http://homepower.com/files/solarice.pdf

ANyway on the amonia cooling, I think it might have been at homepower.com that I saw a amonia freezer.  LONG pipe filled with the icemelter you get at walmart (icemelter absorbs the amonia), a solar collector to focuse the heat of the sun on the pipe. Tubing ran from pipe into a condesor, from condenser into a tank in an insulated freezer below.

When the sun was good the pipe heated very hot, icemelter released the amonia which flowed to the condenser to cool and become a liquid again and dripped into the tank in the freezer. When the pipe in the sun cooled off the icemelter inside started absorbing the amonia again. So liquid amonia in the freezer tank boiled off into a gas agian taking all heat it could with it back though the system and into the ice melter in the pipe.

I think they said in one complete cycle they would freeze either 10 gal or 10lbs of ice. I forgot if it was 10gal water, or 10lbs ice?

They gave the chemical name for icemelter I think, but I forgot. I beleave they said at 250f the icemelter releases 6 out of 8 amonia molecules.

I remember pretty well the setup they had, but forgot or got fuzzy a bit on some of the specs. I think 10 lbs ice is not alot for a big setup like they had. Although they said if you want to cover the colecter and pipe you can shade it and run the cycle a few times durring the day.

I have been thinking along the lines of this myself. What is the weight of amonia? Would a full cool pipe be heavy enough to lower itself into a heated area? Would the hot pipe be light enough after releasing the amonia to raise out of the heated area on its own? If enough weight is moving back and forth perhaps the pipe could be mounted as a balancing system to raise and lower automatically to run a cycling system durring the day.

My thought was build the solar collector for the pipe, and just above it place a pannel for shade. SO the heavier pipe lowers into the sun and the lighter pipe raises into the shade. The weight of the amonia would be the only variable.
 I think it would work pretty well for a variety of things, even airconditioning and refrigeration for foods.

I beleave amonia can be dangerous, deadly maybe cause blindness, so care should be taken in handling and I would build a unit outside away from people, then pipe in the cold air, water or carry ice. One of my thoughts was to use a water/anti freeze loop to carry the cold to the house. Keep the amonia away from the house and circulate the cold liquid to a radiator in the house likek from an old airconditioner. Then if theres ever a leak in the system it's away from people, not in the house.
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nothing to lose

ahhh...tomW is so right....you buy just about anything useful these days, and you're instantly on the most-wanted criminal list.  It's pretty stupid.

Anyway, by definition, it's not anhydrous ammonia in the absorption fridge.  It's ammonia in solution.

As far as the "deadly" ammonia...go out to your closest manure pile where the cattle piss...smell that?  Ammonia.  It's all-natural.

Don't get it in your eyes....

My dad and brother are both refrigeration-engineers.  As I understand it, the problem isn't dealing with ammonia, the problem is that the internal physical configuration needs to be "just so" if you want MOST EFFICIENT operation.  That's not to say that a jackpine-savage setup wouldn't work...it just might not be as efficient as a Dometic.  But then, that might not be important if your BTU needs aren't too big...

I look forward to seeing more on this subject; especially documented results of actual tests AND drawings for the device/system tested.  Now THAT would be useful !