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New Air Conditioner Process Cuts Energy Use 50-90%

necro81 writes "The US National Renewable Energy Laboratory has announced that it has developed a new method for air conditioning that reduces energy use by 50-90%. The DEVap system (Desiccant-Enhanced eVaporative air conditioner) cools air using evaporative cooling, which is not new, but combines the process with a liquid dessicant for pulling the water vapor out of the cooled air stream. The liquid dessicant, a very strong aqueous solution of lithium chloride or sodium chloride, is separated from the air stream by a permeable hydrophobic membrane. Heat is later used to evaporate water vapor back out — heat that can come from a variety of sources such as solar or natural gas. The dessicants are, compared to typical refrigerants like HCFCs, relatively benign on the environment."

5 of 445 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Good for server farms? by somersault · · Score: 5, Funny

    And how are they going to pipe down solar gas into your server room anyway?

    --
    which is totally what she said
  2. Re:OK, so when can we buy one? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I know my wife is going to be asking for an AC in the house this summer

    Really? Another one? I've been visiting her for months.

  3. Re:lithium chloride or sodium chloride? by rve · · Score: 5, Funny

    I lost interest at this point. Wake me up when biochemists and medical doctors get a chance to run test case groups about the adverse effects of lithium in their localized atmosphere, typically inhaled into the lungs and later causing one's sense of reality to become skewed.

    In order to get lithium chloride vapor in the atmosphere, one would have to raise the temperature to about 1600 Kelvin at normal atmospheric pressure. Under those conditions, I propose blind panic as a suitable coping strategy.

  4. Re:lithium chloride or sodium chloride? by Hognoxious · · Score: 5, Funny

    A desert is an ocean with its life undergound, and a perfect disguise above.

    Or is it the other way round?

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  5. Re:Good for server farms? by jamesh · · Score: 5, Funny

    heatsinks are NOT noisy

    They never make a sound when _you_ are in the room, but just wait until your back is turned. They're bitchy little things.