Content

• Programs
• President's Message
• Membership Promotion
• ASHRAE Winter Meeting "Word Bites"
• Mold Topic of Satellite Broadcast
• “Chillin”, Thermoacoustic Technology
• Ammonia as an Alternative Refrigerant
• Spacecoast Chapter of ASHRAE
• Business Card Ads (Sponsors)

Programs

Topic:  Keeping Orlando Cool

Presenter: Keith Rice, Director of Chilled Water Services - Orlando Utilities Commission

Date:              January 6, 2005

Our speaker for the January ASHRAE meeting will be OUC’s Keith Rice.  Mr. Rice’s presentation will take an in depth look at District Cooling in Orlando.  He will discuss the benefits and challenges of downtown construction.  Part of the presentation will focus on the unprecedented growth of district cooling in Orlando, where we are at, and where we are going. Thermal storage will be discussed as well as the design build method of construction.  Also covered will be the topic of alliances and their benefits along with networking in the City of Orlando.

Mr. Rice received his Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Vermont and an M.B.A. from the University of Central Florida.  He is a registered Professional Engineer in the state of Florida with over 29 years experience in the engineering profession.  He has 16 years of experience in program and project management and more than 8 years experience in the business development of district cooling systems.  He has managed or directed over $400 million in projects using Alternative Project Delivery methods including design-build, construction management at risk, construction management, and partnering.  Mr Rice is a member of the International District Energy Association (IDEA); Building Owners Management Association (BOMA) and the Board of Directors for Junior Achievement

Please register by Tuesday, January 4th , 2005.  Don’t miss out on this great event!

Last Month's Program:

Thanks to all of those who attended our meeting last Thursday.

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If you weren't able to make it to the meeting here is what you missed.
 

(This summary is intended to be a synopsis of what was presented and the author of the summary does not warrant and will not verify that the presented information is accurate).
 

By: Todd Moore, P.E.

President Elect & Programs Chair

President's Message

Your local ASHRAE chapter is a volunteer organization that requires the involvement and dedication of many volunteers.  This year has been a tough year for us in that many of the people that have been involved for many years have stepped down and in addition many people who have moved out of the area also.  We need additional people to help out with some of the committees.  If you are interested please contact me so that we can get you involved.  The rewards from volunteering far out weigh the time investment.  In addition, I wish to extend an appreciative thank you to all of our volunteers.  Click on the Officers link for a list of most of our volunteers.

Many of you remember when we had a paper copy of the Dewpoint, we had business cards on the last pages.  We are reviving this with business card ads on the web site.  Please follow the link to see the sponsors and contact me if you would like to have your business card displayed.  We are charging $100 for the remainder of the 2004 - 2005 year.

Damon Lynn

President

Membership Promotion

Dues

Please check the status of your ASHRAE dues and remit if due or overdue. You should be getting a call if you are on the list of non-paid dues members.

Forms and Information

If you need forms or information on member status, please contact me at bcarlock@bellsouth.net

Thank you for your help,

ASHRAE Winter Meeting “Word Bites”

Don’t miss the ASHRAE Dissemination Train!

I hope your having a spectacular week! What will make my week a spectacular one is if you will be sure that our promotion of the Winter Meeting gets into your respective news letters. In addition I hope of you in your Leadership position will help me promote this opportunity to get member of Region XII to start planning NOW to attend the Winter Meeting and Product Show, February 5-9th. You can register on line today at www.ASHRAE.org.

Estimated attendance is 45,000 movers and shakers in the HVAC industry. This will be Region XII's opportunity to shine be having a great turn out for the Technical Sessions and Product Show. Your Associates, Engineers, Designers, and Technicians need to plan on attend this event. You can drive up for the day for plan on attending the entire meeting. There will be over 1 million feet of product display! This is a great opportunity for your Associates to see the latest innovations in our industry and to talk to the product representatives plus attend some of the over 95 Technical sessions sponsored by ASHRAE.

Here's a little "insider" information. We have a great "behind the scenes" tour of Cape Kennedy scheduled! If you are interested in getting you or your Associates an opportunity for this up close and personal tour of our Space Program, register for the meeting this tour today, as we are limited to 80 spots on this event. Please read the security issues carefully when you register!

