How many would it take to cool my house down?

http://crosleyautoclub.com/IcyBall/crosley_icyball.html

http://crosleyautoclub.com/IcyBall/HomeBuilt/HomeBuilt.html

With it being 105+ degrees out.

http://web.archive.org/web/20011116075625/http://www.humboldt1.com/~michael.welch/extras/solarice.pdf

I hate icey balls!

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

Cool! Literally.... I'm so into stuff like this, I'll have to build one now. This antique contraption works just like gas powered refrigerators in RV's and even heat pipes in modern PC's. Ammonia is some nasty refrigerant to work with though.

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Current Stable:
01 ML55 AMG
92 500E (a few mods)
87 300E (lots of mods)
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PREVIOUSLY OWNED:83 300SD, 87 420SEL, 88 420SEL, 90 420SEL, 86 560SEL, 86 190E 2.3-16V AMG, 94 E320

I found all this searching for residential absorption refridgeration. Here we are wastin' watts to pump freon when there's all that heat (energy) to be had.

I was thinking of a way to store power in the form of ice, but using conventional refrigeration to do it. This would be to shift the demand so I could take advantage of variable pricing, and freeze the water at night.

I did the computations, and it appears that as little as 125 pounds of ice would help keep the AC off for two expensive hours when I'm often home, 7-9 pm. Of course, I still need a way to put heat back into that ice while still allowing it to be frozen efficiently. Perhaps refrigerant tubes in the ice to freeze and air tubes for thawing, connected to the furnace fan. If the system was 50% efficient (compared to a direct AC system), it would save a substantial amount of money because of the extreme change in rates between day-evening and night.

However, now you go and post this sort of thing.

The second link talked about a dual-stage device (or something close) that did the absorption-generation in a cycle. How do those work? Can the solar device do that, so I can get continuous cooling to freeze my block of ice? I'd still want the ice, since I don't need to keep the place chilled while I'm at work.

http://www.lehmans.com/shopping/product/detailmain.jsp?itemID=557&itemType=PRODUCT&iMainCat=816&iSubCat=896&iProductID=557

I have a larger unit at my country place,uses bottle gas and is very economical.

Once you grasp the principles involved you can certainly fabricate a domestic air conditioner.I know of one house down here that still has a functioning ammonia absorption A.C.unit that shares the hot air heater ductwork,was installed in 1928 or so.

With conventional freon type units I had thoughts of freezing a slush of glycol using several small compressors. As the demands of the system increased more compressors would come online. By compressors I mean a small independant system ie. comp, condensor, and evaporator.

Now I'm wondering how many small absoption units it would take??? Is there a BTU spec listed anywhere?

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Do the math on the cost of gas and the cost of electricity per BTU delivered by each system...

Absorption systems work well with cheap heat energy, such as low-grade steam in a boiler plant. If you have to make your own heat, you must look at the cost of the energy to produce the heat, and gas is not as cheap as it used to be.

It's 107f outside! I'm looking at the cost to harness THIS heat, not make more. Even if solar could not acheive the required boiler temp it could supplement. Waste oil???

You can't harness the 107F directly. You must increase the temperature beyond ambient temperature by some means. A solar concentrator makes sense, but still the 107F ambient is working against you, not with you.