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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 20 2020, @03:24PM (2 children)
So if you live in a humid environment then dehumidification might be desirable but expensive due to the high heat released when water vapor is condensed. If you live in a dry area dehumidification is not important but there little cost to the AC because there is little humidity in the air to condense in the first place.
If anything you can use a swamp cooler in a humid environment to add humidity and cool things down. How does this tech compare to that? Maybe you can use this tech along with a swamp cooler assuming this thing can make the air even colder than the swamp cooler and is more efficient than an air conditioner in a dry environment. One would have to look at the physics behind that but I am too lazy.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 20 2020, @03:26PM
Err ... but there is little cost *
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 20 2020, @04:13PM
Err... if anything you can use a swamp cooler in a dry environment *