As I want to do more sailing in the low latitudes but do not like to
sleep in sweat, I have been looking into ways to cool my boat with
semi-passive means. One thing most boats have is lots of sunlight and
a lot of water for cooling. So, we have a source of heat and a way to
get rid of heat, you should be able to use that to cool air. Turns
out there is a way to do this, adsorption cooling.
Such a system uses a material like Zeolite that quickly adsorbs water
from a reservoir thus reducing pressure and cooling. This can be used
to cool air. The zeolite must then be regenerated to remove the water
and this is done by heating it and then allowing it to cool.
So, we use a solar concentrator to regenerate the zeolite and a 12 V
pump and a 12 V fan. The Zeolite is cooled by pumping seawater thru
coils imbedded in it. Not driving a compressor makes this easy to do
with 12V and very efficient.
Thus one could operate an AC unit from a solar panel and a solar
concentrator. No, it would not reach meat locker temps but compared
to 100 degrees and 100% humidity, 80 degrees and 80% humidity is
paradise. Thoughts?