Quote:
Originally Posted by NoD~
I realize that the system wouldn't keep it that cool for too long.
|
Hi NoD,
An average car A/C provides about 50,000 BTU/H of cooling with an added engine load of about 6 HP. A ton of ice has the cooling power equivalent to 12,000 BTU/H over 24 hours. So to have the same cooling as an average A/C means melting ice at the rate of 1 ton every 6 hours. If you don't need the A/C on full blast, and as you say, your trips are short, maybe you can figure on an hour at 24,000 BTU/H. So you'd need to load up with 166 lbs of ice. In your car an extra 166 lbs might increase fuel consumption by 1 mpg. That's a block of about 3 cu. ft. of ice, which doesn't sound like much space to me. The local liquor store sells crushed ice: 10 lb bags for about a buck each, and 2 bags are a little less than 1 cu. ft.
If you have a lot of free ice, and space to carry it, this should work fine.
-mort