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SINGAPORE: A team of researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) have invented hybrid air conditioners that reduce electricity consumption.
The technology uses solar heat as an energy source, increasing the efficiency of hybrid air conditioning as the weather warms, NUS said.
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The team, from the NUS Department of Engineering’s Mechanical Engineering Department, worked with industry collaborator Ecoline Solar to develop the “next generation of hybrid solar-thermal air conditioners” to reduce energy consumption and the footprint of carbon.
Companies like NCS, Starhub, and Singtel have recently installed cooling systems in their buildings.
READ: Comment: Why Singapore’s new ‘absolute’ climate mitigation targets could be an absolute change?
The technology has also provided cooling solutions to Singapore’s “vertical farms”, and to several condos and hotels.
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Air cons have electric compression machines that use the heat from and around the sun to alleviate the electrical load on compressors by up to 55 percent.
“As global temperatures rise, fueled by urbanization and exacerbated by climate change, so does the global demand for fuel to run on energy-efficient air conditioning,” said associate professor Ernest Chua Kian Jon, who led the NUS team.
Assoc Prof Chua explained that conventional air cons require high electrical energy and also produce a high volume of heat that is released into the environment, creating “undesirable heat zones”.
“The innovative hybrid NUS and Ecoline system leverages solar thermal technology to dramatically reduce energy consumption and reduce the volume of heat dissipated to the environment through our specially designed condensing unit,” he said.
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The jointly developed technology uses a thermal solar collector consisting of vacuum tubes filled with a novel medium specially designed and engineered by the NUS team to absorb more solar energy and ambient heat.
The collected energy is recycled to aid in overheating the refrigerant in the system, converting it from a low-pressure, low-temperature gas to a high-pressure, high-temperature gas.
This reduces the dependency of the system on the compressor that pumps the refrigerant through the system, which reduces the overall electricity consumption of the system and the released greenhouse emissions.
The team believes that thermal solar air conditioning technology can help improve the energy efficiency of buildings, and is a potentially effective way for businesses and households to reduce their operating cost and carbon footprint, while “becoming an integral part of the global warming solution, “said NUS.
Actual usage data has shown that the hybrid system has consistently reduced energy use, which also cut utility bills by 30 to 55 percent, depending on usage.
The project also received the Prestigious Engineering Award from the Singapore Institute of Engineers and the ASEAN Exceptional Engineering Award from the Federation of ASEAN Engineering Organizations in 2019.
The team at NUS and Ecoline Solar are now working to incorporate NUS ‘proprietary membrane dehumidification technology into thermally based air conditioning to deliver even greater energy savings.
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Colin Chia, Director of Ecoline Solar, who led the collaborative project, said the hybrid system is a “game changer in the air conditioning industry.”
“The hotter the sun and the warmer the environment, the more efficient our hybrid air conditioning system becomes,” he said.
“For consumers, this translates into greater savings in electricity consumption, even compared to the best conventional and inverted air conditioning systems on the market.”
Hybrid thermal solar air conditioning is now available in Singapore, NUS said.
Although it costs 20 percent more than an inverter air conditioner, the cost difference can be offset by electrical cost savings in less than two years.
“In the long run, this would be a more profitable cooling option,” added NUS.
