Mrs J Johnson Posted January 27, 2008 Share Posted January 27, 2008 The recent thread on hot water heat exchanger got me thinking. It would be great if we could use the excess heat from the refrigerator to help to heat up the boiler.Saving on gas and helping the enviroment. Is it possible without spending a fortune or am i being a dumb blond! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff Cole Posted January 27, 2008 Share Posted January 27, 2008 Nice thought Mrs J On large industrial refridgeration units they have water cooled condensers and the waste heat from these units is some times recovered through a heat exchanger.Unfortunately a domestic fridge only puts out a relatively small amount of heat and the recovery cost of reclaiming this would not be cost effective, also the heat losses incurred would make it impractical. I would like to see a calorifier coil fitted in the trauma hot water tanks to make it possible to recover lost heat from the engine as an option. By the way, dumb blonds don't come up with such practical ideas they usually think wing mirrors are for putting the lippy on! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffersonCampervan Posted January 27, 2008 Share Posted January 27, 2008 Geoff Cole - 2008-01-27 12:54 PM I would like to see a calorifier coil fitted in the trauma hot water tanks to make it possible to recover lost heat from the engine as an option. If I'm reading you correctly, we have such a system in our Rialta - the hot water tank is heated by coolant coils running from the engine, similar to the same coils used to heat the cab in winter. Whenever we arrive, we always have hot water. usuaaly still quite warm the next morning. Of course, we can plug in or run the generator to heat the water electrically when camped & not driving. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff Cole Posted January 27, 2008 Share Posted January 27, 2008 Yes I know they fit calorifiers to some campers the one I hired in NewZealand had one fitted it was great, manufacturers do not seem to fit same in UK , or offer it as an option, it would make the unit 3 way and save on gas or electricity. I might modify my trauma unit and fit a coil sometime, if its possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colin Posted January 27, 2008 Share Posted January 27, 2008 From what I can work out the heat output of a mh fridge is around same as 1 or 2 light incandesenct light bulbs, hard to justify effort to recover. We had looked at heat exchanger on new house, this works like a fridge in reverse, should be able to heat house and water with about 3kw power, but at time there was a question mark over electricity supply Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clive Posted January 28, 2008 Share Posted January 28, 2008 The method of using a refrigerator to generate heat (rather than for the cold) is well known. Its geothermal heating where large areas like lawns or deep holes drilled into the ground are used as heat sources. However there is a minimum size of plant required before the losses in the system are less than the heat energy recovered. Its in killowatts so I don,t think your fridge comes anywhere near big enough. Nice thought though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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