New Air Conditioning System Has Potential to Slash Energy Usage by Up to 90 Percent

Originally posted by OZtracized
Dehumidifiers and evaporative air coolers don't draw too much but dehumidifiers seem to warm the room (I have one). Perhaps one could be re-designed/engineered to dissipate the heat energy outside.

A little too complicated and expensive? Probably.

A net reduction in energy consumption yielding results comparable to air con? No idea. Maybe a little.

Nice creative thinking!

Well the AC units everyone already has are already dehumidifiers that vent the heat outside. But they usually just dump the distilled water they collect into the ground or down the drain, so all you'd really need to do is add a collector and a pump to pump that collected water to the evaporative cooling unit. Whether that will be enough water is another question, it may not be.

The cost issue will resolve itself in the future when oil gets up to 300, 400, 500 dollars a barrel. Things that aren't economically justifiable today will be with higher oil prices, so I try to think of the future when considering economic feasibility. I don't know WHEN oil will get to $500 a barrel, but it no doubt will at some point.

[edit on 24-6-2010 by Arbitrageur]

Originally posted by mpriebe81
The problem is, once you get over 100-110 degrees, those swamp coolers don't really make much of a dent. We'll see just how wonderful this 'new' technology is.

You can make your own A/C with a large bucket of water, some copper tubing, and a strong fan.

Just a simple shell of a box, like a frame, with wet towels over the top, sides, and back. put a box fan in front. to really kick it up, put a block of ice in the middle of the box. use the ice melt to dip the towels in about every 15 mins or so.

yeah, it is high effort. but i grew up poor out in the desert. you learn to make due.