My rudimentary understanding of the air conditioning process is that it involves compressing of gasses, and cooling of heat exchangers.

This seems to me to be an ideal application for a windmill, especially for those persons who have large yards or live in apartment towers.

The windmill shaft could be geared directly to the compressor, the heat exchanger fan and to the fan moving the air throughout the house, reducing the energy wasting step of connecting it to an electrical generator. Temperature control would be by the opening and closing of vents in the house, rather that by switching on and off the motor. Additionally, excess energy could be stored by compressing excess coolant, until needed.

For heating purposes, the windmill would be used to power the fan moving heated air throughout the house and supplemented by a heating source.
-- senatorjam, Jun 14 2003

Absorber refrigerator http://www.nh3tech.org/absorption.html
Redesign this as an AC unit. [kbecker, Oct 17 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]

Absorber refrigerator [Internet Archive] https://web.archive...org/absorption.html
Redesign this as an AC unit. [kbecker, flag, Oct 17 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004] [[kbecker]'s link is dead. Redirect to internet archive.] [scad mientist, Dec 11 2023]

Why run the AC when there's a nice breeze? Why not just have the windmill run all the time and store its output as electricity?
-- phoenix, Jun 14 2003


How 'bout one mill for AC and one for AC?
-- galukalock, Jun 14 2003


Huh?
-- thumbwax, Jun 14 2003


Reversing the cooling cycle creates a heating cycle - a heat pump system that is certanly practical. I think it has already been patented.
-- Graybeard, Jun 14 2003


Wind and the need for AC are not necessarily connected. However, sun and AC usually are. Perhaps you should look at an absorber system (see link). As far as I know nobody has designed a solar powered absorber AC yet. It would need some additional reservoir to cover those hot nights.
-- kbecker, Jun 14 2003


['wax] One for Air Conditioning and one for Alternating Current. Sigh...
-- galukalock, Jun 15 2003


One vital piece of info missing here is size. Just how big do these windmills have to be in order to function on a practical scale? If my strata council won't let me put up a 45cm (18 inch) satellite dish on the building, there's no way they'd approve of a windmill with a span of ten feet. Unless you can make the windmill invisible (ie. transparent everything?) or small and unobtrusive, this is just a WIBNI, or magic.
-- Canuck, Jun 15 2003


[canuck] - two scenarios,

1. you have your OWN yard, then your windmill can be as big as a C-Band satellite dish (bout 12 ft across) 2. For an apt buliding, the windmill would serve the entire building, not an individual Apt.
-- senatorjam, Jun 15 2003


senator, I was fishing for facts more than anything. I don't know how big a windmill has to be in order to be effective, and I'd like to know if anyone who voted for this idea does know.
I realize not all people have their own back yard and they would benefit from a communal windmill solution. And I also realize those who do are governed by their local municipal/city/county bylaws as to what they can and cannot put up in said back yards. So you see we once again arrive back at the issue of size. How big is big enough to be effective for the number of households it (or they) will serve?
-- Canuck, Jun 15 2003


[Canuck] sorry to misunderstand your original question, I am currently searching old textbooks to be able to answer your questions
-- senatorjam, Jun 15 2003


I am working on the design which is exactly what you suggested. Basically I propose a vertical shaft wind turbine mounted over a rain collecting water tank. Wind power is assisted by a vortex and the system provides heated and cooled air conditioning as well as water and air purifying together with AC and DC generation and the provision of a hot and a cold water supply -all with one moving part. I am soon to present details on a website. Are there any interested in this technology and would like to assist me in development?
-- tasman, Jul 11 2004


This is redundant with "Miniature Golf Version Of (anything)".

[toldja that was a stupid idea!]
-- phundug, Jul 12 2004


This is a good idea. We build windmills that belt drive an old aircondtitioner compressor that lifts water through air injection. (plus there are many on the market to aereate ponds. For sometime I have been in conversation with my air automobile mechanic and it would be quite easy to run hoses down from the compressor to the condensor, useing standard automobile ac equipment. The only thing different needed is a different type gas expansion valve which I am told exist. For you engineers the energy in the wind (to calculate the rotor size needed is sq. meters of swept rotor area time wind speed cubed (in m/s). Calculate the BTU needed in terms of watts and multiply times the effciency of the total system. The unknow is the effeciency of the total system.
-- Imathinker, Jul 12 2004



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