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Old 10-07-2009, 08:46   #1
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Passive Cooling Technology - Phase Change Materials?

It seems to me that all boats are holes in the greatest and most effective heat sink on the planet - the sea. Could there not be a way to harness the temperature differential between the sea and a hot cabin in the tropics?

Specifically, what about using a phase-change material, like a variation of Glauber's Salt, to provide passive cooling, as well as heating on a boat. Couldn't you fabricate container of the salt, drop it in the water at night, and put it in you cabin when it gets hot? Conversely, for heating, couldn't you leave it on deck in the sun, then put it in your cabin overnight for heat release?

Products - Phase Change Materials - PCMs - PCM Energy Pvt. Ltd.
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Old 10-07-2009, 11:31   #2
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rossir View Post
It seems to me that all boats are holes in the greatest and most effective heat sink on the planet - the sea. Could there not be a way to harness the temperature differential between the sea and a hot cabin in the tropics?

Specifically, what about using a phase-change material, like a variation of Glauber's Salt, to provide passive cooling, as well as heating on a boat. Couldn't you fabricate container of the salt, drop it in the water at night, and put it in you cabin when it gets hot? Conversely, for heating, couldn't you leave it on deck in the sun, then put it in your cabin overnight for heat release?

Products - Phase Change Materials - PCMs - PCM Energy Pvt. Ltd.
A very interesting idea. Passive cooling and or heating without the use of energy, a cruisers dream.
In reading all the material on the website I can see a problem for us cruisers. A pound of the material absorbs or releases 75 BTU of heat. For a 3500 BTU/hr cooling you would need 50 lbs of material, for 10 hours 500 lbs.
It reminds me of some mattresses we purchased in Cartegena. They are 1” thick, ribbed and filled with water, weighed 50 lbs. When you first went to bed they being cooler quickly chilled one down helping you go to sleep. In the morning it felt like teawater. They were great.
If somehow the phase change material Latest 32M (melts at 32C or 90F) could be incorporated in a mattress liner it would absorb 5-10 times the heat of the water filled mattress liner for the same weight. It would have uses far beyond just us cruisers.
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