Finally, A Solar-Powered Air Conditioner

February 25, 2009

by Michael Graham Richard, Gatineau, Canada

TreeHugger.com, SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Finally a Workable System to Replace Current Energy Guzzling A/Cs. In 2007 we covered a Coolerado A/C system with the headline "getting close to solar powered air conditioning". Back then, the unit produced 5 tons of cooling using 1,200 watts, getting within the range of what some people and small businesses could afford in solar panels. Now, the new Coolerado design can produce 6 tons of cooling using 600 watts, quite an impressive improvement!
Read on for more details an a video detailing how it works.

Boosting Solar Power Production Too
One interesting trick that Coolerado has - and that you can see in the video below - is the use of exhaust air from the A/C unit to cool down the solar panels. The reason for that is that solar panels produce less electricity when they get too hot, something that happens on the sunniest days when A/C is most needed. But cooling down the panels with exhaust air (that would need to thrown out anyway because it contains too much humidity) allows them to keep producing more, reducing costs because fewer panels are needed.
The demonstration video is quite well done, check it out:
One of the downsides of using an evaporative cooling system is that it uses water. About 4 gallons per hour for the 6 tons system, or 96 gallons a day. In some very dry areas, this can be a lot, though it might still be better than using a regular A/C that uses tons of electricity. A good compromise would be the use of gray water (stored in a holding tank underground so it stays cool?).
For more information about how this solar power A/C works, see this page:

http://www.coolerado.com/tech-info/how-coolerado-air-conditioners-work/ 

If you're interested in buying a solar powered air conditioner from Coolerado, check out this page: