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Date:         Tue, 13 May 2008 16:27:36 -0500
Reply-To:     Jim Felder <jim.felder@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Jim Felder <jim.felder@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: Propane AC
Comments: To: John Rodgers <inua@charter.net>
In-Reply-To:  <4829FB4F.2070903@charter.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

One of the many things I've gained an appreciation for through this list is the enormous task facing a car air conditioner. I pity the poor vanagon driver whose AC is anything like the westy fridge! My grandmother had a servell refrigerator. She bought it in the twenties or thirties and the door finally fell off in the 60s and she got a mechanical unit, which didn't last all that long. I remember that the servell took a long time to cool after defrosting. Popsicles that froze in an hour at home took overnight at grandma's house.

I don't even think that a home Ac window unit could keep up with an auto AC. An auto AC has to constantly fight really high potential temps in summer, but has some share of many, many horsepower to do so.

A home Ac unit, at least a window unit, has a fractional horsepower motor and depends on being able to cool a relatively well-insulated area that doesn't spike up to over a hundred degrees in a minute or less.

Bottom line, car AC is much more powerful and very quick, almost overkill. If someone could work on insulating a car and using passive solar design as houses do, a much smaller ac unit, even a gas one, might have a chance. But it would require a big change in materials.

Maybe that's what all this electric car and fuel cell stuff will lead to. Even if electric car batteries were perfected tomorrow, I bet it would be a long time before any of them had AC that would work down here in the south.

Jim

On Tue, May 13, 2008 at 3:34 PM, John Rodgers <inua@charter.net> wrote:

> There might be one out there somewhere. Use to be the first > refrigerators were kerosene fired. The units available to day are > Cervelle ( I think that is the spelling.) much more egfficient that of > old, but definitely a fuel fired refer - with a freezer no less. And > what do you have in the Campers - refers and freezers using the same > principle- except using a gas fire underneath or even an electric coil. > They are ammonia based. So why not have a heat energized refer coil and > a fan on it - instant fuel fired AC. Should work. > > John Rodgers > 88 GL Driver > > > Joe Federici wrote: > > > I've never heard of a propane powered one. have a brand your looking at. > > > > JFF > > > > > > On May 13, 2008, at 3:29 AM, Mark C wrote: > > > > Has anyone ever installed a small propane powered AC unit on the roof > > of their vanagon? I'm looking for feedback and ideas. > > > > > >


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