As someone who spent the past few hot nights hugging an ice pack, hearing about a giant leap in air conditioning technology is bittersweet. A new machine in development has the potential to use between 50 to 90 percent less electricity than the most advanced units out there, and do it without harmful refrigerants. Swoon.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory's prototype, called DEVap, incorporates several technologies: evaporative cooling, liquid desiccants and membranes. Evaporative cooling works the way sweat does and is the type of system in Denver-based Coolerado's uber-efficient AC units. But evaporative cooling doesn't work in particularly humid areas because it adds moisture to the air as it brings down the temperature.
DEVap addresses the humidity problem with water-sucking desiccants and membranes. Highly concentrated aqueous salt solutions draw water out of the air while thin hydrophobic membranes keep the solution and water away from the air stream. In other words, there's no blast of humid cold air. Within a fraction of a second the air is cooled and dried, according to NREL.
As Treehugger's Michael Graham Richard points out, the systems being used in DEVap aren't exactly new, but combining them successfully like this is. The thermally activated absorption cycle means the unit could be run on natural gas or even solar energy. Plus, the salt solutions mean there's no need for problematic ozone-depleting refrigerants. The lab has patented the technology and plans to license it to manufacturers once it can come up with a more compact version.
Last summer I went AC-free out of pure laziness, opting to leave my ancient and gravely window unit in a dusty box. This summer, it's logistics. In the process of moving it made sense to give the air conditioner away. Even though I'm typing this from the cool splendor of a local coffee shop, later I'll surely be seeing NREL's DEVap in my dreams. My feverish dreams.
Photo: A prototype of the DEVap AC unit. Credit: Pat Corkery/NREL.
Tags: Carbon Emissions, Cooling, Electricity, Energy Efficiency, Green Tech
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