The Solar-AC FAQ : Heat-driven cooling - absorption, desiccants, Vuilleumier :
What LiBr absorption chillers are available? (Yazaki)
The following is culled from the solar-ac archive.
From: Brent Bingham
Yazaki's require 180,000 Btu's of hot water per 10 ton unit. The Temperature range is 195 F to 210 F. They require a rejected heat capacity of about 400,000 Btu's at 85 to 95 F. We have several in use and have no problems. At 210 F we get about 14 tons of cooling. There are no moving parts. The pumps are external to the units. They seem to work well at 43 F.
Size is the big problem, which leads to the cost. So yes they are not cheep. They do run for a small fraction of the cost of conventional AC / Refrigeration. If you run a ground loop to dump the rejected heat you can cut the cost to buy and operate a water tower. Each unit capable of producing 14 tons cost us about $18,000. We had to add the cost of the solar collectors. Due to limited space we went with the tracking type. We se a waste oil fired boiler at night for backup when the tanks cool below 195 F. We got the equipment from A-1 Energy Inc., chillerinfo@37.com . We use the cooling for commercial uses but have a bunk house building and pool near one of the units that get to benefit from the system.
Yazaki stopped making the smaller (3 ton) units due to lack of demand. They told us if we ordered a load of them they would make them. If you look at a cut away view of them there is no way of building one. We got into them very deep prior to purchasing our first. They build them in clean rooms that would compare to biohazard rooms. The inside is coated with magnetite filled with LiBr, then a vacuum is pulled so they will boil at low temps. There are no moving or mechanical parts in the things. Three sets of pipes in and out, that's it ! Oh and a 40 watt heating element to get rid of hydrogen. There is nothing to wear out, break, or service. It is a big sealed tea pot. -- Brent Bingham
From: Stephen Gregg, 24 Apr 2002 Just a tidbit of info on the Yazaki LiBr chillers. I spoke with Trevor at Yazaki Energy Systems this morning and he said that Yazaki had produced chillers ranging in size from 1-5 tons up until the early 90's but discontinued production because of lack of demand. He is pressing the factory to resume production of a small unit (3-5ton) that would probably retail in the range of $8000. He said to check back in a year or so.... -- Stephen Gregg
