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

Copper was the choice for engine repair shop after plastic systems fail

Since 1996, S&G Motor Repair has seen plastic come and go in their shop. Paul Yancey, the owner of the certified rebuild shop in Blackfoot, Idaho, installed PVC plastic pipe, Schedule 80, for his compressed air service – a system that operates all of their major equipment in the plant.

Unfortunately, the plastic system failed after just four years in service, and it was replaced with another plastic pipe system. Five years later, the PVC system failed again. Following this second failed attempt with plastic, Yancey decided it was time to move on to copper.

Copper tubing offers several benefits for mechanical systems including: corrosion resistance, durability, versatility, and workability when installing.

For Yancey, the longevity and workability were what convinced him to switch to copper. He wanted a system that his maintenance crew could install themselves, inexpensively in their downtime at the shop.

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Researchers Look toward Copper and Brass to Reduce HVAC Odors and Make Units More Efficient

Air-conditioning follows us wherever we go. Enormous heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) plants cool our classrooms and offices, smaller central air conditioning systems and window units chill our homes and even more compact systems create a comfortable climate in our vehicles.

Not surprisingly, there is intense pressure on HVAC designers to develop more efficient equipment. Researchers are discovering new ways to increase the efficiency of the heat exchangers while also eliminating something we can all do without, namely, foul odors.

Get the Smell Out

The choice of HVAC materials can affect the smell of the system. Dark, moist environments breed bacteria and fungi that are widely recognized causes of foul odors and reduced efficiency of HVAC systems.

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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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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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