THE INCREDIBLE WOOD-BURNING REFRIGERATOR (IS NOW UNDER DEVELOPMENT)

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"I've worked in the heating and plumbing business," Degler says, and, during the winter, I instruct a course in heating and air conditioning at Indiana Vocational Technical College. Both my job and my teaching experience have led me to believe that all our life support systems—water, sewage, heat, refrigeration, etc.—can blend a lot better with nature and use a great deal less energy than they currently do. During the coming winter I hope to test this theory by converting an ordinary house in Indianapolis into an energy-independent, self-sufficient dwelling."

And, if he does, Dale has promised to send us a complete blow-by-blow report on his progress. In the meantime, though, does anyone out there want to try to beat Degler into production with a wood-burning fridge?

THE INTERMITTENT ABSORPTION REFRIGERATOR: ON HOW IT WORKS

The generator is filled with a mixture of water and ammonia and heat is applied. This causes pressure to build and forces the ammonia—which boils at a lower temperature than water—to separate out of the solution and pass through Tube A to the condenser, where the gas gives up its heat and changes back to a liquid. As the ammonia liquefies, the fluid flows into a receiver or reservoir.

The receiver is equipped with a metering valve that allows the liquid ammonia to slowly seep into a long evaporator coil (B) which leads back to the water still left in the generator. The ammonia is attracted to the water—the NH 3 "wants" to recombine with the H 2 O—at this point . . . and it can only do so by evaporating through the long tube that runs from the metering valve to the generator. And, of course, it can only evaporate by expanding and drawing heat energy from the compartment through which the tube passes. Thus, if that compartment is well insulated and there's enough ammonia in the system, a single 20-minute application of heat can cool the freezer chest to below zero for 24 hours.

DALE DEGLER IS RIGHT!

Yep. Dale Degler is right. Refrigerators using the absorption principle really were manufactured at one time. As a matter of fact, The International Solar Power Co. Ltd. of 22B, Rosenkaeret, DK-2860, SØborg, Denmark asked MOTHER recently (see Energy Flashes in THE MOTHER EARTH NEWS, NO. 32) to help track down one of the portable absorption type refrigerators marketed during the 1920's and 1930's in Canada and the United States.

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