saving power with ice

[dan]

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Iceberg Cool
Monday, Aug. 03, 1981 Article ToolsPrintEmailReprintsSphereAddThisRSS A bold
way to beat the heat
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Rising out of a field on the campus of Princeton University is an eerie-looking
Dacron-covered dome that suggests a wayward spaceship. Inside is something that
looks either like a miniature Matterhorn or perhaps a giant Sno-Cone wrapped in
plastic. In fact, the mound is the tip of an iceberg. Beneath it, nestled into a
10-ft.-deep hole in the ground, is a thick heap of slowly melting ice. To its
creator, Theodore Taylor, a nuclear physicist turned alternative-energy
researcher, the pile of ice is proof that there are better and cheaper ways than
air conditioning to cool people off on a hot day.
Taylor calls his invention an ice pond, and the way it works is astonishingly
simple. Basically, the pond is nothing more than a 60-ft.-wide plastic-lined
hole in the ground filled with ice. To make the ice, Taylor last winter used a
snowmaking machine similar to those found at ski resorts. Instead of making
actual snow, however, he adjusted the machine's nozzle to spray out a substance
that was roughly the consistency of wet sherbet, which was squirted into the
hole. The water part of the slush drained to the bottom, leaving ice granules
above. A system of pipes and pumps drew off the ice water from the bottom of the
pond, and it was recirculated by other pipes and pumps back to the snowmaker.
The water was then sprayed out onto the pile all over again, as slush, adding
still more ice granules to the growing mound. After several weeks, a compact
mound of ice about 30 ft. thick had been formed.
As summer has progressed, the mound of ice has begun to melt slowly, sending ice
water trickling down through the granules to the bottom of the pond.
The collector pipes are now gathering the ice water and pumping it to a nearby
building, where it is being circulated through cooling vents in the rooms.
By the end of the summer, most of the ice in the pond will have melted, but the
temperature of the constantly recirculating water in the system will remain at
little more than 32° F, or that of true ice water. Meanwhile, the building is
staying at a comfortable 70° F. Of course, the ice ponds could only be used for
buildings with a large amount of empty land near by. It would take about 100
tons of ice, or enough to fill a 20-sq.-ft. hole 10 ft. deep, to cool the
average American home from spring to autumn.
Though Taylor's test pond has not yet completed its first full summer of
operation, Prudential Insurance is already planning its own ice pond, to cool a
building now being built by the firm on land adjoining the Princeton campus.
Engineers estimate that the company will save as much as $10,000 to $15,000 in
annual electrical costs by using ice-pond cooling instead of standard air
conditioning.
Engineering extravaganzas are nothing new to Taylor. As a nuclear scientist at
Los Alamos, N. Mex., in the 1950s, he designed the largest fission bomb that had
ever been exploded. In the 1960s he worked on the U.S. Air Force's Project
Orion, an aborted fission-powered spaceship that was supposed to explore the
solar system. For now, Taylor is happy with his melting ice mound. Says he:
"Standing on that pile of ice is pure adventure. We are developing the first
renewable-energy cooling system that is competitive with electrical air
conditioning."
I lost my file on Taylor's work along with a hard drive. He did a lot
more work on it. I read the commercial Internet providers can't get bigger in CA. because of
the energy they use cooling their computers. If their big brains
would move their computers to where it still gets cold and has water. they could use
Tayler's proven plans to fill things like old pits with ice and use them to cool off and save money and power and cut back co2. Later Tayler did the math showing that NY, NY. could be cooled by its water supply.

[Corey]

I would be seriously concerned. With the physical footprint if this would be widely acepted. something has to give to make room for the sheer size of this cooling system. land. wildlife, plantlife, and insectlife will loose out the we will loose out since our food source will dwidle. also consider where companies would put this system. tillable land? this could also cause even more sprawling in order to make room for it.

