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A group of Danes trying to save the word while keeping their Carlsberg cool have come up with a rather useful Green innovation. Earth cooled beer. This completely off grid solution is designed for the backyard patio or garden, relying on a hand crank to move beer from Mother Earth to the imbiber. The group's slogan is Save the world one earth cooled beer at a time and promotes itself with the testimonial "eCool is the greatest gift a man could wish for". No wonder the group can't keep up with demand.
I suspect between Danish love of the outdoors during the summer time, and drinking beer, this is going to be a hit. Hard to say how it'll do outside of Denmark but I have this strong desire to find out if the $350 price tag includes shipping to California.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Sunday June 01 2014, @01:26AM
( Instead of giving you one link, I preloaded the search keywords into Google... ISAAC is a technology for powering an ammonia absorption refrigeration process directly from the sun. )
I have been looking into scaling this technology for use in the desert, albeit I would not want to try this in a densely populated area for fear of repercussions from any refrigerant leaks.
I feel I am already pushing the limit playing with using propane ( R290 ) as a refrigerant as it has excellent thermodynamic properties, and I can get all I need without pandering for licenses, however due to its flammability, I choose to build the entire refrigeration engine, along with a couple of tons of water in an ice bank ( about 50 cu.ft or so ), outside so if I do get a refrigerant leak, it won't build up in the house with the inevitable explosion. I can always pump the chilled water to inside heat exchangers safely...
Do not read too much into the words "ice bank"... its just a child's wading pool set into the ground with lots of styrofoam sheeting around and over it, making it a decent sized subterranean cooler box... whose "roof" is the floor of an outdoor patio. A little door in the side gives me a place to keep my beer.... The main trick is I never want to freeze the whole thing... just up to 80% or so.. so I always have some liquid water both to pump and to keep the forces of freezing from damaging the container and refrigeration piping.
As a bonus, in the winter, it can be used to store heat from a solar array.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]