Date: Mon, 24 Jul 2006 20:38:15 -0500
Reply-To: John Rodgers <inua@CHARTER.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: John Rodgers <inua@CHARTER.NET>
Subject: Re: Propane fired airconditioning
In-Reply-To: <20060724224348.49675.qmail@web33501.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
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Howdy Matthew!
Glad to see you back with us. Hope you hang around for a while. We have
lots of new Volks-Folk that need your Guruship.
About the propane fired AC ........ Yes, I am asking about a fuel fired
AC whereby the fuel that is burned to drive the system is propane. I
know the old Cerval (Servil? whatever) systems used ammonia internally
and kerosene for a heat source. Newer systems as in motor homes use
propane for the heat source or an electric heat coil. My thoughts were
that if the system can be used to refrigerate, then why not cool a van
by having a larger unit and use a fan blowing over the cold coils. A
little DC fan would run a long time, and the propane heat would keep the
cooling system running.
Just thoughts and ideas.
Take care,
John Rodgers
88 GL Driver
Matthew Bulley wrote:
> Subsequent thread comments centered on replacing the
> refrigerant with
> propane. If I understand John's original post, he
> isn't seeking a variant on
> R-12/R-22/R-134 systems, but a system that uses
> propane as the FUEL.
>
> Yes, CERVIL is the leading name I recognize in propane
> fired refridgeration,
> as we have a vacation home with no electricity, and a
> 1940's era CERVIL
> fridge/freezer. Works by the same process as the West
> Fridge on propane,
> just bigger.
>
> As for an actual AC, I'd look at the stuff for cooling
> deliver vehicles and
> over-the-road trucks. Most are diesel fired;
> converting diesel through a
> piston/compression ignition engine to spin a
> traditional compressor +
> evaporator/condenser combination. This type of diesel
> is fairly receptive
> (at least theoretically) to conversion to gas
> (propane) firing. I know a lot
> of the city busses in Baltimore run on natural gas.
>
> At one point when I was reading up on such things in
> books on
> compression-ignition engines from the 1930's-1960's, I
> read about gas fired
> engines, and at that time, a "carrier-oil" was
> required to make the system
> work. The gas (propane, NG, etc) was pulled in as a
> predictable quantity
> with the air as an air-fuel mixture, like in a
> spark-ignition engine. The
> carrier oil was injected, just as in a traditional
> diesel, and served to
> ignite the gas/air mixture which had a higher
> flash/compression-ignition
> point.
>
> Okay... so the thought is this... there ARE
> diesel-fired cooling systems;
> florists, local fish salesmen, and ice cream guys have
> them all the way down
> to "delivery van" size.
>
> Have a great day!
>
> Matthew
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List
> [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
> John Rodgers
> Sent: Monday, July 24, 2006 12:37 PM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: Propane fired airconditioning
>
> The current thread dealing with battery power for the
> refrigerator
> brought the above subject to mind..
>
> The propane/115v refrigerator/freezer I had in my
> motor home some years
> back was outstanding. When running on propane, it
> never let me down. Nor
> did it on 115V electricity, either. It was not made to
> use battery power
> in any way. And that thing would freeze a halibut
> solid as a block of
> tombstone granite..
>
> So my question is, if there are propane fired
> refrigeration units that
> work well, can there not be a propane fired AC unit
> somewhere,
> CERVEL(Cervil?), or some other brand. If not, could
> one be cobbled
> together with parts from a propane fired fridge. After
> all, they aren't
> much more than a coil, a fan, and a heating unit. It
> seems to me if the
> shape was right, it would work great as a cooler for
> the camper on the
> weekend outing.
>
> Ideas, comments, slams??
>
> Regards,
>
> John Rodgers
> 88 GL Driver.
>
>
>
>
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