The Abrams Clean Tech Report

 

On Coolerado’s Super Energy-Efficient Air Conditioning Systems

Tuesday, April 21st, 2009

It’s hot out here today. Yesterday was, too, for that matter. And from everything I hear, it gets really warm here in San Ramon in the summer, so I’m expecting much higher temps in a month or two. I don’t have a problem with that, but air conditioning in these temps is what makes it doable, in the summer, to be certain. I can’t imagine how the livestock survive the heat in the summer, as I’ve been out in Walnut Creek after meetings, when the thermometer in my car was 110+. But I digress. My point in writing about this today is the following: for all of you who are sweltering out there, looking for cooling solutions that are hyper energy efficient, you should take a look at Coolerado. It’s one cool (no pun intended) company with super energy efficient air conditioning. And it really caught my eye when it popped up on my radar screen.

Background
Coolerado is a Colorado based company that in 2004 was announced an R&D 100 Award winner. The company was also a 2006 Top 10 Green Building Product Green Spec Listed organization. And then and this year, the company was presented the Governor’s Excellence in Renewable Energy Award by Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter. (It’s actually one of a number of very cool Colorado-based cleantech companies that are out there – Tendril‘s another.)

The technology behind Coolerado coolers is what makes it so interesting. And to discuss the technology, one alos has to understand more about the man behind Coolerado’s technology (which is otherwise known as the Maisotsenko Cooling Cycle) – Dr. Valeriy Maitsosenko. Valeriy’s an inventor as well as a scientist, and he is the inventor of the Maisotsenko Cooling Cycle, or “M-Cycle” as it’s otherwise known. If anyone can challenge conventional understanding of the laws of thermodynamics, Valeriy’s probably better qualified than anybody to do so. It’s certainly his passion. And his bio reads like he should be in a Bond/Jason Osbourne flick. The man is no slouch. He’s the former director of the Thermal Physics Research Laboratory in Odessa, in the Ukraine, and while in this capacity, was recognized by the government of the former Soviet Union as one of 11 top inventors in the USSR. Then in ’92 he immigrated to the US and in ’99 became a U.S. citizen. The man holds more than 125 heat-transfer and thermodynamics patents, earned a doctor of science degree in technology from the Moscow Civil Engineering Institute in 1988, obtained a candidate of science degree in technology (equivalent to a Ph.D.) from the Odessa Institute of Refrigeration Engineering in 1970, and received a Graduate Engineering Degree from the Odessa Institute of Refrigeration Engineering in 1963.

So it was Valeriy who first wrote me about his technology, and it was Valeriy who first pointed me to Coolerado. I was intrigued, and began to read more about what he was doing, and after exchanging some emails with Valeriy, I went to West Coast Green last year in part so that I could arrange time to connect with Coolerado’s CEO, Mike Luby, to talk about Coolerado’s application of Valeriy’s technology in the company’s heat exchanger product, as much as to learn more about its efficacy.

In a nutshell, here’s what Valeriy’s M-Cycle does inside a Coolerado air conditioner: It actually increases the cooling capacity (instead of decreasing the cooling capacity) of air when the incoming temperature of the air being cooled increases, using the M-Cycle. (Think of a heat and mass exchanger that divides an incoming air stream into a building into let’s say ‘product air’ and ‘working air’. The ‘product air’ remains separate from the ‘working air’ within dry channels the length of the core of the heat exchanger, rejecting its heat as ‘exhaust’ to the ‘working air’ through very thin plastic membranes. The ‘working air’ is blocked from entering the building, passed instead above and below the ‘product air’ stream in a cross-flow fashion, driving the heat that’s been transferred through the plastic film out of the heat exchanger. The heat gets rejected away from the supply air stream, which is pushed into the Coolerado Cooler heat exchanger with a single fan.)

What Are The Benefits?
The advantage of the Maisotsenko Cycle is that the working air is basically purged over and over again, so that initial conditions are essentially ‘reset’ as lower dry-bulb and web-bulb temperatures are established with each purge cycle. This allows the eventual supply air temperature to be below what the original conditions would indicate possible – below the thermodynamic wet bulb temperature. This key cycling feature is essentially what sets the Coolerado Air Conditioner apart from other indirect/direct evaporative cooling systems and enables greater cooling performance. Coolerado’s technologies reduce expensive peak demand charges, use up to 90% less electricity than a normal AC system, don’t require chemical refrigerants, and provide an extremely efficient heat recovery process. Coolerado air conditioners can even be ducted behind PV panels to improve their performance by more than 15 percent. Numbers I’ve been given by the company show that one Coolerado C60 (an HMX-only system) cools about 3000 square feet of space from a power draw of less than 600 watts. It provides 1400 CFM of conditioned air at ideal humidity, ideal humidity varying based on the temperature setting chosen. [Reference: Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) study that was conducted by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory http://www1.eere.energy.gov/femp/pdfs/tir_coolerado.pdf]

Typical Installations?
These days Coolerado is replacing both Vapor Compression systems and failed indirect-direct evaporative coolers, and doing both residential as well as commercial installations successfully. They’re even putting their units side by side with Vapor Compression systems, cooling buildings for most of the season and allowing the traditional systems to kick in on the few days of the year when humidity (and wet bulb temperature) is too high. Nestle, in Modesto, California, and the Colorado School of Mines, along with at least one Gordon Biersch restaurant, a chocolate store and a transport company in the Netherlands all can claim to have a Coolerado somewhere on site. The air conditioners have been put on roofs, in attics, and even in basements.

What’s In A Coolerado AC System?
The HMXs are the heart of the system, representing almost 10 years of research and development, The basic components of a complete Coolerado HMX AC System are simple: the HMX(s), a fan, water delivery, and a box to hold it all together.

Who’s In Coolerado’s Sweet Spot?
Coolerado works best in areas with very low humidity, in buildings that generate large heat loads (think heavy machinery in enclosed spaces generating a lot of heat.). Coolerado units are saving 90% of the electric bill in these cases. The highest savings for any building are when humidity is low throughout the year, the cooling season is long, and the days are hot.

There you go. Check out Coolerado. And thank you, Valeriy, for the heads up on your very interesting technology…

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