Dome Chilling Machine 1 of 4

[Blair Wolfram]

My photo attachment is too large so I'll send three emails to the geodesichelp group with 3 separate pics:

Construction of Dome Inc's Chilling Machine prototype is moving ahead. Information on Bucky's science is very limited, the best source being photos. I've attached 2 photos of Bucky's Ghana Dome, and a photo of the progress on my Chill prototype.

Transitioning from a grain bin, into Ghana's open space experiment, into a habitable 4 season living space has been challenging. This unfinished project has full direct sun exposure in an open field, yet today it's 95 degrees outside; inside temp reads 85 degrees at 3PM. 

I've spoken to a number of scientists in an attempt to employ an HVAC engineer or a fluid dynamics engineer 

to calculate factors needed to properly create a venturi; including negative air pressure effects, inside temperature vs. outside temp, air patterns relating to building shape, volume air intake vs. volume exhaust, btu's created by the sun etc. but no one qualified has stepped up. 

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Blair F. Wolfram
Founder, Dome Inc.

thedo...@domeincorporated.com

http://www.hurricanedomes.com

888-DOME-INC or 612-333-3663

[Dx G]

Blaire,

  Many thanks for the reports and update on the Chilling Machine.  I did some background work on this when it was last discussed.  Some of the things that turned up are quite interesting, but one thing is very clear.  You already know that a building, or a dome, can't be built the same way In MN as in south Florida and expect success from a single design.  As such, I suspect that a Chilling Machine in MN will have differences from the one in Africa.  Due to the lack of a good design "road map" for any Chilling Machine, verifying the factors that must be managed is tough enough (i.e. is negative pressure really the target, and is a venturi affect the right means to generate it), but then there is the important question of how do you manage that factor "here" vs. "there" to make it work in a different setting (thus achieving the target).

  In any case, it will be interesting to see where this takes you.

Dx G

[Blair Wolfram]

Bucky's comments lead me to believe with higher temperatures the benefit grows exponentially.

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[Dx G]

Well, I'm a bit of a skeptic on two points:

1) Its not just temperature. There are a number of other variables that interact, humidity being a very big number 1.

2) I'm not sure Bucky entirely understood what he was observing, and offered several explanatory theories.  Although a good starting point, and, that of course, he might have been right, I would have some reservations about betting too much on that.  

     As we say in the R&D business, even a broken clock is right twice a day  :-)

Dx G

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[Blair Wolfram]

Humidity is a factor, but nowhere near #1.

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[Dx G]

I see I was not sufficiently clear.  I was saying that a number of factors interact with temperature, and humidity is #1 on that list of interacting factors.  Much of what anyone would want to know is found in the HVAC charts.  Lots of things have changed over the years, but those interacting factors haven't, and won't likely in our lifetimes.  Wind chill in the winter, heat stress index in the summer are derivatives of the same data.

Dx G

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[Curt McNamara]

Blair, thanks for keeping after this. I think the only practical way to figure it out is via prototyping. Will send a few thoughts your way.

      Curt

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[Blair Wolfram]

Curt,

Thank you for your interest.

As a fellow Minnesotan and dome enthusiast, would you like to set up a time to visit Dayton and see our 12 dome site?

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[Curt McNamara]

Yes, that sounds great. I can let my network know, there might be others interested. One is a physics prof, so that could be interesting.

     Curt

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