New Products and Technology Used in Residential Cooling Systems
Professor Bertwin K. Lord, PhD, PE, PMP
Abstract
In the Air Conditioning industry
there is a lot of New Products and Technology that are changing the way we use
air conditioning, how the cooling effects are produced, and how we adapt to
make the most use while conserving the most energy. In this paper I will be
giving you an: Overview of Selected Technology; Impact of Selected Technology;
Various Perspectives and Opinions; and Trends.
Overview of Selected Technology
Technology Selected Including What it Does and How it Works and Origins of
Technology
Residential cooling systems are
the devices used to remove heat from a residential dwelling. Yet this really only gets to talk about a
small part of what this is. Removing
heat is one part, but also limiting the amount of heat accumulation will also
help to minimize the heat load inside a house.
There have been more changes in
Air Conditioning Technology in the past 5 years then there have been in the
previous fifty. The origin of air
conditioning was to remove moisture from a room so that a printing press could
print on dry paper and the ink would set better. This adaptation was invented by Mr. Carrier
and the company that carries his name still continues to make air conditioning
equipment to this day.
The changes in air conditioning
come from advancing technology in inverter technology for compressors and fan
motors, advances in refrigerant chemistry, and the introduction of secondary
systems and products to increase efficiency in the air conditioning systems.
Joplin’s Air Conditioning listed
11 innovations that will change HVAC forever in a March 26th, 2016
article on their company website.
- Movement-Activated Air Conditioning,
- Thermally Driven Air Conditioning,
- On-Demand Hot Water Recirculator,
- Ice-Powered Air Conditioning,
- Sensor-Enhanced Ventilation,
- Dual-Fire Heat Pumps,
- Geothermal Heat Pumps,
- Smart Homes,
- Fully Automated Homes,
- 3-D Printed Air Conditioners, and
- Harnessing Heat from a Computer.
Much that is changing in the air
conditioning industry is tracked by ACHR News and is published on their
webpage. In 2019 Maria Taylor wrote at article about the new technologies that
could change the future of HVACR.
- The Crytocooler,
- The Solar Thermal Collector,
- The SKYCOOL system blasts heat into space,
- ‘Smart Muscle’ released and absorbs heat, and
- Responding window panel all as new technology that will change the future of HVACR.
One of the most interesting
technologies that I am following will be with Elon Musk’s Tesla Smart Home
HVAC. Larry Anderson recently wrote an article on the many times Elon Musk has
mentioned the Smart Home HVAC in his recent article in HVAC Informed.
Impact of Selected Technology
Indirect or Direct Environmental Issues
How much does running your AC
impact the environment? That is a question asked by many more now that the
temperatures are getting hotter and more and more people turn to AC systems in
their homes, businesses, and basically everywhere.
The first thing people point to
with air conditioners is the hydrofluorocarbons (HFC) in refrigerant. Even
though HFCs make up a small part of total greenhouse gases, they trap
significantly more heat as CO2 or other greenhouse gases. Yet – HFCs are not
realized while operating your AC. They
are only released when you improperly dispose of your old AC units. This is why you should always hire a licensed
HVACR professional to remove your AC and make sure they use proper recycling
procedures.
Even with HFCs not causing that
much of a problem, running your AC creates other issues. In 2011, Air
Conditioning was in nearly 100 million homes across America
A quick survey of Google Scholar
looking for environmental impact studies of air conditioning shows that little
research is still going into the impact of refrigerant on the environment and
more research is going into either supplementing the electrical demand with
solar photo voltaic, reducing energy consumption, or introducing
supplemental/secondary systems that use waste energy from one device as the
harvest energy in a secondary device. This change in focus of research shows
that the largest environmental impact concern for air conditioning is how much
electricity it consumes.
Research posted by RECS
Positive of Negative Economic Effects
With the study completely by RECS
in 2011 they found that only 6% of the energy consumed in a home was for
AC. This study was done in the USA and
also was done across a wide divide. In
July of 2018 the EIA conducted another study to find that 12% of US home energy
expenses was for air conditioning. This number went to 27% for hot-humid
climates in the south east of the USA and down to 2% for the pacific north
west.
I know that here in Hawaii I
personally have AC being around 40% of my household electrical usage, as I have
a solar and gas water heater. I have solar panels on my house that take up the
full amount of electricity I use and this reduces my bill from what we estimate
would be around $700 per month to $18 per month. We pay $18 as that is the base
rate to be connected to the utility system.
The integration between air
conditioning systems and solar photovoltaic (PV) systems has led to a reduction
in the energy required to be produced by greenhouse gas producing sources. A study in Brazil
In the USA we have tax breaks
from the Federal Government and most State governments to incentivize the home
owner to install PV panels to counter the added electrical demand from AC.
