Date: Fri, 6 Jul 2007 11:05:23 -0700
Reply-To: "Mike \"Rocket J Squirrel\" Elliott" <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: "Mike \"Rocket J Squirrel\" Elliott" <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: FYI - Venting for mobile refrigerators
In-Reply-To: <c4e7c5f90707061032r567c50eay7dfc6b9dfc9b06cd@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
Seems complicated. If you park a cold van over hot pavement and suck air
in from below, it will be hot. I don't know how much heat you can
extract from the air by passing it through mysterious ducting and
manifolds buried in the van's underside and flooring, and how long such
cooling will last before the hot air heats the steel. Steel is a poor
conductor of heat, so as hot air -- or a flame -- heats a patch of
steel, it will pretty much come up to the temp of the air or flame and
its cooling properties will vanish. Now, if you drew air through a
manifold of copper or aluminum which had channels of icy water flowing
through it, then it could extract quite a lot of heat. However, if you
got icy water on hand, then you might as well just put your six-pack
into it.
If you wanna get fancy, then use the existing vents under the Dometic to
bring in van air when parked over hot pavement, then climb under the van
and open a floor vent and close off the inside vent when the shaded
pavement cools.
Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
71 Type 2: the Wonderbus
84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
74 Utility Trailer. Ladybug Trailer, Inc., San Juan Capistrano
KG6RCR
On 7/6/2007 10:32 AM neil wrote:
> On 7/6/07, Mike Rocket J Squirrel Elliott <camping.elliott@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>>
>>
>> On 7/6/2007 9:55 AM neil wrote:
>>
>> > That was me!
>>
>> So what's keeping you?
>>
>> >
>> > (and I still haven't had the balls to cut a hole in floor under fridge)
>>
>> Oh. Well, okay.
>>
>> > And further to that idea, I thought it would be good to use a manifold
>> > of some sort through which air would be drawn in "against" frame of
>> > van. The frame is metal is cool to the touch, so air being drawn
>> > against it should get cooled down.
>>
>> I dunno about that -- the frame has to be at the same temperature as the
>> air around it. Steel is not a great conductor of heat, but it does
>> transfer heat from your fingertips well enough to feel cool. But still,
>> it's at ambient temp.
>>
>
>
> Actually I'm correcting myself here.
>
> :)
>
> Part of the thought was that if warmer air got blown under van, or if
> parked in new spot with hot pavement, that the temp being drawn in
> might be kept consistently lower if using "heavy" metal of van
> undercarriage or for that matter a metal tube. If not done this way,
> the opposite scenario would possibly be that the opening on intake
> tube was pointed downward to pavement sucking up warmer air.
>
> (all this coming from a dude what barely got out of HS!)
>
> (And all this coming from someone who may have too much time on his hands!)
>
> Neil.
>
>
>> --
>> Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
>> 71 Type 2: the Wonderbus
>> 84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
>> 74 Utility Trailer. Ladybug Trailer, Inc., San Juan Capistrano
>> KG6RCR
>>
>
>
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