this invention describes a new geometry for a heat driven thermoacoustic me mover and its application to a thermoacoustic refrigerator and to an electricity generator . the heat driven acoustic refrigerator has no moving parts , and is thus extremely reliable , simple , and cheap to manufacture . unlike previous heat driven acoustic cooling engines , it has good efficiency and compactness and is easy to start , avoiding destructively high temperatures upon start - up . the cooling engine is saleable over an extremely wide range of cooling capacities from integrated circuit and sensor cooling to building air - conditioning . the electricity generating engine has modest efficiency , but may be attractive in remote applications where high - reliability or low cost or low environmental noise or solar powering is important . the generator is likely to be most attractive in capacities of a few kw to below 100 w where a tiny engine would be impractical using other technologies .