Sunrun has a great site to explain the economic incentives to adding solar
panels to your electrical grid to counteract the electrical demand of AC.
Solar PV is a good way to reduce
economic impact by finding an alternative way to produce the energy in the long
run. With an ROI of 6 years, this is an
attractive option as the solar PV panels often have a lifespan of 20+
years. However Solar Thermal is a way to
reduce the overall electrical demand of the air conditioning systems in the
first place. In 2014, Ali Al-Alilia, Yunho
Hwang, and Reinhard Radermacher provided
a review of solar thermal and solar absorption cycles with regard to air
conditioning.
Personally I have conducted
research on the solar thermal panel that is tied directly into the refrigerant system
on residential systems with an inverter style compressor. When we compared
systems side by side that were the exact same size with the same heat load, we
determined that the wattage draw for the system hooked into a solar thermal
panel to assist the compressor with operation would consume up to 90% less
energy then the standard system.
The economic impacts are not just
from paying for the AC or finding new equipment to make how much you pay less,
but also how much work is going to be completed when people feel hot because
they cannot afford air conditioning in the work place. In Malaysia they have
conducted estimates into the economic losses from perceived heat stress.
Various Perspectives and Opinions
Political Implications and Influences
Very few things have ranked as
high as refrigerants on the global political spectrum. The world may argue about what type of
economy is best and who should be spending what on weapons, and any number of
disagreements, but the one thing they can all agree to do is condemn
refrigerant.
During the 1970’s and 80’s, the
world was awakened to the impact ozone depleting substances (ODS) were having
on the ozone layer. The Vienna
Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer, in 1985, formalized
international cooperation with the specific goal of finding way to protect the
ozone layer.
The Vienna Convention for the
Protection of the Ozone Layer led to the Montreal Protocol on Substances That
Deplete the Ozone Layer, in 1987, that finalized as an agreement to protect the
stratospheric ozone layer by phasing out the production and consumption of
ozone-depleting substances (ODS). The United States ratified the Montreal
Protocol in 1988 and has joined 4 subsequent amendments.
On October 15th, 2016
parties to the Montreal Protocol adopted the Kigali amendment to phase down
production and consumption of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) worldwide. HFCs are
widely used alternatives to ozone depleting substances such as
hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), already
controlled under the Protocol.
The Montreal Protocol is signed
by 197 countries and is considered the first treaty in the history of the
United States to achieve universal ratification. This is considered by many to
be the most successful environmental global action. And it is all to do with
refrigerant. That means refrigerant has led to a more universal solidarity then
anything else.
Now, it is easy to make a poor
country sign a protocol but not so easy to force them to meet the commitments,
unless there is a financial incentive.
To answer that concern, in 1991, The Multilateral Fund was established
to assist developing nations meet Montreal Protocol commitments. The Fund has
approved activities including: 1) industrial conversion; 2) technical
assistance; 3) training; and 4) capacity building. The fund has spent over 3.0
billion US Dollars.
Of course, just passing some
protocols and bringing funding in is not enough. There also needs to be a symbolic gesture. In
1995, the United Nations named September 16th the International Day
for the Protection of the Ozone Layer, also known as World Ozone Day.
With all these agreements being
signed, there was a commitment to do something about refrigerants being
released or finding alternatives to refrigerants. There needs to be specific studies on what to
do and improvements that can be done.
In 1997 James R. Sand, Steven K.
Fischer, and Van D. Baxter of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge,
Tennessee through funding by the Alternative Fluorocarbons Environmental
Acceptability Study (AEFAS) of the United States Department of Energy completed
a study entitled Energy and Global Warming Impacts of HFC Refrigerants and
Emerging Technologies.
I mention this report because it
is largely ignored. No report has been
conducted since this report on the impact of refrigerants as ozone depleting
sources (ODS). In fact, funding for similar research has not been pushed from
in most industries and the EPA specifically has decreased its enforcement of
many of the protocols that were put in place on those who work with
refrigerants. Funding for the
enforcement arm that used to come to HVACR company’s shops and quiz them or
make sure they were following protocol has essentially been gutted. The
recovery companies that were supposed to be within easy access to every company
to ensure that the companies would bring in their refrigerant for recovery and
recycling have essentially been shuttered with some locations not having a
recycling center for hundreds of miles.
Public Opinion on Technology Such as the Media, Consumers, and Community
Specifically speaking about
refrigerant, the latest kerfuffle with the media, consumers, and the community
would be the increasing cost of R-22 refrigerant. Chlorodifluoromethane CHCIF 2 … R-22 …
HCFC-22 is being phased out. The EPA has stated that in 2020 R-22 will not be
allowed to be made anymore. This means
that the price of R-22 has started to increase.
