6 ms·
Water is a very good heat transfer fluid, it has a huge specific heat capacity compared to many other fluids, it's cheap, abundant, non-toxic, non-flammable. T
by jabl 4y ago
Water is a very good heat transfer fluid, it has a huge specific heat capacity compared to many other fluids, it's cheap, abundant, non-toxic, non-flammable.
The problem is that if you want to reduce the temperature below ambient you need some kind of expansion cycle, either with a single-phase gas, or something that has the gas-liquid phase transition somewhere in the temperature of interest. Water doesn't really work for common AC or refrigeration uses.
- dredmorbius 4y agoWater could be used at lower temperatures in a low-pressure system, which would reduce the boiling point. I'm curious whether or not such a cooling design exists, and what application(s) it might have. For HVAC, I suspect the temperature would have to be between 0 and 8 C (32--45F), which would be about 5--10 mbar of vacuum. Note too that it's difficult to cool below 0C (32F) with water, though salt water can reach lower temperatures. Other refrigerants function far better down to ~ -8 -- -12C, or lower. Water-based refrigerants would likely require a secondary cascade. https://www.myengineeringtools.com/Data_Diagrams/Water_Boiling_Point_Vs_Pressure.html https://www.myengineeringtools.com/Data_Diagrams/Water_Boili...
- jabl 4y agoThe problem is that if you lower the pressure enough to move the boiling point to something suitable for AC or refrigeration, the density of the steam will be very low. So you'd need huge pipes to transfer that heat around.