Photo Credit: Ice Energy

New HVAC design uses substantial amount of copperfor shifting electricity loads during peak-hours

When the temperature outside soars above 90 degrees, walking into a building that’s well air-conditioned is a welcome respite. This instant rejuvenation comes with a cost, paid in demand on the electrical supply. In warmer climates, the constant demand for energy during a hot summer’s day require additional “peaking power plants,” to kick in strictly to support the load when air-conditioning demand is at its highest. These plants are less efficient than base power plants, and expensive to build and operate.

Ice Energy in Windsor, Colorado has come up with a solution to keep offices cool by tapping into the electrical grid when it’s used the least, without having to build additional “peaker plants” to support it.

Ice Energy, a leading provider of intelligent energy storage solutions for the utility industry, first introduced the Ice Bear® Ice Storage Air-Conditioner in 2004. The thought process behind this new technology is simple: use electricity at night to store energy in the form of ice, by making the ice when electricity is less expensive and more abundant, and use that stored energy during the day to provide cooling with less electrical input during times of peak demand.

The actual system is about the size of a regular commercial air-conditioning unit, and it attaches to the pre-existing unit. The Ice Bear system functions like a regular AC unit, but uses its onboard compressor, expansion valve, and large copper cooling coils containing 250 – 400 pounds of copper, to freeze 450 gallons of water into ice overnight. During the day and times of peak demand, the stored ice is used to cool refrigerant within the Ice Bear and transfer it to the condenser coil in the companion air-conditioning unit rather than running the unit’s compressor. The cold refrigerant is routed through the Ice Bear and the existing AC unit by a small pump, rather than a compressor, cutting down on electricity usage for cooling from 6 kilowatts to 100 watts (similar to the electricity load of a light bulb).

“The Ice Bear can be considered a thermal energy storage system and a load shifting device,” said Ice Energy’s director of engineering and manufacturing, Ed Giordano. “Each Ice Bear can cool about 4,000 square feet, and its application focuses on public and commercial buildings.”

This new technology is now being used at healthcare facilities where proper cooling ventilation is critical for patients and its visitors. Glendale Optometric Center and the Glendale Cancer Treatment Center recently installed the systems on their rooftops.

“Utilities benefit because they can postpone building new peaker plants, and society benefits because producing energy at night is cleaner and less expensive,” Giordano said. “It’s embraced as a green technology since installing one Ice Bear is the equivalent to taking one car, and its exhaust, off the road.”

Giordano said copper is used because it’s durable, easy to use, and a good thermal conductor.

“We use copper for all the reasons you’d expect: good ductility to create the forms we need, excellent heat transfer capability, and because traditionally it’s the preferred metal used by the HVAC industry. Furthermore, the copper is in contact with water and dissolves atmospheric gases throughout its entire life, so the application demands the fine environmental tolerance offered by copper.”

Currently, Southern California is where a majority of these systems have been installed. Ice Energy is completing the first year of a 5-year program with the Southern California Public Power Authority (SCPPA) to install as many as 7,000 units. The company estimates that the program, once completed, will shift 64 gigawatt-hours each year of on-peak electrical consumption to off-peak.

For more information on Ice Bears visit: www.ice-energy.com

For more information on copper in HVAC visit: www.copper.org

Computers and networks are woven into the fabric of university life. Today, they are essential to the educational experience, whether training students for satisfying work in an increasingly digital world or connecting them to vast storehouses of knowledge pertaining to their specialized fields of study.

Networks are everywhere on campus, including dormitories, computer labs, media centers, libraries and research labs. Many business schools today have installed realistic securities “trading floors” complete with ticker boards, where students can learn how to execute real-time transactions in global markets based on up-to-the-minute financial data.

