Ice could reduce your A/C energy use by up to 95%
Howdy, folks! It’s Sarah, your resident McCoy’s blogger here. A few weekends ago, the air conditioner in my home went out. It was an older unit and the motor burned out from straining against triple-digit daytime temps and nighttime temperatures into the high 80s. To try and catch a little shut-eye, I had to sleep snuggled up to a few frozen bottles of water, cradling a desktop fan in my arms. I was never so happy than when my unit got fixed and I could crank the air up to maximum cooling. But my experience reminds me that while we’re trying to beat the heat, our A/C units and energy supplies are being pushed to their limits. The following product caught my eye because it claims to reduce the energy strain of industrial air conditioning units and it works with the cooling power of ice.
The Ice Bear system stores energy at night by freezing water in an insulated storage tank. During the day it works with air conditioning units to dispatch the stored energy by circulating chilled refrigerant from the tank to the units, dramatically reducing the amount of electricity required on peak. During off-peak hours, the A/C unit operates as usual. Ice Bear claims that daytime energy demand from air conditioning – typically 40-50% of an average commercial building’s electricity use during peak hours – can be reduced by as much as 95%. Check out the following video posted by Green Builder Magazine to see how this cool technology works.
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