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100 Comments
- Jon211, on 06/24/2009, -2/+27"It produces one kilowatt hour of coolness for five cents. By way of contrast, conventional air conditioners burn through 12 to 14 cents per kilowatt hour."
This makes no sense, a kilowatt hour is a measure of energy, which has a set cost based on who you get your electricity from.
He may mean that this new device costs 5 cents to cool the same amount of air as would cost 12 to 14 cents for a standard air conditioner, but if the author doesn't understand points like this I'm disinclined to trust the rest of the article too much. - bschonec, on 06/24/2009, -1/+21God help me for even sounding like an environmentalist, but how about not cutting down EVERY DAMNED TREE from the area before building the [new] house/structure? I'm thankful for the large trees on my property during the hot months...
- inactive, on 06/24/2009, -1/+12Put solar panels on every house in America.
Germany does it and they have cloudier skies than most of America.
We can do it too. - angryfirelord, on 06/24/2009, -1/+11And who's going to pay for it?
- inactive, on 06/24/2009, -0/+9It's 35 C (around 95F) here today in WISCONSIN.
- AndrAIa, on 06/24/2009, -0/+8Yea, it's 30°C in Toronto today. It can get as hot as 40°C in this region during summers. Considering how hot my apartment is right now.. 20°C sounds like heaven.
- crtjer, on 06/24/2009, -1/+8Ready:
If you live in NY and your house uses about 400kwh solar panels will cost you around $40,000
but wait NY will match your solar purchases up to a certain amount per cell and then the federal government will give you tax credits.
It turns out to be around $14,000 in the end.
Literally just learned this in class, thats the price of a small car and you would be spending no money on electricity
I have to agree the confusion over kwh in this article is not making trust the article but really everyone look into solar for powering devices. - Shadow503, on 06/24/2009, -0/+7So has America. . .
Michigan has been recycling since 1978! - RobotBuddha, on 06/24/2009, -0/+7How efficient is it though? Recycling for the sake of recycling with no actual benefit happens on occasion and I'd argue is even worse than nothing.
- mzwaterski, on 06/24/2009, -0/+6At my current rates, that would take me over 14 years to break even. Thats after tax payers have put up $26,000 to help me pay for the system. Its hard to argue that the systems are economical. You have to truly buy into the environmental aspects to justify them.
- HonoredMule, on 06/24/2009, -0/+6Although confusing, I don't think the statement is actually wrong. The energy being measured in kilowatt hours is the amount of heat-energy removed from the atmosphere, not the amount of electricity sipped to do it. It would have been far less confusing if a term not closely associated with electricity and its metering were used, like joules (3.6 megajoules = 1 kilowatt-hour).
So, conventional air conditioners sip 14 cents worth of electricity to remove 3.6 megajoules of heat from the air, while this Schukey engine does the same using only 5 cents worth of electricity.
What's almost certainly being skirted about is the issue of scale/performance. Such efficiency is probably only seen on tiny units capable of handling tiny areas (or alternately gargantuan units, possibly still only handling small areas). There's also no mention of how long it takes to remove that amount of heat...i.e. can it even keep up with the continued work of relevant heat sources? - inactive, on 06/24/2009, -1/+6Germany imports its oil. America own the companies importing it and producing it.
America will never fund Solar as it should until the oil runs out and Oligarchy has been nulled. - inactive, on 06/24/2009, -1/+6I say go back to using R12 freon. All this hype about "man made" global warming crap has us in the bind we are in now.
- Kevin108, on 06/24/2009, -1/+6No pleasure, no rapture, no exquisite sin greater...than central air.
"By way of contrast, conventional air conditioners burn through 12 to 14 cents per kilowatt hour."
And worth every penny! - SpinningHead, on 06/24/2009, -3/+8You can make it a requirement on new construction and/or provide a tax break for it. Who pays for cleanup from coal extraction (which has destroyed entire towns) or wars to protect foreign oil fields?
- Subliminational, on 06/24/2009, -0/+5That was confusing to me as well, though it sounds like they are referring to cost per unit of thermal energy output, not cost per unit of input energy.
- geesamba, on 06/24/2009, -0/+4400kWh for the entire house? No money on electricity?
A beefy window AC unit uses 1,054 kWh per month: http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/cost.html (example 3). Assuming $.11/kWh, that's $116/mo.
If you only used the solar panels for the AC (assuming they could sustain that output 24/7) that would take just over 10 years to break even. - Countess666, on 06/24/2009, -0/+4what often happens in Germany is that people rent ouf their roofs to company's
the company keeps the money from the energy, and pays you for the use of your roof.
every sloped south facing roof in Germany is a potential money maker for all involved.
the only caveat is that Germany pays for solar at twice the going rate for normal power, and has guaranteed to do so for the next 2 decades.
that means the panels will pay for themselves much sooner, and remain operational for many years after that point. - jbmcb, on 06/24/2009, -0/+4> It would have been far less confusing if a term not closely associated with electricity and its metering were used, like joules
Or the standard for measuring the transfer of heat energy, the BTU. So he'd have to do some conversion, but c'mon, who the hell measures heat in watts? I know, joules is the cool metric measurement, but nearly everyone still uses BTUs when rating HVAC equipment. - minnecrapolis, on 06/24/2009, -0/+3Don't worry about Hawaii. It's going to explode in 2010 due to volcanic activity.
- SpinningHead, on 06/24/2009, -1/+4Yes, clearly a device that you own which generates free energy is just nonsense. Enjoy driving your horse and buggy to work and cooking on your open fire pit.
- bobbknight, on 06/24/2009, -0/+3Nuclear power, cracking polluted water, making hydrogen for transportation, and with the burning, pure water.
No CO2.
But the current president cut funding to Yucca Mountain.
