Your future air conditioner might act like a battery
Your future air conditioner might act like a battery
New technologies store cooling power for when it’s needed most.
Cooling represents 20% of global electricity demand in buildings, a share that’s expected to rise as the planet warms and more of the world turns to cooling technology. During peak demand hours, air conditioners can account for over half the total demand on the grid in some parts of the world today.
New cooling technologies that incorporate energy storage could help by charging themselves when renewable electricity is available and demand is low, and still providing cooling services when the grid is stressed.
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Better be a sealed device. I ain't adding moisture to my air in a bad attempt to cool it.
While it uses water for cooling, it says nothing about adding moisture to the air. It does mention removing moisture from the air, though
Blue Frontier’s cooling units pass a stream of air over a thin layer of the desiccant, which pulls moisture out of the air. That dry air is then used in an evaporative cooling process (similar to the way sweat cools your skin).
The "used in an evaporative cooling process" is the part where it sounds like it adds moisture to the air. I think it happens outside, though. It sounds like their whole thing is to run moist outside air over the dessicant, then run that dry air over water that is on a heat exchanger. This would cool the heat exchanger that would be tied to ductwork or whatever to cool the house. Evaporative coolers already exist (both as in-house "swamp coolers" and external chillers usually used on bigger buildings). They don't work if the humidity is already high, though, so this system would enable them to function better in high humidity areas, and it could take advantage of only doing the energy intensive step of drying out the dessicant when there is surplus energy.
Sounds like they would do well in Arizona, where the air is dry. IIUC swamp coolers were very popular in Arizona until ~20 years ago when temps increased so much that swamp coolers could not make enough difference (this is largely because more and more land became concrete, which reduced the effect of evaporative cooling the land mass). So a/c became more popular in AZ IIUC. But the dry air would still be dry.
They still use the same principle a lot with those misters they put everywhere for like outdoor restaurant seating and whatnot. Humidifiers placed inline with your AC ducts will also boost the cooling performance of your system, too.
It should mention removing moisture. A standard air conditioner is moreso a giant dehumidifier then an air 'cooler'. Without seeing the actual design the first impression is some trays that hold water and freeze during nor.al operation. After electrical demand exceeds a set limit, or companies want to because they will most likely have the ability, they shut off the 'cooling' and just blow the room air across the frozen stuff giving the impression of cooling.
I'm hoping the frozen stuff is contained, but then you have the issue of expansion when it freezes. So who knows.
Adding more water in my already humid air... i'd need to grow gills.