Date:         Tue, 15 Jul 1997 15:14:34 -0500 (EDT)
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Paul Henderson <pgh@unx.dec.com>
Subject:      We're Science explains propane refrigerators

You Westie owners out there might be interested about why lighting a
propane fire under your refrigerator actually cools the food inside.
The weekly science program "We're Science" heard on PRI stations, and
at www.umr.edu/~science explains it on this week's program.

Turns out you are vaporizing ammonia, then combining it with hydrogen,
which compresses it, drawing off heat, which liquifies the ammonia
again, releasing the hydrogen. Something like that. Seems that big
industry does most of their cooling using ammonia, not HFC based
compounds.

Paul Henderson
'84 Vanagon (137K)

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