He must not really want Nuclear Power like he said in his pre-election speeches. - Mike17102, on 06/24/2009, -1/+4Get out your checkbook and buy me some.
- danwgre, on 06/24/2009, -2/+5I sure one of these things works great in Germany, where it hardly reaches the 80s in mid summer, but I doubt this thing would do jack-squat on a typical summer day in Texas.
- crtjer, on 06/24/2009, -1/+4Germany is embracing solar energy and they make a lot more money selling back to the grid then we do. Even in the North of the US like NY, NY gets even more solar than Germany due to the clouds like you said. This is a totally viable option, its just trying to get people involved and investing more time in it.
- SpinningHead, on 06/24/2009, -0/+3Even the southeastern US saw worsening weather when they started clear cutting for tobacco centuries ago. At the time, William Bartram wrote that the average tree in GA was 9ft in diameter.
- Brooks007, on 06/24/2009, -0/+3It is 101°F in Houston and it has not rained in a month but somehow the humidity is as high as usual. No worries the ACs are running a 100% in every house in Houston.
I don’t feel bad because I’m paying for 100% wind energy (even though our wind is supplemented by the government). - thcobbs, on 06/24/2009, -0/+3I tell you one thing you can take to the bank.
Get AC's to run well on solar energy, and the entire southern USA (From CA to GA) will be beating down your door for these things. - singebkdrft, on 06/24/2009, -0/+3(I'm in NY)
If there continues to be a drop on the price of PV panels, my next house renovation project is to put them on my roof, and get a battery bank w/ inverter.
While I don't think I'l be able to curb all of my consumption from my utility provider, I could eliminate a HUGE chunk of it (and maybe have some power in a power outage/power condition all my house power) - Brooks007, on 06/24/2009, -1/+4Germany has the second largest number of wind farms in the world after the United States.
Just one example. - Countess666, on 06/24/2009, -0/+3oil costs the US economy over 700 billion in trade deficits every year.
they cant get rid of it quickly enough. - inactive, on 06/24/2009, -0/+3"Thermodyna plans to sell the first of these machines as early as 2010. Its biggest advantage is that cooling is required exactly when the sun is shining the most—meaning the solar cooling machine can better match consumers' requirements."
It just makes so much sense!! - Tenoq, on 06/25/2009, -0/+2IMHO, 20C is already too low - you don't need it below about 23C during summer. 20C is your target for warming in winter.
I suppose it's what you're used to. But to me, 23C feels ice-cold when you're coming in from 48C. Likewise, 20C feels nice and warm when it's 4C outside. - SpinningHead, on 06/24/2009, -1/+3OK digg trolls. Maybe when you get older you will learn to do a little research and not parrot what the pundits tell you to.
First...1970s global cooling consensus is a myth http://ams.allenpress.com/perlserv/?request=get-ab ...
Second: What kind of fool thinks passive conversion of solar radiation into energy represents the past and oil and coal represents the future? - AndrAIa, on 06/24/2009, -0/+2If you live in New Jersey and you get fairly moderate summers maybe
- javaco, on 06/24/2009, -0/+2Yep, Nullenergiehäuser = Zero-energy buildings
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-energy_building - inactive, on 06/23/2009, -3/+5Harnessing the sun's ray without the use of too much energy? That will prove to be interesting especially if they can keep cost down
- bschonec, on 06/24/2009, -1/+3I'm no scientist and I don't play one on TV but I find it hard to believe that we're actually saving energy buy using this "puron" refrigerant. The air conditioner in my puron car runs almost constantly while the air conditioning in my freon-based car is so cold I have to turn it down after a few minutes.
Now back to our regularly scheduled broadcast.... - Anidash, on 06/24/2009, -1/+3Don't forget Hawaii! =D
I already want one. We have the highest energy cost in the US as it is and that is only likely to skyrocket as time goes by. So it would very likely be cost feasible for us by 2010. - HonoredMule, on 06/24/2009, -0/+2Actually, I didn't even think about BTU, or I'd have used that.
- borez, on 06/24/2009, -2/+4Germany has been recycling since the early 90's, they're way ahead of the game.
- pgoetz, on 06/24/2009, -0/+2"Recycling for the sake of recycling with no actual benefit happens on occasion and I'd argue is even worse than nothing."
Are you factoring in the cost of building additional land fills, including the accompanying political battles? I thought not. - SpinningHead, on 06/24/2009, -1/+3You also increased the resale value of your home.
- roddack, on 06/24/2009, -2/+4Popularity of answer = diggs not facts
- Countess666, on 06/24/2009, -0/+2you'd be wrong. the more energy in (sunlight) the more energy that can be used for cooling.
in fact with the more intense en direct sunlight closer to the equator it would probably work better.
all you need to do is keep that solar energy out of your house and onto your solar powered cooler, insulate your house and keep the sun off the windows and it wont matter how hot the sun is outside, this unite will keep your house cool. - pgoetz, on 06/24/2009, -0/+2And we like to videotape ourselves raping children in front of their parents (yes, this actually happened in Iraq; perps = contractors hired by Bush/Cheney). Don't be a moron. I certainly don't want to be included in generalizations of the behavior of (some) other Americans.
- iziizi, on 06/24/2009, -1/+3@Mike
Wrong. - singebkdrft, on 06/24/2009, -0/+2Texas is the leading state for wind energy production as well; I think they are in the top 5 globally.
- mzwaterski, on 06/25/2009, -0/+1@SpinningHead: Very good point, I hadn't factored that in. However, a logical person buying the house would run the same calculation that I ran and likely not be willing to pay upwards of a 10 year break even amount. That said, there are lots of illogical people who would pay more because its there.
I could personally justify it if the break even point were under 10 years. