Green Cooling Stratagies for July 5, 2009

It has started getting up there in temperature, at least in Southern California and it has got me wondering what improvements there might be on the cooling front.

In my searches I found several things for architectural solutions to technology.  It seems I am not alone in wondering how to keep cool and do it in a sustainable and less expensive way.  Here is one architect’s working vision via Green Building Elements (http://greenbuildingelements.com/2009/06/21/california-architect-thinks-about-white-roofs/).  It is a beautiful house and I like many of the thoughts, I just wish I could afford it.

Next we have another architect’s vision and it looks into our future and is trying to come up sith methods to deal with a generally hotter climate that we may all be facing.  The story is via Green Building Elements again (http://greenbuildingelements.com/2009/06/25/a-roof-designed-for-our-hotter-future/) and it is certainly the most practical vision I have seen.  By simply building and additional roof structure over even an existing house you could attain significant benefits!  If you considered all of the ideas and built a complete structure from scratch the end result is even better. It is ideas like this that give me hope that technology may still be the answer to the global warming crisis.

On the technology front we have two different takes on air conditioning. The first is what is actually asmall chiller type unit called the Ice Bear (http://www.impactlab.com/2009/05/22/ice-bear-can-reduce-air-conditioning-energy-demand-by-95/).  This is an add on system that simply allows you to store cooling using off peak electricity by creating a large block of ice that is then used to chill the refrigerant in your conventional system instead of the compressor. A good idea overall as this is simply scaling exisitng technology and it can easily be retrofitted on many types of systems.

Lastly we go for one that is somewhat more of an evolution from SolCool (http://www.solcool.net/solcool.htm). The Millennial 1.5 Ton unit has the capability to be wired to standard US, EU power or to direct power that might be supplied by a solar array! There is also a version that is portable with onboard batteries that can be run up to 12 hours between charges.  Forget about remote, that option will allow you to run it overnight while the sun is down!

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