Natural Refrigeration

thenumbersix

Member
Messages
290
Natural Refrigeration

This is an obvious one really, back in the old days food was stored underground in larders/cellars etc., even now most pubs store their barrels well underground, and it is chilly down there most times.

The principle is to dig a trench and lay pipe in it, the longer and wider the betterer. Then draw the air from it into a small area which you want cooling. A practical application could be an area under your barbecue where you can store essentials, such as beer, wine, oh and meat...

The idea comes from air conditioning your home. This works during all seasons as in the summer the ground below a few feet is constantly cold, during the winter it is the same temperature which is considerably warmer than the outside air, thus reducing your heating costs when it is cold...

http://www.motherearthnews.com/library/1982_January_February/My_Mother_s_House_Part_IVThese are the basic instructions for Natural Air Conditioning

As I see it, the pipe in the ground cools, this is then piped into the area you want to cool. Now, somewhere along this system, toward the cooling end, is a chimney that is painted black and exposed to the sun so that this is heated and draws air upwards, creating the air flow that draws the cold air out of your underground pipes..

The problem I'm having at them moment to resolve in my head is how this is done without drawing the cold air straight up the hot chimney and not into your house / BBQ Fridge (NB. the BBQ can be used as a heat source to draw air).

No doubt there is some clever mechanism for doing this, most of the references I've found seem to neglect the details, though I have some good ides on it... Maybe a parrallel pipe with a small hole between the warm and cold areas so that a constant circulatory current of cold air is created in the fridge area....

We have a fire pit now in the garden with vent pipes built into the brick base, these stay extremely cold when the fire is burning (we like to burn shit). It reminds me of a patio heater where the gas bottle frosts on the outside to the level of the gas, this is pure energy exchange...

wow, someone had built this into their house : Mothers House
 

Bernard

Junior Member
Messages
32
Re: Natural Refrigeration

I think a case of lateral thinking always works...if you used the Bar-b-q to draw air through your system then I think you are well on your way to creating a blast furnace rather than a bar-b-q. Laterally thinking..not quite literally would be to build a chimney above it and feed the air into the chimney.

Again in a house situation then you would have the pipes in one end of the house and the chimney at the other. Prefrably with a opening into it in at the highest point of the house. Whether you used a fan or thermal heating at a higher point does not matter. What you are looking for is a potential difference in air pressure, that is why chimneys work the air is less dense at higher levels and therefore less pressure. I think that was the way I read it in a physics book. (Please correct me if I am wrong)

Living in a colder climate I have thought about just building something like a conservatory on the front of the house and painting the wall black and using it as a heat store either to warm the air in winter or use it for chimney effect in summer. It would mean altering the air flow in some way between summer and winter.

Another possibility to think about is that you are using energy to warm the air in the house in the winter and this would go straight up such a chimney and be wasted. It is also possible to recover this heat and using it to warm the incomming air. It is much like an air conditioning or refrigerator unit working in reverse. You would put hot air in where it was cold and warm air out where is hot.

The problem here is that you need to remember that doing this to a fridge would probably cause to much pressure differential and hence something giving....but there are comercial units out there.

Just some thoughts...i have a few other ideas up my sleave ...I only hope that I can put them into practice.

Bernard
 


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