A computer-intensive educational facility requires the utmost in reliable, stable and clean electrical power, or what’s known as high power quality. An excellent example of power quality on campus is the electrical infrastructure at the Ray and Maria Stata Center on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

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Of all the various alternatives to fossil fuels such as ethanol, hydropower, and solar thermal energy, wind energy may have the longest history. People began to harness wind power for grinding grain and pumping water as early as the third century B.C. With today’s high demand for low-carbon electricity, wind energy has found a new importance. Wind energy will surely be a part of the carbon-free energy future, and copper will play a large role in making that possible. Copper is indispensible to the proper functioning and efficiency of wind turbines. The metal plays a central role in the inner workings of the generator, grounds the towers from lightning strikes, and carries the electrical current where it needs to go. In addition, copper is one of the most recyclable metals available, which makes it well-suited to contribute to energy development that is environmentally friendly. 

Inside the familiar white shell of a wind turbine, is where the spinning of the blades turn into the energy that we use. This work is done by an electrical generator that transforms the motion of the turbines into electricity. The copper in the generator helps turn the natural energy of wind into power that consumers can use and afford. According to Dr. Ned Brush, an energy efficiency consultant with BBF &Associates, “Copper is the most cost efficient metal for generators because it is extremely conductive.”

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GeoColumn system promises smaller footprint, bigger energy savings over conventional ground-source heat pumps

Rising energy costs, global warming and rapidly improving technology are opposing forces that are conspiring, one might say, to change the way we will heat and cool our buildings in the near future.

This “warms race” is the impetus behind one innovation—the GeoColumn, a hybrid HVAC system that claims to improve upon two proven, but not always perfect, heating and cooling technologies.

The GeoColumn is a proprietary, “off the shelf” system that offers the benefits of direct exchange (DX) ground source heat exchangers, which produce heat from the surrounding earth, but it eliminates the costly and often difficult excavation or deep-well drilling these systems require.

GeoColumns also promise the efficiency of heat pump systems, which literally create heat from thin air, but which also frequently disappoint owners by failing to produce enough heat when temperatures fall too far.

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In Home Wiring, Lower Gauge Means Greater Power

Someday you may need new electrical wiring in your home and the electrician may ask if you want 12 AWG or 14 AWG (American Wire Gauge). You may not know what this means, but opt for the lower number. When it comes to electrical wiring, a lower gauge number means larger wires with lower electrical resistance, and that translates into greater load-carrying capacity.

It also means better power quality. Fatter wires produce less waste heat and less “voltage drop,” which simply means they can transmit full, unimpeded power for critical applications such as home entertainment and the home office. With 12-gauge wiring, lights will flicker less. Moreover, fatter wires provide room for growth—that is, they allow homeowners to increase electricity use without the need to rewire.

Consider this: One thousand feet of 14 AWG solid wiring has a resistance of 2.53 ohms. The same length of 12 AWG has a resistance of 1.59 ohms. That 0.94-ohm difference equals a 37.5 percent drop in resistance, and less resistance means less chance that your home’s circuits will overload because too many appliances are drawing too much power. And make sure your circuit breaker matches the wire size: 20 Amps for 12 AWG of 15 Amps for 14 AWG. Otherwise, you negate the protection the circuit breaker provides.

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Nobel environmentalist goes geothermal at home

Competing products all make great claims and seek endorsements that will, they hope, attract consumers. And in today’s era of increasing environmental consciousness, being known as a “green” product is quickly becoming the highest accolade of all.

Recently, one high-efficiency home heating and cooling system earned an endorsement of sorts from perhaps the best-known environmentalist on the planet—Al Gore.  Although the former U.S. vice president, a co-recipient of the Nobel Prize for his environmental activism, has not publicly lauded his new HVAC equipment, he voted his approval of an innovative ground-source heat pump system by installing one in his own Nashville home and office headquarters.

According to an assistant, Kalee Kreider, Gore was intent on a geothermal system from the start, and a number of options were researched. “He made the final decision on this heat pump technology,” Kreider says. “He lives there with Mrs. Gore (Tipper), and he works out of the house.”

The new HVAC equipment, manufactured by Earth To Air Systems of nearby Franklin, Tennessee, replaced an older heating and cooling system that had a federal Energy Star rating for efficient operation, Kreider says. “But when you look at overall energy use, this new system is far more efficient.”

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