Aircon fantasies

In times of general retreat I spent hours fiddling with air-conditioning ideas. Solar powered desiccants. Micro air conditioners like they used to cool yachts and space men and NASCAR racing drivers. I went to the annual southeast Asian air conditioning trade show at the Sirikit convention center. Eager Chinese salesmen filled my arms with lavish brochures. The brochures showed their company president, tan, fit, and shrewd, perfecting his golf swing. China was clearly the future of air-conditioning manufacture.

But what I wantedI couldn't find. That was, a device that would condition air for a couple of people, not cool a big leaky overheated Thai room that delivered 2000 watts of heat from walls heated by the afternoon sun and steamy outside filthy air through window framwes that didn’t fit right. I knew he was on the right track when I went to visit the Carrier office in Bangkok. They somewhat reluctantly sent an engineer out to talk to this fahlang with the short pants milling around the front desk. Could they offer small units, maybe 5000 btus or less, asked I?

"What you want for?" the engineer asked, his eyes narrowing suspiciously.

“For small room, maybe twenty, twenty five square meters.”



The engineer whipped out a calculator and pecked in some numbers. Multiplying something by twenty five. No wonder people are annoyed by engineers, I thought to himself.

"Twelve thousand. "

"Twelve thousand what, for what."

" BTU for room."

I said that I was amazed, amazing thailand, I said, that he could do this so quickly. He must have a very good college degree. I thanked him for his time in a rather exaggerated way that he hoped conveyed the general idea. This was a Thai trick he had learned.

*********************************

I thought some more on this subject that I was clearly thinking about too much.. This is what I am looking for, I thought:

The system would cool a large fahlang body, and maybe Dah too if Jack could ever get it together with her. It would cull a small space that was reasonably protected against radiant, convective heat transfer and moisture infiltration, either convective or diffusive. Maybe like a tent. I drew a sketch.


The air within would be dry, say 40 percent RH but not too cold, so maybe there would be some heat transfer between the incoming and outgoing air. The capacity would be only say 500 watts or 2000 BTUs per hour, half the size of a small US style window unit, 20 percent of the one that Mr. Wonton said was necessary because it was the smallest the Carrier company made. The electrical savings for say six hours of operation of a 2000 btu unit would be a dollar fifty a day. Half a million air conditioners were bought in Thailand every year. The space to be cooled would be small, maybe 25 cubic meters altogether, and the envelope would serve as a mosquito barrier as well. The air would be conditioned air would be ducted into the space silently.

And wouldn’t it be nice to power the whole thing with exactly that dreadful stuff that was causing the whole problem, the 1000 watts per square meter, that would be 36 kw of power, of sun power burning down on that hot red roof? Maybe putting all that heat into the ground or say a lithium salt solution or some ammonia like the old days under the house or hidden away in the garden and some of it into the cool 26 degree water that came in off the street so the shower would be nice in warm in the cool season when the sky is clear and the solar at a maximum?

They would call it the "Ron Swelters Quarter Ton Aircon Machine", dedicated to His Majesty the King who had shown a keen interest in energy savings, and also to Doctor Carrier who invented the first air conditioner to cool the fevered brows of malaria victims but who had been swindled out of his rewards by John "Ice King" Tudor. In the year 1831, it was.

This was getting good. I ordered another pint, it was three minutes before seven and the price would double if I didn’t, the waitress told me so.

***************

The following night I had dinner with Jack and Dah. I told them all about my air conditioning ideas.

"Oh, Khun Jack, that very good. "

Jack thought this would be a good time to sort of pop a question.

"You know, Dah", he said, "we have to make an important decision. W can do it with only 1000 btu. But maybe I should get extra, maybe 2000 btu. Just in case maybe things different in the future."

Dah considered this.

"I think you and Ron know best about this. We need more money in account."