Posted on 12/16/2001 2:16:12 PM PST by John Jamieson
In Oklahoma summer without air conditioning would be miserable for most. But that cool, comfortable air also blows in higher utility and maintenance bills that may make a home-owner hot even in the cool.
John Kidwell believes that his invention -- the Kelix -- is the cold blowing, energy-efficient answer to those problems. He has developed an air conditioning unit that works without a compressor. By doing so he has basically eliminated 90 percent of the working parts in an air conditioning unit and potentially cut cooling costs in half, he says. While his prototype looks a little rough, it does exactly what it was built to do. It proves that refrigeration can be achieved without the use of a compressor.
Now how do you remove 90 percent of a machine and still achieve the desired function? Kidwell has built the Kelix to use a centrifugal heat transfer engine. It has heating and cooling modes of reversible operation, in which heat can be effectively transferred within diverse user environments for cooling, heating and dehumidification applications. The design consists of a dumbbell shaped coil with one side acting as an evaporator and the other as a condenser. The coil spins to create the centrifugal force for refrigerant metering as it passes from the condenser section, through a throttling device and into the evaporator section. The coil is driven by a small electric motor. Usually, this movement of refrigerant is created by a compressor.
Heat is removed from the refrigerant as it spins through the condenser section. The fluid refrigerant enters the evaporator section coils and is then recycled back through a return shaft and the refrigeration process is completed. To understand the physics behind his invention, Kidwell has an analogy. A bucket of water held by the handle and swung upside down will not spill. However, if a hose is stuck in the bucket and ran over the shoulder of the person swinging the bucket, the water will be pumped out of the bucket through the hose. Kidwell said that same concept is used to pump refrigerant through the metering device.
Kidwell has been working on the idea behind the Kelix since 1972, but it is still in the early stages of development. He has put together 25 investors in the project and secured a method patent and an applications patent that protect his idea. Kidwell and his investors feel it will have an industry changing impact.
Lane Lawless was introduced to the Kelix in 1999 and now is the second biggest shareholder in the venture behind Kidwell. He has been trying to help Kidwell get his idea off the drawing board, out of his garage laboratory and into production. "The first time John explained his idea and I saw it actually work, a light went off for me," Lawless said. "I went home and thought about it, and I couldn't sleep that night. I knew he had something."
Lawless describes Kidwell as the potential equivalent to the Wright brothers, only in the refrigeration field. "Over the past century many improvements have been made on airframes and power plants," Lawless said. "The most important was when the Wright brothers proved that man was capable of powered flight. That is what John has done with cooling."
The Wright brothers first flight was not to the moon, and in the same sense the Kelix is not ready to cool a mansion. Lawless said the product needs research and development to produce what it is capable of doing. "Our goal is to continue our development and then find the fastest channel to market that we can," Lawless said. "The only way we can fail is if we stopped development. The idea is already proven."
Now if the idea is so great, why has it not been implemented already? Kidwell said it has been a personal project and that he has kept the idea relatively secret for years. "No one has ever had this idea before," Kidwell said. "No one knows about it and that's why it has not taken off."
Kidwell literally wrote the book on centrifugal heat transfer. In order to explain the system in the patent he had to create all the language involved with process and arrange it in a textbook format. Developing the terminology and producing the book took him five years. Finding investors and money for development and patent fees may not be the only thing holding the company back. Kidwell's idea challenges the existing application used by the multi-[ 4] billion dollar heating and air industry.
Patent attorney Thomas Perkowski has been guiding the Kelix through the rigorous process of obtaining a patent. "It's really a pioneering invention," Perkowski said. "But inventions are generally the enemy of ideas in production. It might be received hostilely by industry leaders." John Boyce, president of Airco Service, a heating and air company in Tulsa, said a heating and air unit without a compressor is an interesting idea that would require considerable proof before the industry made a switch.
"The compressor is pretty much the heart and soul of the air conditioner," Boyce said. Older units experience a lot of compressor problems, said Leigh Anne Bell of ABC Air Conditioning Co. "When the compressor goes out it would just be better to replace the whole unit," Bell said. She said the price to replace a compressor in a five-ton unit would be around $1,000. A brand new unit would cost around $1,400.
Lawless said the Kelix would be proportionately smaller in size and weight and considerably less in price. He also said it would be easier to fix, because it has far fewer parts. "If you could fix a compressor system now, you could fix a Kelix in your sleep," Lawless said. He said the average homeowner could do most of the repair work with an instruction manual and that the only working part that could eventually fail would be the electric motor. "We could theoretically offer a lifetime warranty," Kidwell said. Kidwell's conviction in his invention stems from a lifetime of related work. He maintained jet engines in the Air Force and from there he went to Oklahoma State University's school for refrigeration. Those two backgrounds started the thinking process for the Kelix.
"I just had a simple idea about overcoming the use of a compressor," Kidwell said. "It started with the bucket test and it was trial and error from there." "Kidwell is a very hands-on guy," Perkowski said. "He's not a Ph.D., but he has an intuitive understanding for the otherwise mysterious process of refrigeration."
Since the generator is powered from a constant energy source in the form of gravity and permanent magnets it should run nonstop for a very long period of time. The estimated life expectancy of the unit is over a hundred years.
.....new?.....
Time will tell if it is practical, at least it doesn't overturn any physics laws.
Without giving it much thought, I believe it will certainly work. The real question is what are the ton's / HP. I see nothing to indicate that this device would make any signifcant improvements in that area. Although the elimination of a conventional compressor is a majors plus.
Ya got your vane types, your scroll types, and your screw types (helical).
/john
This is the sentence I knew I'd find. The old "there is a conspiracy against us excuse." It has scam written all over it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.