From: spaceshipearth_at_mail.com
Date: 06/26/60
From: spaceshipearth_at_mail.com Message-ID: <EE19DFB4.3817E5F4@mail.com> Date: Sun, 26 Jun 1960 08:56:22 +0000 Subject: Re: cooling effect vs. "chilling machine" (was: heavy houses...)
Jay Baldwin's book, Bucky Works claims that the chilling dome
will work in humid or dry climates. Peter Misen of GENI said he
saw one in Africa that worked. I collected a number of messages
posted to JMRs DomeHome mailing list regarding this subject some
time ago, but that file may have been overwritten somehow. One of
the messages was from a student, I believe from Australia, that
said their engineering class was going to do an extensive
experiment on this matter. I never heard anymore about it. If
someone could dig up that message and contact that university, it
might give us an answer to these questions. I remain skeptical!
The Dymaxion World of Buckminster Fuller has a page with a
illustration and discussion of this matter. It was a structure
made from a metal grain bin and not a dome. It had been erected
on a center pole and was going to be lowered. It says that the
surface of the metal structure was hot to the touch but was cool
inside. The air flowed in from the top vent and down through the
opening in the bottom. The phenomena is also reported, with a
line drawing, in Critical Path. Very interesting if it works.
"J. Michael Rowland" wrote:
>
> > From the sketches I saw of the dome, and the air currents
> > as Bucky understood them, the intake was an opening at the
> > top, and there were a whole slew of openings around the
> > bottom. The overall heating on the outside of the dome
> > caused an updraft over the entire structure, causing a
> > drawing out of air through those windows at the bottom.
> > Since there were so many more of them, they causes a fair
> > bit of suction inward through the top opening, which was
> > proportionally smaller.
> >
> > I'm not sure, but that might be a Bernoulli effect...
>
> Okay, I admit I've never been in one, and will probably have to build one
> of my own in order to confirm anything experientially/experimentally, but
> I don't see how this could work as described.
>
> If there is an overall updraft over the surface of the dome, and there
> are openings at both top and bottom, and the net opening at the top is
> smaller than the net opening at the bottom, how does the updraft
> *selectively* draw air from the bottom, leaving the top free to draw air
> in, to be Bernoulli-ized? ...especially since there would be a slight
> difference in air pressure favoring the air near the bottom of the dome.
> Seems like air inside the dome would be heated, as well, and escape
> through the top opening, pulling air in through the bottom.
>
> Key phrase here is, of course, "seems like" ...since there *might* be
> some mitigating effect of the general updraft... and air coming in
> through the bottom vents might expand enough to having a cooling effect,
> anyway.
>
> I agree with Charles that there seems to be a general lack of correct
> information about this topic -- strange, since it would seem to have a
> lot of impact on energy-efficiency and comfort <--- something we're, at
> present, all too willing to pay extravagantly for, on credit, in the form
> of air conditioning. The current paradigm is "build a metal box and spend
> money every day to get rid of the extra energy falling on it."
>
> I've read what Bucky wrote about it, though I doubt that I've read
> *everything* he wrote about it -- and I don't recall ever hearing him use
> the term "chilling machine"; I'm sure list members will correct me with a
> vengeance :-) but I'm afraid this is one of those things that has grown
> in the telling. I recall reading his description of being under one of
> his metal domes that had not yet been placed on the ground, so there was
> free movement of air underneath it, and a hole left open at the top, and
> noticing that the air was markedly cooler inside the dome than outside,
> and ascribing this cooling effect to the movement and expansion of air...
> and further conjecturing how this effect might be maximized.
>
> I'd like to hear, first-hand, from some folks who have experienced this
> effect (and I look forward to Charles' reports, if and when he's able to
> do any experimentation).
>
> jmr