HVAC
Could noVel HVAC systems be tHe key to mAssiVely Cutting down on our energy Consumption?
By Neil Wright for ADK Kooling, a London-based HVAC company
carbon emissions under control. one such promising technology, being
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developed in purdue university, indiana, is a carbon-sensor system - which the researchers believe will help to manage climate control and indoor air quality in huge buildings. the technology in development strongly
resembles the sensor-based lighting that most people working in large office buildings will already be familiar with. when an employee steps into a room in an office building, the HVAC units switch on. when they leave, they turn off. except that it is not motion-sensor based. rather, it detects the amount of carbon dioxide that is released into the air by each person, by the detection of breathing inside a certain air space on an individual level. Air conditioning is thought by many to be a
human right, but there is no escaping the fact that it is also a massive source of energy consumption all over the world. the idea is that this promising new technology will first be rolled out in large buildings, and then to eventually homes. the novel technology makes use of resonant
sensing and resistive sensing and will just be another component of internet of things (iot) building technology, which is slowly being rolled out worldwide. And by shunning cameras for more sensitive carbon dioxide detectors, there should be little in the way for privacy concerns too.
’SmArt-WiNDoW’ Air CoNDitioNiNg Another novel form of air conditioning in development is being worked on by duke university in north Carolina, the united states - which could potentially cut energy usage by as much as 20 per cent if rolled out across the country. it involves essentially a passive smart material
that switches between heating and cooling with the flip of a switch. the researchers have
esearchers all over the world are developing new forms of air-conditioning to reduce our energy usage and bring
described it as a “smart window-like technology” that can serve to provide both solar heating to radiative cooling. it works like this: the smart material darkens
in the heating mode to absorb sunlight and prevent mid-infrared light from escaping. the darkened window-like covering then clears in the cooling mode, showing a mirror that reflects sunlight and dissipates mid-infrared light from behind the smart material. Although this technology is extremely
promising, there are a few technological limitations at present. the prototype could only make a few hundred transitions from heating to cooling before it became inefficient. there is also opportunity for development in the cooling mode's solar reflectivity. However, as the technology develops, it may
have a wide range of uses. the eventual aim is to roll it out on exterior walls and roofs to minimise energy consumption throughout entire buildings. with the technology becoming a kind of envelope or façade for buildings to passively heat and cool them. As an added bonus, by giving buildings the potential to use renewable energy for heating and cooling, it may be possible to use fewer of the construction materials that have been a major source of carbon emissions for decades.
orgANiC teCHNoLogieS researchers from texas A&m university are working on an organic substance called polyimides that consumes less energy to dry air in a new study. it is the intention that these polyimide-based dehumidifiers will one day reduce and take over the role of HVAC dehumidifiers, which remove moisture from the air to a comfortable level of dryness. the most widely accessible dehumidifiers
currently use refrigerants. these chemicals dehumidify the air by chilling it and lowering its water-carrying capacity. despite their widespread use, refrigerants are a source of
24 noVember 2021 | FACtory&HAndlingsolutions
greenhouse gases, which are a major contributor to global warming. polyimides are well-known for their excellent
stiffness and heat and chemical resistance. At the molecular level, the basic unit of these high- performance polymers is a lengthy chain of repeating, hydrophilic (meaning they absorb water) ring-shaped imide groups. but despite the fact that polyimide membranes
have shown significant promise in their potential usage in dehumidification there is still work to be done. A lot more refinements are needed to increase the performance of this membrane. the technology is also still pretty expensive, but is expected to come down over the years.
rADiAtiVe SKy CooLiNg radiative sky cooling refers to the process of capturing thermal infrared radiation from an object as it cools on the surface of the earth. the temperature in the earth's atmosphere is not as consistent as it is on the ground. so radiative sky cooling technology takes advantage of the temperature variances. it traps some of the heat that would otherwise ascend into the sky from the surrounding air and transforms it into electricity. this almost fantastical sounding concept requires no electricity to operate and offers a lot of promise for cooling buildings, automobiles, solar cells, and even thermal power plants. it has already been tried and tested, but so far
has been limited to nighttime use only. but recently, developments have allowed some subambient temperatures under direct sunlight to be experimentally observed. this technology could even one day form the basis of a complementary technology to solar energy. while the power output will always be substantially lower than that of solar devices, this new technology will be able to operate at hours when solar cells cannot.
ADK Kooling
adk.co.uk
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