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Old 16-09-2016, 10:44   #1
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Ice powered Aircon

I see a lot of topics here for people wanting to run aircon at night without a genset. An ice battery powered aircon could be an option if you have enough power available to freeze up the ice.

Google "Ice powered aircon" and will see many home built units. Ice can store a huge amount of energy. You can see some basic calcs in the thread below.

renewable energy for your Duck - Topic

Euthetic freezers work on the same principle but use a special fluid.


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Old 16-09-2016, 10:49   #2
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Re: Ice powered Aircon

One model of aircraft I test fly doesn't have AC, so we bought an ice chest with a fan and an electric water pump that circulates cold water through a coil and the fan blows air over this coil and blows out cooling air. Similar to this one
GO COOL PORTABLE AIR CONDITIONER from Aircraft Spruce

Holds about 20 lbs of ice and really works well, for about 15 or 20 min, then all the ice is melted and the water warmed up.
Now for its intended purpose that is OK, cause in 20 min I'm up at altitude where it's cool anyway, but for a boat? You get a min of cooling per lb of ice, roughly.


Energy required to freeze the ice with a vapor cycle compressor would I think be just a little more than cooling the air directly with a vapor cycle compressor
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Old 16-09-2016, 11:12   #3
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Re: Ice powered Aircon

Yes direct AC maybe more efficient but we are discussing how to store energy to run AC at night generally so people can sleep.

A plane with lots of glass is a different scenario to a small sleeping cabin on a boat at night.






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Old 16-09-2016, 11:41   #4
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Re: Ice powered Aircon

My parents when first married not too long after WWII lived in a small trailer in Atlanta somewhere while my Father went to Emory Dental school.
She told me on the way home he would stop and pick up a block of ice and she would put it on a stool or something and have a regular fan blow air over it, she said it helped.

I think back then many people still had ice boxes in their houses and blocks of ice were common.
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Old 16-09-2016, 11:50   #5
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Re: Ice powered Aircon

The first AC units were based on blocks of ice being bought down from the mountains etc. Hence the measurement 1 ton unit etc.

One USG of fresh water going from ice to liquid releases 1202 btu. Saltwater is more and special eutectic mixes even more. I don't know if these btus can be compared to boat AC btus because boat AC units are generally not tested to a standard, i.e. The manufacture may assume the seawater pumped through is at much lower temps than your boat is used in.

We needs a scientist to do these calcs...


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