This 'Cold Tube' can beat the summer heat without relying on air conditioning:
"Air conditioners work by cooling down and dehumidifying the air around us—an expensive and not particularly environmentally friendly proposition," explains project co-lead Adam Rysanek, assistant professor of environmental systems at UBC's school of architecture and landscape architecture, whose work focuses on future energy systems and green buildings. "The Cold Tube works by absorbing the heat directly emitted by radiation from a person without having to cool the air passing over their skin. This achieves a significant amount of energy savings."
The Cold Tube is a system of rectangular wall or ceiling panels that are kept cold by chilled water circulating within them. Since heat naturally moves by radiation from a hotter surface to a colder surface, when a person stands beside or under the panel, their body heat radiates towards the colder panel. This creates a sensation of cooling like cold air flowing over the body even if the air temperature is quite high.
Although these types of cooling panels have been used in the building industry for several decades, what makes the Cold Tube unique is that it does not need to be combined with a dehumidification system. Just as a cold glass of lemonade would condense water on a hot summer day, cooling down walls and ceilings in buildings would also condense water without first drying out the air around the panels. The researchers behind the Cold Tube conceived of an airtight, humidity-repelling membrane to encase the chilled panels to prevent condensation from forming while still allowing radiation to travel through.
A new cooling system for your home?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 20 2020, @02:08PM (1 child)
This FA essentially claims to make people feel cooler without actually cooling them, to the extent that people feel comfortable in the tropical heat and humidity of Singapore. If there really is any heat transfer taking place then any objects (or air) in the same room are also going to be cooled, and if that's the case there's going to be condensation. Sounds like BS to me.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 20 2020, @06:37PM
The perceived temperature is a function of air velocity, air temp, radiation, RH and probably a few other things. From memory of the heat & vent course I took a million years ago, the major factors are included in the psychrometric chart, along with supporting information from ASHRAE.
We always felt comfortable in winter in our parent's house that had radiant floor heat (warm floors), although the air temp in the house could be in the high 60F range (which otherwise would feel chilly).