Gerald,
One of the big names in A/C has made an experimental unit that may or
may not be on the market. It uses a small gas engine, running on N.G.,
powering a standard compressor. It is supposedly no noisier than a
regular electric whole-house A/C. It would be a bit large for a trailer,
however; not to mention expensive.
<<Jim>>
"Dr. Gerald N. Johnson" wrote:
>
> Chris Bryant wrote:
> >
> > Back in the '70's, a company made a rooftop gasoline powered A/C for
> > conversion vans. Pretty neat idea- back then it was just a matter of
> > hooking a lawn mower type engine to a car A/C compressor, with a small
> > alternator for the fans.
> > I imagine with newer technology, the motors could be made much smaller-
> > someone mentioned the residential natural gas heatpump- there is one just
> > south of here, near Orlando. It also harnesses (I think) the waste heat from
> > the engine to heat water.
> >
> > As far as an absorption type A/C- I think you would have to scale it up so
> > large, that it would not be practical- otherwise, you could just leave the
> > refrigerator door open ;-)
>
> I saw one web page referencing an absorption type unit with an output of
> 1700 KW cooling, 1400 KW heating. That's 4,750,000 BTU heating and
> 5,800,000 BTU cooling. That's a bit BIG for an Airstream. So absorption
> works when scaled up.
>
> One should harness the waste heat from the engine and compressor for
> something else the energy efficiency is fairly poor.
>
> There are 12volt compressors on the market, used in SunFrost
> refrigerators for solar power homes. I thought they were stock items at
> WW Grainger. We probably use propane absorption refrigerators in campers
> because the energy density of propane is far greater than in storage
> batteries.
>
> Gerald J.
> > ________
> >
> > Chris Bryant
> > Bryant RV Services
> > DeLand, Florida
> > mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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