Ice House

[oldie]

Has anyone had any experience with building an ice house or walk in freezer, using Ammonia as the refridgerant?

[msta999]

I build igloos with the boyscouts once a year ;D

[machinemaker]

I have worked on ammonia based refrigeration systems. Nearly all large industrial refrigeration system are ammonia based. however the little experience I had was with a huge system that cooled a drive in warehouse for frozen food. I have always thought of making a walk in freezer / refrigerator in our next house, but wasn't sure if I'd use ammonia. I remember that in the compresser room always smelled of ammonia, but we were running 20 to 50 hp compressors. I currently have an extra deep freeze on the deck on the north side of the house where the sun does not shine. Most of the winter (nov - march) it is cold enough especially at night to keep it below its set point and the compressor never runs. I would think about using the natural cold air at night to cool a brine solution it the "dream" house walk in refrigerator and maybe incorporate some storage of the brine for keeping things cool during the day or over a few days of warmer weather. I have thought of just using the compressor to cool this mass of brine rather than cooling the air in the freezer / refrigerator.
kent

[johnjmw]

Hello,
I saw plans online at Home Power to build a solar powered Ammonia freezer for freezing ice. I downloaded the design because when I build my country home I wanted to try it out. No moving parts makes it very uncomplicated. At least in theory.

John