By adding a small amount of iron (about 1 percent by volume), researchers at the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) enhanced the effective cooling capacity of the so-called “giant magnetocaloric effect” material by 15 to 30 percent. The achievement might move the promising technology closer to market, opening the way to substantial energy and cost savings for homes and businesses.
http://www.physorg.com/news230.html

Before you get your panties all into a twist,

1) The "working fluid" is gadolinium-germanium-silicon alloy.
Compare the price of gadolinium to that of CF2Cl2 (real price, not
politicized price).

2) Compare the enthalpies of phase transition - by mass or by
volume - freon vs. magnetics. Uncle Al will give you two little
hints: Enviro-whiner hydrochlorofluorocarbons vs. freons are losers.
Magnetics vs. freons are incredible losers.

3) Sweeping an intense magnetic field through a conductor starts
out as a losing proposition - Lenz' Law and eddy currents.

Einstein, et al. had a patent on an electromagnetic liquid metal
working fluid refrigerator. Even Einstein couldn't make it work
acceptably vs. ambient technology - and that was a couple of decades
before freons when leaking refrigerators were killing people with SO2,
NH3, ethylene... working fluids. Hydrochlorofluorocarbons are
intensely tumorigenic by inhalation according to PAFT studies,

American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning
Engineers joins with refrigerant manufacturers in eight other nations
to sponsor Programmes for Alternative Fluorocarbon Toxicity Testing
(PAFT). A PAFT runs two to six years costing $1-5 million. PAFT I
through PAFT V necessitated PAFT M. Every chronic test of R-123,
R-134a and R-141b elicited abundant tumors and "other effects" in
rodents [ASHRAE Journal 36(7) 17 (1994)]. By US government edict, all
new refrigeration and air conditioning installations must only use
R-123, R-134a or R-141b. The PAFT results are not Officially
significant.

Acrylamide - neurotoxic and cacinogenic for real - in fried food has
been declared Generally Recognized as Safe, in blatant disregard of
the Delany Amendment. A bunch of somebodies (fast food) quietly
slipped the FDA some serious folding green.

They are fucking with your head, plundering your wallet, and killing
you. Science no longer exists except as an adjunct to Sales and
Marketing.

Nice one al. Tell em as it is. sounds as if you are fed up with science hype too.

AR

Hey Guys:Here's a cool new fridge technology:

http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/tmsb/stirling.html

http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99996419

http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/tmsb/stirling/doc/adfreeze.html

regards,

Erich

mm magnetic fridge

you'd be able to stick one on anything metal