Air conditioned intercooler? and mouse update (?)

[Mike Arman <armanmik@n-jcenter.com>]

>
Bruce Bell comments:
>
>When I grew up we had one of those wonderful gas
>refrigerators. Quiet and virtually maintenance free. 
>
>So lets steal some of that heat from the cat, build an
>evaporator into the IC and have some really cold dense air
>and get rid of the AC compressor while were at it. Any one
>know if there are enough BTU's available to do this?
>
>Now this is what I'd call an air conditioned intercooler!
>
>Bruce

Did a little research on gas refrigerators: The gas flame heats a mixture
of ammonia, which vaporizes and has heat exchange characteristics similar
to freon (or actually the reverse, ammonia was here first).

Not a lot of BTU's required. The gas flame is small, and you could get ALL
the heat you needed and then some by wrapping a copper coil a few turns
around the exhaust pipe.

If I remember correcly, you don't even need a compressor - just a small
pump to sort of move things along. No high pressures, no compressor
cycling, etc.

Problem is that the ammonia solution is highly corrosive, so the entire
system will have to be made of stainless steel and/or some kind of rugged,
long-lived plastic (yeah, right!). ("Your evaporator is leaking - that's a
bazillion dollars for a new one, and you need a new car because the liquid
ate a hole through the car and down to China.")

Idea was to replace the freon A/C system entirely - I still think it's a
good idea, but don't have the engineering background to make it go. Also, I
have other priorities! Graydon? Are you listening?

Best Regards,

Mike Arman