No more equipment is being made to take R22 and the transition has been
made over to R-410a with equipment manufacturers, so it is also decreasing in
demand as the supply is going down. This
has led to a slower raise in prices then was anticipated, but some are feeling
the price difference already. As our customers old R-22 units breakdown or
spring a leak, they cost of replacement refrigerant is getting so high that the
decision is often made to buy a new unit with the new refrigerant to help
eliminate these costs and future expected costs too.
When you do a search on the
internet for public opinion with regards to HVACR and emerging technology, there
is not a lot of discussion. Some
websites talk about TESLA getting involved in the HVACR business and there is
excitement building around that. In the
USA there is a lot of talk now about heat pumps (mini splits) and what type of
energy savings are involved and concern about the cost with replacing their
unitary central air systems.
In this desire to find the next
new thing that can provide cooling at a cheaper rate, there are many old
technologies being dusted off and given a shiny new coat and some modern
electronic accouterments.
The “new” rage is using a swamp
cooler with a thermoelectric cooler.
This is taking an old technology and a new one and combining them.
One of the oldest air
conditioning technology in the entire world has been to bring water into your
courtyard or capture water in terracotta tubes or jars and use it to control
the temperature inside the house.
Blowing air across these cooled surfaces has been used for hundreds, if
not thousands of years.
Thermoelectric cooling relies on
the Peltier effect, named for the 19th century scientist who discovered it.
When an electric charge is sent through two joined pieces of metal it creates a
heat flux, and heat is transferred from one side of the device to the other.
One side gets hot and the other side gets cold. The core cooling device (called
a heat pump) is small, not much more than an inch square, with semiconductor
wires embedded between the two ceramic plates.
Right now, the public is being
bombarded with ads for these new technologies.
I have heard radio shows talking about these new AC units. I have seen
this being discussed on TV. At my AC
company in Hawaii, I have had people call me and ask my opinion on if these
will work or if they could send these with their kids to college and keep them
cool. I have even been asked to come on
a local internet show on technology to give an expert opinion on these devices. It seems the public is taking interest.
As the world gets hotter, and
let’s face is, as Americans get fatter and can no longer handle the heat, we
are looking more to air conditioning to keep things cool. Living in Hawaii there were many communities
built in the 60’s and 70’s that did not incorporate air conditioning into their
buildings. Back then it was viewed as a
luxury that was not required here in Hawaii.
Flash forward to today and many of the communities who actually had
ordinances forbidding air conditioning, are changing these rules and asking me
to come in and give them quotes on how they can get air conditioning to all of
their tenants.
Hawaii also has some of the most
expensive electricity in the United States.
At $0.36/kWh we in Hawaii pay two to three times more then our mainland
fellow citizens to power … well … anything. For this reason, there is a lot of
public opinion about that. Solar Air
Conditioners are constantly being brought up and the public is looking for an
answer to have air conditioning without having to pay a lot for it. To answer
their desire several companies have put together a package that includes heat
pump styled air conditioners coupled with solar PV panels and even batteries to
make the air conditioning system completely a grid disconnected system.
The single greatest thing right
now that could help air conditioning be more efficient, more environmentally
friendly, and more user friendly is the smart controls that enable a homeowner
to control their air-conditioning from anywhere in the world. Most of the
innovations you find online really are smart control innovations. Units like the NEST are smart controllers
connected to dumb thermostats but still add a level of sophistication. New AC
controls built into the control boards of the AC systems themselves and more
efficient motors make the new controllers able to run the air conditioner at
its most efficient through a series of smart controls. This is a smart controller and smart
thermostat.
Trends
Future Direction and Roadmap of Technology
The future of technology as a
whole and this applies to residential cooling systems, is sustainability.
Samantha Lile has an amazing article in Motili that essentially gives my point
of view on much of this.
A heat pump system with a variable speed
compressor and controls that monitor the inside temperatures and outside
temperatures and humidity in each room and modulates the air handler in each
room to make sure the most efficient makeup for the air conditioner is
maintained is available most everywhere and can be installed. This is much more
efficient then the single stage unitary systems that cool the entire house even
if only one room needs it.
Controls in each room can also
detect if there are people in the room or have timer settings for each room and
not just the main systems. The technology
that goes into regulating the compressor on the outside unit will almost keep
the system running at minimal energy just to keep the house dry. If you live in
a place with fluctuating energy costs, you can even set your AC to run at max
capacity during the times you have the cheapest power and cool down the house
and then run at lowest capacity when the electricity costs the most.
Combining your Air Conditioner
with other systems in your house is also a way to make the entire house more
efficient. Each system you have will
have waste energy, and this energy can be harnessed into another system instead
of just letting that energy go to waste.
