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Cutting The Cost of Cooling
by Martin Nix
Shhh! don't say this too loud. The electric utilities do not want you to know the following secret: if you could turn on all your air conditioning and refrigeration at night (instead of the day time), you might reduce your electrical bill considerably. You would also help eliminate the biggest cause of electrical blackouts in the summer, and drastically lower the peak need for electricity. That means less need for new coal-fired or nuclear power plants. This particular strategy makes the most sense in areas which are hot in the summer (such as Eastern Washington) and which offer lower off-peak electric rates at night.
In the daytime in summer, air conditioners overload the power lines, basically causing them to melt. If you talk to the utility companies, they will tell you it was a tree branch. What a lie!
But how to keep things cool in the day if you are not using power? Here are things that any business or individual can do to cut either daytime power use or power use in general.
1) Make ice at night. Some air conditioners are designed to be operated at night, when they can make containers of ice known as "ice batteries". These air conditioners then use the ice to cool your room or building the next day, using very little electricity. Such ice-assisted cooling has for years been used in big commercial buildings, and some companies are beginning to make residential models (see news.cnet.com/Throwing-cold-water-on-energy-hog-air-conditioners/2100-11392_3-6184646.html).
An industrial-sized ice battery, storing cold for daytime air conditioning
photo courtesy rescueenergyusa.com
2) Convert an evaporative (swamp) cooler to photovoltaics. Evaporative or misting coolers use water to cool the air and are good for the dry, hot "East Side" of Washington State. Solar cells can make electricity when it is hot in the sunny afternoon, driving the cooler's fan motor with DC electricity.
3) Use solar or gas to power an adsorption air conditioner or refrigerator. (see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absorption_refrigerator). Adsorption systems have been around a long time, and use chemistry to make cool air. If you use gas to power this, the exhaust can be used to generate additional power, to make the system even more efficient.
4) Harness night sky radiant cooling. In Alabama, people have roofs with tanks of water for cooling. In New Mexico, similar prototypes have been developed (see www.cedarmountainsolar.com/nightskyradiantcooling.php?PageID=5). At night the insulation opens and the heat goes literally to outer space. You can experience the same effect if you take an insulated tube, point it to the sky, and at the bottom put a bottle of water. As long as the sky is clear, even in the summer the water can turn to ice from heat loss due to night sky radiate cooling.
5) Salt water tanks in your refrigerator. You can put a timer on your refrigerator and have it turn on at night only. You can store cold at about 28 degress in bottles of salt water in your freezer at night. In the daytime, transfer some of these bottles to cool your refrigerator. This is a homemade version of the "ice batteries" in idea #1 above, and of course works better if you have off-peak power rates at night.
6) Put up more awnings, or shade your windows with overhangs. Light-colored curtains are a natural choice, reflecting sunlight back out the window when sunny.
7) Put tanks of water, (or a water bed) in rooms. Water is a real natural for storing heat or cold. The thermal mass helps moderate the temperature. Adobe also provides such thermal mass, and can even store some of the cold of winter for use in the summer.
8) Plant a tree. What a simple idea. The tree cools the air during the day when it is sunny, plus shades your home. In winter, it loses its leaves and lets more sun in. Gardens can help too.
The fact is this. If every air conditioner in sunny summer areas were made more environmentally friendly, it would eliminate the need to operate many coal and nuclear power plants. One utility that has an aggressive program to convert air conditioners is Austin (Texas) City Light. It seems like most other utilities just don't want you to know. What a pity.
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