Chena Absorption Chiller

The Chena Hot Springs Aurora Ice Museum uses a unique, energy efficient absorption chiller built by Energy Concepts of Annapolis Maryland to keep the Ice Museum 'on ice' year-round.  The chiller uses hot water at 165°F from one of our geothermal wells in an absorption refrigeration system similar to one used in a propane refrigerator for an RV.  The absorption chiller pumps heat from the ice museum by taking advantage of the low boiling point of ammonia (used as the refrigerant) and the latent heat of evaporation.  When high pressure ammonia liquid is expanded into a vapor as part of the refrigeration cycle, a lot of energy (called the latent heat of evaporation) is needed.  This energy is 'pulled' from the ice museum via a circulating salt brine. 

An everyday example of how evaporation causes cooling is how you get chilled, even in warm weather, when your skin is wet after getting out of a swimming pool without drying off.  As the water evaporates off your body, it 'pulls' heat (equivalent to the latent heat of evaporation of water) from your skin, making you cold.    

Without the Energy Concepts Absorption chiller, Chena Hot Springs would need to run our backup 200 ton Trane vapor compressor chiller, which requires 125kW (1/3 of our total on-site power needs) to operate.  The cost in fuel alone to run this unit is $500/day!  In contrast, the absorption chiller uses about 12kW to operate. 

Click here to download a PDF(112kb) of the poster below describing how the absorption chiller works.

For more information on absorption chilling from Energy Concepts, click here

To learn more about the Aurora Ice Museum, click here.

To download a FACTSHEET on the Ice Museum and Absorption Chiller, click here