Honda Cools Off with Ice
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 07.20.06
Cooling with ice used to be big business- chop it in the winter, store it under sawdust and use it for cooling and refrigeration all summer. Movie theatres used to run fans over ice to bring people in all summer, making summer the biggest movie season because it was the coolest place to go. Honda's new Ohio plant is cooled by ice- not cut out of the river but made by two big 450 ton chillers that work all night using cheap base-load power, which then chills the air all day as the ice melts. While the system cost more at the beginning, it should pay for itself in three years and last at least thirty.
"What's cool about it is that it's using ice as the coolant as opposed to any sort of Freon," said Elaine Barnes, executive director of the Cleveland Green Building Coalition, referring to the ozone-depleting gas often used in conventional air-conditioning systems. "It is a very clean and environmentally friendly source of air. It's a very efficient system." ::Environmental News Network
UPDATE: John did his usual authorative coverage of adding ice to air conditioning here.
It's a shame that the average home owner does not have a Time Of Use electric meter to benefit from migrating energy use to the nightime hours when the locational marginal price of energy is least expensive.
It might not use freon but the icemaker must use some sort of coolant just like any fridge, freezer or AC unit. I don't see the benifit besides cost, is this green or just cheap?
JP, you are correct that some form of refrigeration system had to make the ice. However that is still green- where I live, we get base load power from Niagara falls and nuclear, but in the daytime for peak load we make or buy dirty coal-fired electricity. Anything that reduces peak loads is a good green move.
Additionally, because it's done at night when temps are lower, the regrigeration unit doesn't have to work as hard, which is better for longevity. I believe refrigeration is more efficient at lower temps as well.
This is the same kind of AC unit that is used at my work. Indeed, it is better than Freon for the environment, etc, etc. However, almost every day the outside temp is above 85, the temperature in the building gets to 80. So, it may be power efficient, but it sure doesn't cool very well.
You don't need freon to cool things. The chillers might not use freon at all.
At Princeton Univ, the Cogeneration plant does nearly the same thing. They buy power at night when it is cheap (and green), and use chillers to cool water in a huge (80ft high) storage tank, to be used the next day in campus air conditioning. They do a lot of other energy efficient things there too, but that's another topic.
trial send from gizmodo
This unit does, in fact, use freon and a lot of it in the chiller portion of the system just like virtually every other heat pump unit on earth. The only greening that is being done here is the systems ability to use the off peak electricity rates to store the energy for use during peak hours.
There may be some benefits for the environment I am not aware of but the chief green benefit of this system is the extra cash in the owners pockets.
During these times we should be ever vigilant of the green spin.
Well, green-spin or not, check the news today about California troubles dealing with high power demand. Obviously, the biggest reason is that heat, thus cooling with A/C, is causing the spike in electrical demand.
I think many here already know that it is more efficient for the power plants to generate a consistant amount of electricity than to turn on and off generators, or throttling outputs.
Lastly, as mentioned elsewhere, cooling also depends on the temperature during the heat exchange process. I believe when it's hot outside, it's harder to cool. How much energy is use to cool to comfortable temperatures during a hot day? This versus chilling water to a much lower temperature when it's cooler at night?
In any case, I think it's a smart system, and if anything, certainly help us battle the peak power issue during the day.