Then you should hear MY fridge...
It screams "Remove this all this fucking month-old food or I'll kill you!".. And I can tell you it's not kidding.. Everytime I open the fridge I almost die...