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IPFS News Link • Inventions

"Cold Tube" cooling system uses half the energy of an air conditioner

• https://newatlas.com, By Nick Lavars

A team of scientists has been developing an alternative solution for those warm summer months called the Cold Tube, which works by absorbing body heat emitted from a person and can use around half the energy of traditional systems as a result.

The notoriously bad energy efficiency of air conditioners has motivated the development a range of environmentally friendly solutions, from attachments that use water mist to pre-cool the units to solar-powered systems that produce hot water at the same time. In 2018, Richard Branson even launched a US$3 million competition aimed at developing more energy efficient air conditioners.

Similarly, the research team behind the Cold Tube has been investigating next-generation systems that keep people cool in more efficient ways. Made up of scientists from the University of British Columbia, Princeton University, the University of California, Berkeley and the Singapore-ETH Centre, the team took aim at the dehumidification process that is a critical function of today's air conditioning systems.

"Air conditioners work by cooling down and dehumidifying the air around us – an expensive and not particularly environmentally friendly proposition," explains project co-lead Adam Rysanek, from the University of British Columbia. "The Cold Tube works by absorbing the heat directly emitted by radiation from a person without having to cool the air passing over their skin. This achieves a significant amount of energy savings."

1 Comments in Response to

Comment by PureTrust
Entered on:

Big manufacturing that needs to have a vast quantity of cooling, does two more things besides A/C. 1 - They use evaporative cooling against the A/C radiators. 2 - They sometimes heat the A/C radiators so hot that they boil water, which they set the radiator coils within. --- Imagine blasting a mist of water against the heat radiators in your home A/C. --- Check here https://duckduckgo.com/?q=dual+AC%2Fevaporative+systems&ia=web and here https://www.evapoler.com/product-category/indirect-evaporative-air-cooling-two-stage-cooling/ : "According to the American Society of Heating and Engineers (ASHRAE), two-stage evaporative coolers use 60%-75% less electricity than conventional refrigerant-based AC systems."



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