HEATING, VENTILATION & AIR CONDITIONING
Could cutting-edge HVAC systems be the secret to drastically reducing our energy consumption? Neil Wright, writer for ADK Kooling, a London-based HVAC company that specialises in repairs, installations and restorations, comments
COOL SOLUTIONS FOR ENERGY MANAGEMENT
New forms of air-conditioning are being developed
by researchers all over the world in order to reduce our energy consumption and carbon emissions
N
ew forms of air-conditioning are being developed by researchers all over the world
in order to reduce our energy consumption and carbon emissions. In fact a carbon-sensor system, which is being developed at Purdue University in Indiana, is a technology that the researchers believe may help manage climate control and indoor air quality in large buildings. The technology under development looks a lot
like sensor-based lighting. The HVAC units in an office building switch on when an employee walks into a room, and off as they leave. Except it isn’t based on motion sensors. Rather, it identifies the amount of carbon dioxide emitted into the air by each person on an individual level by detecting breathing inside a certain air area. Many people consider air conditioning to be a
human right, but there is no disputing that it is a significant source of energy consumption around the world. The plan is for this promising new technology to be used first in huge buildings, then in houses. The technology uses resonant and resistive
sensing, and it will be simply another component of the Internet of Things (IoT) building technology that is steadily being rolled out around the world. Furthermore, by foregoing cameras in favour of more sensitive carbon dioxide detectors, privacy problems should be minimised.
AIR CONDITIONING WITH ‘SMART WINDOWS’ Duke University in North Carolina, USA, is working on a new type of air conditioning that might lower energy consumption by as much as 20% if implemented nationwide. It contains a passive smart material that, with
the flip of a switch, changes between heating and cooling. According to the researchers, it’s a ‘smart window-like technology’ that can deliver both solar heating and radiative cooling.
www.energymanagementmag.co.uk It works like this: when the smart material is
heated, it darkens to absorb sunlight and block out mid-infrared radiation. In the cooling mode, the darkened window-like covering clears, revealing a mirror that reflects light and dissipates mid-infrared light from beneath the smart material. Despite the fact that this technology is
incredibly promising, it currently has a few technological restrictions. The prototype, for instance, could only perform a few hundred transitions from heating to cooling. There is also room for improvement in the solar reflectivity of the cooling mode. However, as technology advances, it may have
a broader range of applications. The ultimate goal is to have it installed on exterior walls and roofs to reduce energy usage throughout entire buildings. With technology serving as a form of envelope or facade for buildings, they can be passively heated and cooled. Furthermore, by allowing buildings to use renewable energy for heating and cooling, it may be possible to use fewer of the construction materials that have long been a major source of carbon emissions.
ORGANIC TECHNOLOGIES In a new study, Texas A&M University researchers are working on an organic compound called polyimides that uses less energy to dry air. These polyimide-based dehumidifiers are expected to eventually replace HVAC dehumidifiers, which extract moisture from the air and dry it to an acceptable level. Refrigerants are currently used in the most
readily available dehumidifiers. By cooling the air and limiting its water-carrying capacity, these chemicals dehumidify it. Refrigerants are a source of greenhouse gases, which are a considerable contributor to global warming despite their ubiquitous use.
Polyimides are noted for their stiffness, heat
resistance, and chemical resistance. A long chain of repeating, hydrophilic (meaning they absorb water) ring-shaped imide groups is the basic unit of these high-performance polymers at the molecular level. Despite the fact that polyimide membranes have
shown a lot of promise in terms of dehumidification, there is still a lot of work to be done. To improve the performance of this membrane, a lot more work is required. The technology is also still somewhat costly, but this is likely to change over time.
SKY COOLING The process of trapping thermal infrared radiation from an object as it cools on the Earth’s surface is known as radiant sky cooling. The temperature in the Earth’s atmosphere varies considerably from that on the ground. As a result, radiative sky cooling technology takes advantage of temperature differences in the sky. It converts part of the heat from the surrounding air that would otherwise rise into the sky into electricity. This almost fantastical-sounding technology operates without the use of electricity and has a lot of potential for cooling buildings, autos, solar cells, and even thermal power plants. It’s already been tried and tested, but has only
been used at night, thus far. However, recent advancements have allowed for the experimental observation of sub-ambient temperatures under direct sunshine. This technique may one day serve as the foundation for complementary solar energy technology. And while the power production will always be lower than solar devices, this new technology will be able to operate at times when solar cells are not.
ADK Kooling
https://adk.co.uk
ENERGY MANAGEMENT - Winter 2021 23
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36