How much energy is actually used to generate the compact ice? vs. only turning the AC on on the hottest days?

if only they could come up with a way to miniturize it to the size of a AC unit that would last all summer. Maybe a closed system using something more reactive than water.

[gogreensolar]

Originally Posted by dan

Iceberg Cool - TIMEBookmark & ShareTIME

Time.comCNN.comSearch Archive Saturday, November 24, 2007
HomeU.S.

Iceberg Cool
Monday, Aug. 03, 1981 Article ToolsPrintEmailReprintsSphereAddThisRSS A bold
way to beat the heat
Related Articles

Rising out of a field on the campus of Princeton University is an eerie-looking
Dacron-covered dome that suggests a wayward spaceship. Inside is something that
looks either like a miniature Matterhorn or perhaps a giant Sno-Cone wrapped in
plastic. In fact, the mound is the tip of an iceberg. Beneath it, nestled into a
10-ft.-deep hole in the ground, is a thick heap of slowly melting ice. To its
creator, Theodore Taylor, a nuclear physicist turned alternative-energy
researcher, the pile of ice is proof that there are better and cheaper ways than
air conditioning to cool people off on a hot day.
Taylor calls his invention an ice pond, and the way it works is astonishingly
simple. Basically, the pond is nothing more than a 60-ft.-wide plastic-lined
hole in the ground filled with ice. To make the ice, Taylor last winter used a
snowmaking machine similar to those found at ski resorts. Instead of making
actual snow, however, he adjusted the machine's nozzle to spray out a substance
that was roughly the consistency of wet sherbet, which was squirted into the
hole. The water part of the slush drained to the bottom, leaving ice granules
above. A system of pipes and pumps drew off the ice water from the bottom of the
pond, and it was recirculated by other pipes and pumps back to the snowmaker.
The water was then sprayed out onto the pile all over again, as slush, adding
still more ice granules to the growing mound. After several weeks, a compact
mound of ice about 30 ft. thick had been formed.
As summer has progressed, the mound of ice has begun to melt slowly, sending ice
water trickling down through the granules to the bottom of the pond.
The collector pipes are now gathering the ice water and pumping it to a nearby
building, where it is being circulated through cooling vents in the rooms.
By the end of the summer, most of the ice in the pond will have melted, but the
temperature of the constantly recirculating water in the system will remain at
little more than 32° F, or that of true ice water. Meanwhile, the building is
staying at a comfortable 70° F. Of course, the ice ponds could only be used for
buildings with a large amount of empty land near by. It would take about 100
tons of ice, or enough to fill a 20-sq.-ft. hole 10 ft. deep, to cool the
average American home from spring to autumn.
Though Taylor's test pond has not yet completed its first full summer of
operation, Prudential Insurance is already planning its own ice pond, to cool a
building now being built by the firm on land adjoining the Princeton campus.
Engineers estimate that the company will save as much as $10,000 to $15,000 in
annual electrical costs by using ice-pond cooling instead of standard air
conditioning.
Engineering extravaganzas are nothing new to Taylor. As a nuclear scientist at
Los Alamos, N. Mex., in the 1950s, he designed the largest fission bomb that had
ever been exploded. In the 1960s he worked on the U.S. Air Force's Project
Orion, an aborted fission-powered spaceship that was supposed to explore the
solar system. For now, Taylor is happy with his melting ice mound. Says he:
"Standing on that pile of ice is pure adventure. We are developing the first
renewable-energy cooling system that is competitive with electrical air
conditioning."
I lost my file on Taylor's work along with a hard drive. He did a lot
more work on it. I read the commercial Internet providers can't get bigger in CA. because of
the energy they use cooling their computers. If their big brains
would move their computers to where it still gets cold and has water. they could use
Tayler's proven plans to fill things like old pits with ice and use them to cool off and save money and power and cut back co2. Later Tayler did the math showing that NY, NY. could be cooled by its water supply.

Interesting find, I wonder how much energy it would take to make the ice...I am interested how this project is going to play out at the property next to princeton