In a residential setting, the easiest system to hook into your AC is the
hot water heater. Most systems will enable you to hook up a desuperheater.
Solar Thermal panels that tie
into the refrigerant system and do some of the work of the systems compressor
is also another technology that increases the efficiency of your AC and allows
you to keep your house much cooler during the day as you remove the heat added
by the sun during the day.
Geothermal is another technology
that is revolutionary.
If we want to talk about energy
efficiency – we can talk about new mechanical systems and automation controls
but if we do not address insulation, then we are not doing anyone any
justice. Heat moves… not cold. So – how do we control where heat goes and
where it does not? In Hawaii we are
always looking to eliminate heat gain. The sun is our major source of heat gain
for residential dwellings. Many of the
old homes here were not built with insulation in the walls or in the
ceilings. One trend that I have seen
gaining traction here in Hawaii is insulating attics, walls, crawl spaces, and
anywhere the sun can heat up a space and have that heat gain add to what needs
to be removed from a house by an AC system.
New and improved windows are another trend with triple paned windows
with inert gas inserts and various shading injected into the windows also aids
in limiting heat gain.
When I give examples, I speak
mostly to air conditioning, because there is not a lot of call of heating in
Hawaii. Yet there are some new
technologies that work for heating as well.
Duel fuels is one of the interest advancements where the furnace would
be able to use multiple fuel types for a heat source and allow the homeowner to
use whichever fuel is cheaper.
These are all innovations and
technologies that make air conditioning for efficient but when I started this,
I used the word sustainable. It is true
that efficiency is part of sustainability as it reduced the amount of energy
required to keep a building cool.
However, the second part, and to me the most important part, of
sustainability is the longevity of a unit.
It used to be that we made things to last. I have replaced furnaces in houses where the
furnace was installed when the home was built in the 1920’s. I was replacing these units in the 1990s.
Seventy years is a good lifespan but even that could have been extended. When we make something new, we must use materials. These materials must come from somewhere. We
can either mine these materials raw from the Earth or we can use existing
materials that have been used for other products but have been recycled into a
new reusable material. In my mind, the
future of all technology is going to be finding a way to use recycled materials
to make new products and make these products to last for as long as possible
without always having to keep replacing them and possibly using up all of our
resources of raw materials.
Gaps in the Current Application of the new Technology, or Opportunities to
Drive Towards New Market
Now – when we talk about
improvements in efficiencies, we are talking about reduced cost of operation
but there is always that initial cost hurdle … and that hurdle is often quite
the leap. A more efficient system can
often cost thousands of dollars more than a cheaper less efficient systems. It
all comes down to a return on investment. How much energy will this new system
save me and how much am I paying for energy. Does the cost work out?
In the USA we also have some
competing technologies for what is used to become energy efficient. Solar PV panels on your roof can knock down
your energy bill to almost nothing, so why would you spend the money on getting
a more efficient air conditioner?
Hawaii has some of the most
expensive electricity in the USA. At $0.366/kWh we pay the same as many island nations,
but we are 2x to 3x more expensive than most places on the mainland USA. Even with this extra cost, there are some
houses that have so many solar panels and the sun is always direct here in
Hawaii. This makes it so many people
meet their electrical needs and already do not have to pay an electric bill, so
it would not be economical to spend thousands more on a system that is not
going to save you any money.
Yet – if we are going to talk
about a GAP that will affect current advancement trends from being adopted, we
need to talk about people. I am not talking about customers. I am talking about the HVAC people
themselves. The HVAC industry is
inundated with Baby Boomers who are averse to new technology and advancements
and they are the ones training any new people coming into the industry. The
very first thing that needs to happen is to get the people currently working
with HVAC to accept these modernization trends and learn these new systems. Many of the existing workforce is afraid of all
the automation in HVAC.
There is also an extreme shortage
of young people coming into the HVAC trade.
Decades of teachers preaching that you need to go to college and you
need to shy away from the trades because that is where the stupid people with
no future go, have caused a negative mindset about trades jobs.
To combat both problems, the
trades are going high tech into their training.
There are more and more online HVAC schools to give people an entrance
understanding into HVAC. Some trade
schools and companies have incorporated Virtual Reality training programs where
they can upload every single type of HVAC equipment that a technician will ever
see in their entire career and give them firsthand experience with how they
look and how to approach repairs on them.
“Those experienced workers [baby
boomers] will need to be replaced with those who are more comfortable with new
technologies and who are well-trained in computers, electronics, and
refrigerant handling, to name a few challenges,” said Francis Dietz, vice
president of public affairs at AHRI. “But in some ways, that makes our industry
more attractive to today’s young workforce, many of whom have taken courses in
computer science and electronics and are not only more familiar with them but
also more excited about a job that involves technology.”
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