Your help is greatly appreciated in our efforts to turn out the Region XII membership attendance for this outstanding Industry event!

Kindest Regards,

William M. Dillard
General Chairman
ASHRAE Winter 2005 Meeting
Feb 5-9, 2005
Orlando Florida

“Chillin”, Thermoacoustic Technology

Sound is all around us.  It is virtually impossible to get away from it.  Whether it’s that annoying guy sitting the cubical next to you, talking to loudly on his phone or the birds singing outside your window early in the morning, sound is here to stay.  Today, scientists are taking advantage of sound to do more than just annoy or delight your ears; they are using it to transfer heat.

          Thermoacoustics is relatively young field that has many possibilities.  It is based on a law of nature that is now known as the ideal gas law: PV=nRT.  The law states that pressure and temperature have a relationship.  A sound wave is associated with changes in pressure, temperature and density of the medium through which the sound propagates.  In addition, the medium itself is moved around from an equilibrium position.  The fluctuations are so small in the sounds were hear day to day that they go unnoticed. 

          The sound waves that are common in thermoacoustics however are large in magnitude, resulting in noticeable fluctuations.  The temperature fluctuations can amount to tens of degrees in change, which is still too small to be of use.  This is why an acoustic wave is brought into interaction with a porous structure having a much higher heat capacity than the medium through which the sound wave propagates.  The porous structure acts as a kind of heat storage.

          Two distinctions are made within thermoacoustics.  This process either creates a thermoacoustic engine (prime mover) or a thermoacoustic heat-pump.  The engine relates to a temperature difference creating an acoustic wave.  The heat pump uses an acoustic wave to create a temperature difference.

          The thermoacoustic heat pump uses an ideal gas such as helium which is inert and does not deplete ozone or contribute to greenhouse gases like CFCs and HFCs do.  Heat is pumped from low temperature to high temperature through the helium.  For cooling, the porous heat storage unit removes the heat from the helium and rejects it from the conditioned space.  The process relies on the compression and expansion of the helium particles as well as the small displacement of those particles due to inertia.  The whole process acts like a bucket-brigade transferring heat across the helium to the high heat capacity storage.

          The uses for the technology include refrigeration, heating and power generation among others.  Researchers at Penn State University have already created chillers using this technology.  A compact acoustic chiller was developed to cool a standard Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream sales freezer, which was revealed on Earth Day in NYC.  Other Laboratories, such as Los Alamos National Laboratory, are using the technology to liquefy natural gas. 

Robert J. Egan

ASHRAE - Central Florida Chapter

CTTC Co-chair (technical)

Ammonia as an Alternative Refrigerant

PART 3 of a multi-part series on Ammonia Refrigeration:

Ammonia and a Combination of Thermodynamic Cycles

       Ammonia can be used in a very efficient way other than as alternative in chiller application.  It is with a combination of two classic thermodynamic cycles: the Rankine cycle and the absorption refrigeration cycle that this can be achieved.  Recalling the Rankine cycle; used in power plant design, utilizes heat to boil water creating pressurized steam, which then spins a turbine producing electricity.  The absorption refrigeration cycle using ammonia, chills an air or process stream by boiling and condensing the ammonia. 

     Ammonia’s thermo-chemical properties give a boiling point far lower than that of water under the same optimized pressure to spin the turbine (212 F rather than 400 F).  The next step is for the pressurized ammonia to spin the turbine to produce electricity.  Now, the key factor is that the turbine process extracts a huge amount of energy from the ammonia dropping its temperature below 32 F.  At that temp, the cold ammonia gas can be used to produce ice or aid in air conditioning.  The ammonia’s organic properties also eliminate the possibility of erosion on the turbine blades unlike when steam is used to drive the process.  

     ASHRAE member, Dr. Goswami has conducted experiments (residential scale) using solar collectors to add heat to water which then transfers the energy to the pressurized ammonia.  With this new design, about 20% to 30% more energy can be extracted from the power plant cycle. 

Greg Romanczyk

CTTC Co Chair

  Visit the Society web page at www.ashrae.org

Last modified: 08/17/08