On Wed, Jun 14, 2017 at 12:08:02AM -0400, Richard Aiken wrote:
> What concerns me is that even if I can figure out a good design, the
> original patented design is supposed to "yield only 5% efficiency."
> Is that too low to be functional? How does it compare to a standard
> refrigerator [or air-conditioning system]?

It's possibly not too low to be functional, but is far too low to be
competitive.  Standard efficiencies of air conditioning are more on
the order of 300%: each watt of electrical power moves about 3 watts
of heat out from the building to the environment.

Refrigerators based on principles similar to Szilard & Einstein's
patent are really only useful in extremely restrictive circumstances.
For example, where the volume being cooled is extremely well
insulated, probably small, electricity is extremely hard to provide on
an ongoing basis, and probably other factors makes more conventional
compressor-based refrigerator untenable.

- Tim