Sustainable Design Update

R-718, Plentiful, NonToxic and Efficient Air Conditioner

R-718 is the code name for a refrigerant gas that is 30% more efficient than what is right now is in your air-conditioner.  The reason R-718 is not in your air conditioner and instead you have a toxic gas in your car and home instead is because R-718 needs to be pumped at pretty high volumes to get the same degree of  air conditioning as most common refrigerants.

In Europe, where the cost of energy is high they use R-718 and pay the extra upfront cost for titanium compressors.  The challenge in the U.S. has been to create an inexpensive way to use this highly efficient gas at cost competitive prices.

One more amazing benefit of R-718 is that the gas itself is just about free.  If you spring a leak in your AC system you can replenish it at your local Quickie Mart.

What is this mysterious gas?  Its simple water vapor.  When confined to tubes like any other AC gas, water vapor makes for a very efficient air conditioner.

From Idea Connection:

Breakthrough:
An energy-efficient room air conditioning system that uses water vapor as the refrigerant.

Inventor:
John Barrie and Dr Norbert Muller, United States

The Story:
Dr. Norbert Muller, Michigan State University Mechanical Engineering Professor, and John Barrie of John Barrie Associates Architects were awarded a cool $30,000 prize for answering an open innovation challenge to design a new era of room air conditioners with a significantly reduced carbon footprint.

The challenge was called the Boston Innovation Prize and was set by the Barr Foundation, a private foundation that aims to improve the quality of life of people in the Boston area, and the Cambridge Energy Alliance, an organization that aims to reduce the carbon footprint of Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was submitted to the global open innovation marketplace via the InnoCentive website. The nature of the task in hand was this: “to radically improve efficiencies in space cooling and dehumidification” and to “identify breakthrough technologies and/or designs which will provide cooling and dehumidification with dramatically higher energy efficiency than current room or window air conditioning units, while maintaining affordability.”

Impressive Solution……

More at:  Idea Connection

(Yes, that is me in the photo and this is a shameless plug - jb)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 15th, 2009 at 9:55 pm and is filed under Appropriate Technology, BioFuels, Biomimetic Design, Design, Energy, Natural Products, Sustainability, Technology, Transportation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.