This sounds like they reinvented a swamp cooler. Am I missing something?
There is absolutely nothing resembling a swamp cooler going on here.
“Cold Tube” cooling system uses half the energy of an air conditioner
71–80 of 137 posts
Re: “Cold Tube” cooling system uses half the energy of an air conditioner
#72This sounds pretty neat, but their description of cold things sucking thermal radiation doesn't jive with my freshman-physics understanding of thermodynamics. AFAICT they've got cold water circulating in a moisture-repellent membrane, so they're able to absorb heat by chilling the water in the pipes instead of fussing with the humidity in the air like most AC does. So it sounds like trading inefficiency of standard A…
From a freshman physics point of view, “sucking” is also not a pull-from-low process but a push-from-high process. There is some nuance there but simply, a straw doesn’t work right in a vacuum.
Re: “Cold Tube” cooling system uses half the energy of an air conditioner
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
New buildings are rather efficient in US. The problem is old buildings that use 5X the energy for HVAC. I echo that AC is quite efficient. Far more efficient than traditional heating. There's a misconception that hot areas are less environmentally friendly due to AC. The opposite is true. Hot areas are only 25 freedom units hotter than humans prefer. Cold areas have months of 50+ temperature difference. The misconcep…
It is amazing how tight we can make buildings today. I had to learn a lot about HVAC on a remodeling job a few years ago. I had no idea that the drywall can be sealed so tight that when the HVAC system is running it can be next to impossible to open a door without a pressure release duct. Also saw how the HVAC system had vents to bring in air from outside with baffles controlled by the system. Can't remember exact pu…
> Also saw how the HVAC system had vents to bring in air from outside with baffles controlled by the system. Can't remember exact purpose something about helping help control humidity as well as regulation to bring in "fresh" air to mix with the "stale" air in the building.
One reason is efficiency. In the Bay Area, it's common when the daytime high temperature is 80–90˚F for the nighttime low to be 50–60˚F. You can set your thermostat to 76˚F until sunset, then bring in outside air to cool down to 68˚F or below by sunrise. You get cool air when you're trying to sleep and avoid running the AC in the night or morning.
I'm getting my furnace & AC replaced today and was sad to learn I couldn't get one of these. The fresh air intake has to be at least 10' from the furnace flue vent, and that isn't practical with my home's design.
Re: “Cold Tube” cooling system uses half the energy of an air conditioner
#74This is pretty neat. It lets you (somewhat) decouple the temperature and humidity of the air from how cool it feels to be in the room, by only removing radiative heat coming from inside the room. You could choose to exchange air with the outside more rapidly without losing efficiency because you aren't putting as much energy into conditioning the air itself. I wonder if there are any infrared-transparent wall paints.
Re: “Cold Tube” cooling system uses half the energy of an air conditioner
#75I saw a very promising AC technology at CES in january that people may find interesting: https://www.oxicool.com/
I don't have the material science or chemistry background to know how effective it is, but I hope everything they claim holds water, it sounds pretty good.
There's also a DIY water based AC with pipes and a cheap pump you can find widely on the internet, but I haven't done it yet. Here's an example https://www.instructables.com/id/Hollis-homemade-AC/ ... In the comments one poster suggested a toilet tank as a reservoir, that sounds promising.
Re: “Cold Tube” cooling system uses half the energy of an air conditioner
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is amazing how tight we can make buildings today. I had to learn a lot about HVAC on a remodeling job a few years ago. I had no idea that the drywall can be sealed so tight that when the HVAC system is running it can be next to impossible to open a door without a pressure release duct. Also saw how the HVAC system had vents to bring in air from outside with baffles controlled by the system. Can't remember exact pu…
> Also saw how the HVAC system had vents to bring in air from outside with baffles controlled by the system. Can't remember exact purpose something about helping help control humidity as well as regulation to bring in "fresh" air to mix with the "stale" air in the building. One reason is efficiency. In the Bay Area, it's common when the daytime high temperature is 80–90˚F for the nighttime low to be 50–60˚F. You can…
Can’t you run a pipe outside to extend the distance of your cold air intake?
Re: “Cold Tube” cooling system uses half the energy of an air conditioner
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Also saw how the HVAC system had vents to bring in air from outside with baffles controlled by the system. Can't remember exact purpose something about helping help control humidity as well as regulation to bring in "fresh" air to mix with the "stale" air in the building. One reason is efficiency. In the Bay Area, it's common when the daytime high temperature is 80–90˚F for the nighttime low to be 50–60˚F. You can…
Can’t you run a pipe outside to extend the distance of your cold air intake?
The HVAC folks didn't seem to think that would be possible/practical. I don't know exactly why. It'd have to run along the top of the roof because I don't have an attic.
Re: “Cold Tube” cooling system uses half the energy of an air conditioner
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
What is false?
The total efficiency of an air conditioner will never be more than 100% based on design; you will never be able to remove more heat than what the system produces in net cooling effect based off of the energy consumption created from compression - this is what would lead you to the eventual path of the theory of the heat death of the universe. You may be able to remove heat from one place to another but never more tha…
I think you’re misunderstanding the terminology. In a heat engine, efficiency is the ratio of how much heat you can move per unit of energy you put in. An air conditioner can usually move substantially more than 1 joule of heat energy from one place to the other for each joule of energy put into the compressor.
Yes, the hot side will spit out all of the heat extracted from inside, plus the energy from the compressor operation, so indeed energy is conserved.
Re: “Cold Tube” cooling system uses half the energy of an air conditioner
#79This sounds pretty neat, but their description of cold things sucking thermal radiation doesn't jive with my freshman-physics understanding of thermodynamics. AFAICT they've got cold water circulating in a moisture-repellent membrane, so they're able to absorb heat by chilling the water in the pipes instead of fussing with the humidity in the air like most AC does. So it sounds like trading inefficiency of standard A…
> fussing with the humidity in the air like most AC does
Humidity will have to be dealt with no matter what, either by the AC system, or though condensation, as cold air holds less water vapour as warm air.
Re: “Cold Tube” cooling system uses half the energy of an air conditioner
#80I wonder how costly it is to fill your walls entirely with water pipes. Also, one currently ensures there is a stud or lack of electrical when putting nails in a wall. I guess you gotta hang things up differently.
> I wonder how costly it is to fill your walls entirely with water pipes.
Pretty costly in water damages for sure, people tends to drive nails in pipes all the time already, just imagine this * 100x.