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

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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An outdoor copper shower can make a great addition for the summer months

As the weather gets warmer, it’s time to start prepping your house for the pool parties and BBQs that accompany the welcomed summer months. While you may think you have every backyard addition that makes your home the ultimate summer destination, there is one renovation that is quick, easy, inexpensive and will separate your house from the others on the block — an outdoor shower.

Whether you get your hands dirty from gardening, want to rinse off the chlorine from floating in the pool all day, or need to spray down the dog after a day of rolling around in the grass, an outdoor shower is practical and can make a unique home addition.

While it may seem like a complicated project, if you have the time and are handy around the house, follow these quick and simple steps to install a copper shower on your next free Saturday afternoon:

Step 1: Get the proper tools and material for the project.

Copper tubing is a good choice for an outdoor shower. It’s a durable option that is easy to work with, with an incomparable look and style. When using copper, you’ll need tubing cutters and a propane or other handheld torch, flux and solder for soldering the joints for the shower.

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From architecture to electronics, jewelry to plumbing to nutrition, copper continues to be the element we can’t live without

Few materials, natural or manmade, can match the contribution copper has made across the arc of human civilization.

Copper was the first metal discovered and used by man at the beginning of recorded history. Its principal alloy, bronze, ushered in the age of metals and machinery, enabling our modern world. Electricity, electronics and computers—the key components of progress today and for the foreseeable future—all rely on copper circuitry.

Infinitely versatile, whether in its natural state or alloyed with other elements, copper is also considered the quality standard when it comes to construction materials as diverse as plumbing pipe and architectural roofing.

Millions of miles of dependable, long-lasting copper pipe provide water to people around the globe. And copper’s superior conductivity and thermal transfer capability are critical to energy-saving products like high-efficiency motors, direct exchange geothermal heat pumps and solar collectors.

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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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Copper continues to play an important role in new automotive technology

It started as an engineering concept at the turn of the 21st century – gas-electric “hybrid” dream cars displayed at auto shows to gauge public reaction and market potential. But within just a few years (a wink of time in vehicle development terms), hybrids have evolved into one of today’s most important automotive trends.

Numerous components have come into play in the advancement of this technology, but one element in particular – copper – has been indispensible in helping to propel the growth of hybrid vehicles.

According to General Motors Chief Engineer Tim Grewe, “Copper has two important roles in hybrids: It runs the electricity, so you have large amounts of copper in the motor and battery, and, more importantly, the copper technology is making hybrids viable commercially.”

Vehicles, along with their electronic components, must be made robust enough to take years and miles of often hard driving, unlike electronic products that remain stationary throughout their lifetimes. Grewe pointed out that for many hybrid automotive components, including electric motors and the electronics and circuit boards that regulate them, manufacturers like GM turn to “high ounce,” or heavy weight, copper laminates.

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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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