http://www.technoprimitive.org/wordpress/archives/2006/07/22/technology-review-emerging-technologies-and-their-impact/ Rumblings, Ramblings, and Ruminations Thu, 04 Dec 2008 23:13:45 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 http://www.technoprimitive.org/wordpress/archives/2006/07/22/technology-review-emerging-technologies-and-their-impact/#comment-1431 Steve Tue, 25 Jul 2006 00:51:17 +0000 http://www.technoprimitive.org/wordpress/archives/2006/07/22/technology-review-emerging-technologies-and-their-impact/#comment-1431 That's JUST what I had in mind from the TMEN article-simple, and relatively foolproof. Propane would work fine, and would be MUCH cheaper than R-12. Propane is an excellent refrigerant, it's just kinda flammable, ya know? One of the things I DON'T miss about working on auto air conditioning is wondering who might have put some type of hydrocarbon refrigerant into someone's system somewhere down the line....LOTS of ways for that to go bad. One of the MANY boneheaded things the EPA did was approve propane for use as a refrigerant in petro processing plants, thus opening the door for scammers to sell it as "an EPA approved refrigerant!" My ass-if it's in a refinery where EVERYTHING is flammable, what difference does it make if the refrigerant is explosive, too? Not the case in an automobile, and NOT what it was approved for....just goes to show, any asshole/idiot can screw up anything in the name of making a buck... That’s JUST what I had in mind from the TMEN article-simple, and relatively foolproof. Propane would work fine, and would be MUCH cheaper than R-12. Propane is an excellent refrigerant, it’s just kinda flammable, ya know? One of the things I DON’T miss about working on auto air conditioning is wondering who might have put some type of hydrocarbon refrigerant into someone’s system somewhere down the line….LOTS of ways for that to go bad. One of the MANY boneheaded things the EPA did was approve propane for use as a refrigerant in petro processing plants, thus opening the door for scammers to sell it as “an EPA approved refrigerant!” My ass-if it’s in a refinery where EVERYTHING is flammable, what difference does it make if the refrigerant is explosive, too? Not the case in an automobile, and NOT what it was approved for….just goes to show, any asshole/idiot can screw up anything in the name of making a buck…

]]> http://www.technoprimitive.org/wordpress/archives/2006/07/22/technology-review-emerging-technologies-and-their-impact/#comment-1423 Steve Sun, 23 Jul 2006 22:55:31 +0000 http://www.technoprimitive.org/wordpress/archives/2006/07/22/technology-review-emerging-technologies-and-their-impact/#comment-1423 Of course, these being parabolic collectors, they will have to track the sun to be really efficient. In a third world environment, that is no problem-get one of the kids to keep it on target. And I guess if you are building one in America, you wouldn't have much problem scrounging up the parts for an auto-tracker pretty cheaply/easily, either. I know YOU wouldn't, Dave. I remember TMEN had one in one of their mags about 10 or 15 years ago that used refrigerant to move a pnuematic cylinder to keep something like this automatically centered. I'm sure there are a number of ways.... Of course, these being parabolic collectors, they will have to track the sun to be really efficient. In a third world environment, that is no problem-get one of the kids to keep it on target. And I guess if you are building one in America, you wouldn’t have much problem scrounging up the parts for an auto-tracker pretty cheaply/easily, either. I know YOU wouldn’t, Dave. I remember TMEN had one in one of their mags about 10 or 15 years ago that used refrigerant to move a pnuematic cylinder to keep something like this automatically centered. I’m sure there are a number of ways….

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