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You Asked:
How does solar air conditioning work? — Geoff, Melbourne, Australia
Marshall Answered:
There are several different ways to create a solar air conditioner:
1) You can use Solar panels to generate electricity and then use the electricity to drive a normal air conditioner.
2) You can use the sun’s heat instead of propane to run the same ammonia-water cooling cycle found in a propane refrigerator. See Gas and Propane Refrigerators for details on the ammonia water cycle.
3) You could use the cooling cycle described in this video (Note that the first 90 seconds of this video is over the top and can be skipped if you like):
This is a solar absorption chiller. It uses solar-heated hot water and a lithium bromide chiller to run the cooling cycle. This page on the Yazaki absorption cooler explains the cycle. See also Absorption cooling, adsorption cooling and steamed potato and Solar-assisted lithium-bromide absorption cooling systems
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