Using The Strange Property Of Water To Advantage
Most people, except perhaps those, who live in hot climates, know from their personal experience that ice floats on water. But most people don’t know that water is at its densest at 4°C. So water at this temperature sinks, but it rises at all others.
I once heard somebody use the existence of this property as a reason why God exists. He argued that if it didn’t, then life would have been impossible in water. It was all a bit contrived, but it is still as a strange property.
This morning, I was listening to Wake Up To Money, when a company called SureChill was mentioned. So I looked them up and found that they are using this property to create a new type of refrigerator. This page explains it all. This section describes the solution.
Sure Chill is a brand new kind of cooling system. It doesn’t need a constant power source. In an on-grid situation with intermittent power, it works perfectly well. In an off-grid situation, where a solar panel may be used, a Sure Chill powered refrigerator doesn’t even need a rechargeable battery. It shouldn’t work but it does. And it works beautifully.
Water surrounds a Sure Chill refrigeration compartment. When it has power, the water cools and forms ice above the compartment leaving only water at four degrees cooling the contents. When the power is switched off, the water warms and rises while the ice begins to melt, keeping only four-degree water cooling the contents of the compartment. So it has its own internal and entirely natural energy store that maintains a completely steady temperature. The system can operate like this, without power, for days and weeks.
People think physics is boring. Outside of Metier, I’ve done well in my career and made quite a bit of money by understanding the laws of physics that govern our lives.
My surprise at this idea, is that the technique could have been implemented in a refrigeration system decades ago. Artificial refrigeration was first performed by William Cullen in 1755. My bible; Nelkon amd Parker says that the maximum density of water was first measured by Thomas Charles Hope in 1804.
That is a long time from experimental proof to reality!
How Much Water Vapour Is In A Cubic Metre Of Air at A Given Temperature And Relative Humidity?
I needed to know this as if I knew the temperature and relative humidity in my bedroom, when I went to bed and got up, I could work out how much water vapour had transferred to or from the air during my sleep.
One of my friends at school is an expert on these sort of calculations for industrial clients.
He came round on Friday night and we discussed it through, but I don’t think I got more than a basic grasp.
The reason is that he works from charts, whereas all my working life, I’ve started with proven formulae and worked everything out from first principles. But then I trained as a Control Engineer.
A problem I had with the psychometric charts he uses, is that they are all in a measurement system, that is totally foreign to me – Imperial. This is because most of the publishers are across the pond and they still use units, I last used in my early teens. When I went to work at ICI in the late sixties, the company had metricated in 1955 or so.
At least after our meeting and discussion, I now know what I’m searching for.
I finally found this web page, which gives a table of saturated vapour density for water in air. Although, it’s an American web site, at least it gives this in gm/cu. m.
The web page gives the SVP in gm/cu. m. at various temperatures
- 0°C – 4.85
- 10°C – 9.4
- 15°C – 12.83
- 20°C – 17.3
- 25°C – 23
- 30°C – 30.4
- 37°C – 44
- 40°C – 51.1
As an illustration, suppose you have a temperature of 25°C and a relative humidity of 50%. I measure it on my Maplin meter.
Maplin Hygro-Thermometer
At that temperature a cubic metre of water can hold 23 grams of water. But as the relative humidity is 50%, it is actually only holding 11.5 grams of water. As my bedroom is about five metres square and two and a half metres high, that means the room contains over 719 grams of water.
Now look at 30°C and the same relative humidity of 50%.
The same calculation gives 950 grams of water in the room.
So if with the central heating, the electric blanket and the fact that each person probably is equivalent to a one bar electric fire, your bedroom, about the same size as mine, goes from say 25°C to 30°C, the air will need another 230 grams of water to be in equilibrium, or in layman’s terms, happy with how it relates to everything.
So from where does the air get this water it needs?
You!
No wonder a lot of people go to bed with a night bucket, so they can replenish the fluid they’ve lost to the air.
Crazy Hot Water Pipes
On the way back to Reykjavik, the road was lined with these large pipes for quite a way.
They carry the hot water that is used to heat the city from the various geothermal sources.
An Ideal Bottle Of Water
I like the standard British Rail bottle of Harrogate Spa water, as it fits my pocket and doesn’t have a silly cap.
An Ideal Bottle Of Water
But why is it, I find it difficult to buy something like this for use on my travels around London?
We’ve Now Got Some Information On The Sewer!
I went to the View Tube on Monday and saw this sign outside.
We’ve Now got Some Information On The Sewer!
It’s only one sign, but I suppose it’s a start.
But we need more boards like this on all big buildings, projects, stations and bridges to inspire the next generation.
Something New And Very Green In The Laundry
I’ve read about a company called Xeros in The Times today. Their washing machines use 80% less water, 50% less energy and 50% less detergent.
The technology has been spun (?) out of Leeds University and uses special beads to clean the washing. They’re also talking about a washing machine with no programmes ( i.e. a man button!)
They’re not available for domestic use! Yet!
But if all machines in the UK were this efficient, then the water saved would fill twenty million swimming pools!
A Strange Bottle Of Evian Water
I bought this bottle of Evian at Biarritz station.
Note that is says Live Young on one side and something in Dutch on the other.
Strange for a product made in France and sold on a French station.
No Small Waters In Italy
i drink a lot and usually carry a small bottle of water. In the UK, I often have one of the standard small 330 ml. bottles of Harrogate Spring Water, that seem to be ubiquitous on trains, in my pocket.
330 ml. bottle of Harrogate Spring Water
But in Italy finding small bottles of water was very difficult. Even half litres ones were difficult to find in some places.
Even those weight half a kilogram and unlike the small ones, they don’t fit in a pocket.
Liverpool’s Bucket Fountain
I mentioned this in the comments on an earlier post. So today, instead of going direct to my meeting at the Unversity, I took the Wirral line to James Street station to see the Bucket fountain.
It was actually working, although I have read that normally the water is turned off.
My Thames Water Bill
I had my Thames Water statement this morning. People complain about the cost of water and sewage, but I paid just £82.54 for 179 days.
That works out at 0.46 pence a day. And I thought the halfpenny wasn’t legal tender any more.
I actually used twenty one tonnes of water over that period or about 117 litres a day.
According to the Times today, the average Thames Water bill is £354 a year. I pay less than half that, which is to be expected, as my house is single occupied.
The Anonymous Widower 