Wood'nCoal wrote:homecomfort wrote:Too bad noone yet figered a way to run a/c on anthracite.
It could probably be done using the same type of system a gas or kerosene refrigerator uses.
How well it would work and how economical it would be I have no idea.
Here is a small "water Fired" chiller. 10 tons could cool two large houses.
http://www.yazakienergy.com/waterfired.htm
Could be fired with a EFM DF520, AHS260 or AA-260.
Efficiency? Based on 200 dollars a ton for coal, you would burn $1.65/hr in coal plus electrical loads. A air conditioner with an EER of 9.7 and $0.14/kwh of electric would burn $1.73/hr of energy.
Central Air conditioners for furnaces are availble with high EERs now. It would be a little cheaper to run a high efficiency central air unit verses a coal fired absorbtion unit. Also, it would be much more controll-able.
Cost of an 10 ton absorbtion unit, Last I knew over $10,000.00 just for the unit. By the time you bought the cooling tower, piping, pumps , controls and installed it, you would have $40,000 into the system without the coal boiler.
High cost and no payback = stick with electric A/C.
