A solar powered air conditioner

[David Lewis]

1. In this system the sun boils Freon in a solar panel.
2. Freon vapor is sent to a turbine or piston motor.
3. Freon discharge from the motor is sent to condenser coils submerged underwater.
4. The cooled, low-pressure Freon is sent back to the solar panel inlet.
5. The Freon-powered motor drives a compressor.
6. Liquid Freon from the compressor sent to condenser coils submerged underwater.
7. The Freon from the condenser outlet is distributed to buildings.
4. Inside each building is an expansion valve that feeds evaporator coils embedded in the walls.
5. The discharge from the evaporator coils is sent back to the inlet of the compressor.

Do you see any problems, and do you have any advice, suggestions or improvements?

 

[russ_watters]

You have two evaporators and no compressor. I don't see the point of the solar evaporator. Seems like the opposite of what you are after (a water/ground source heat pump/air conditioner). And you need a compressor.

Look up the Mitsubishi City-Multi system. That's what this is when fixed.

 

[Vanadium 50]

You have two evaporators and no compressor.

This works exactly as well as circulating cold freon through the pipes. Because that's what it is. Until it warms up.

 

[David Lewis]

Thank you. I have made the corrections.

 

[jrmichler]

Search gas refrigerator or absorption refrigerator. These are popular for off grid and RV applications because they do not use electricity. Diagram from one hit:

While the few hits that I looked at only discussed heating with gas or kerosene, solar heat would also work. I did not look into what happens if too much heat (hot sunny day) is added, so will leave that as an exercise for those more curious than I.

 

[Vanadium 50]

If your goal is a solar powered air conditioner, why not use photovoltaics to power a conventional one?

 

[Algr]

If your goal is a solar powered air conditioner, why not use photovoltaics to power a conventional one?

Sometimes you have to try something out to gage how efficient it is.

 

[russ_watters]

Sometimes you have to try something out to gage how efficient it is.

Or in the case of the OP, if it will even do anything at all.

 

[Algr]

It can be quite rewarding and inspiring to come up with an idea and then learn that real engineers and scientists had tried it. Even if it proved impractical for some reason, there is a vibe of great minds think alike, and maybe my next idea will be truly new. OP’s idea might be incomplete or have structural problems, but has something like it been done somewhere? I know that there are some solar radiant cooling panels that exist.

 

[russ_watters]

It can be quite rewarding and inspiring to come up with an idea and then learn that real engineers and scientists had tried it. Even if it proved impractical for some reason, there is a vibe of great minds think alike, and maybe my next idea will be truly new. OP’s idea might be incomplete or have structural problems, but has something like it been done somewhere? I know that there are some solar radiant cooling panels that exist.

I appreciate that you're trying to throw the OP a bone, but I had actually been leaning the other way but held back/edited down a harsher initial reply from post #2. The OP contains no description other than the title to say what the point is, and a normal air conditioner isn't all that difficult to understand, containing just four processes with straightforward purposes that the OP should understand before trying to re-invent it. I'm getting a real "lack of effort" vibe from it/him. I had an idea about what the thought process might be but held back from guessing it.

The original photo/OP has been edited after my original response, so that my original response doesn't make sense anymore (now there is a turbine and compressor in it, but there wasn't before). That's also bad form. That said...

Now there are two separate loops:
The first loop is a normal air conditioner. Fine, and irrelevant now to the "invention".

The second loop is a repeat of what I think the initial error was. It shows an incomplete "steam" power cycle. A steam power cycle also has just four processes and the OP is still missing the same one: the pump/compressor. It looks like the OP has a misunderstanding about what boilers are/how they work, thinking they can change(increase) pressure, so you don't need a pump/compressor. They can't; you need a pump/compressor.

Part of the "lack of effort" vibe is "inventing before learning". The OP's cycles were both missing the compressor/pump. Given that, what the OP in a "learning mode" should have done is simply post the question: "I see that a steam cycle includes a circulator pump and an air conditioner includes a compressor. Why is that needed; can't they be eliminated and have the boiler/evaporator create the circulation?"

 

[russ_watters]

For completeness/clarity in case people missed it, here is what the original-original post said:

1. In this system the sun boils Freon in a solar panel.
2. Freon vapor is sent to condenser coils submerged underwater.
3. The cooled, low-pressure Freon is distributed to buildings.
4. Inside each building is an expansion valve that feeds evaporator coils embedded in the walls.
5. The discharge from the evaporators is sent back to the inlet of the solar panel.

Do you see any problems, and do you have any advice, suggestions or improvements?

I don't see that there's a way to recover an edited/replaced uploaded photo.

 

[russ_watters]

Search gas refrigerator or absorption refrigerator. These are popular for off grid and RV applications because they do not use electricity.

So, I had to look up how RV absorption refrigerators work because that last bit threw me: industrial absorption chillers do use electricity, for pumps to circulate the working fluid. Googling, it looks like RV absorption chillers use passive/gravity circulation of the working fluid. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absorption_refrigerator

It's a bit of a special case, and has also been used in the past for single-pipe boiler heating steam circulation. The key is that there is no significant pressure change inside the system. These days a low-head circulator pump is commonly used in heating boilers and for powerful industrial absorption chillers. But power cycles and vapor compression refrigeration involve large pressure changes that can only come from a high-head pump/compressor.

 

[David Lewis]

I'm getting a real "lack of effort" vibe from it/him.

The original photo/OP has been edited after my original response, so that my original response doesn't make sense anymore (now there is a turbine and compressor in it, but there wasn't before). That's also bad form.

No worries, Russ. This is not the appropriate forum for me to ask questions, solicit input, respond to valid criticism, or learn from mistakes.

 

[Algr]

/s

You’d better spell it out for these guys.

 

[russ_watters]

No worries, Russ. This is not the appropriate forum for me to ask questions, solicit input, respond to valid criticism, or learn from mistakes.

It is, but you'll need to learn lesson 1 fairly quickly: you need to put in quality effort to get useful results here. And not just because it won't help you if you don't, but because low-effort is disrespectful to the rest of us and the time we are donating to help you.

 

[berkeman]

Thread is closed temporarily for Moderation...

 

[berkeman]

Thank you. I have made the corrections.

Please do not ever edit your OP after you have received replies. That is extremely confusing since it does not match the replies that you got before you edited it. Instead, please just post a follow-up reply saying "Here is my updated OP" or similar. That keeps everybody on the same page and still gets you good help.

No worries, Russ. This is not the appropriate forum for me to ask questions, solicit input, respond to valid criticism, or learn from mistakes.

Please learn from the mistake that I commented on above. That created the whole issue in this thread. Thank you.

Thread is re-opened. Please check your PMs.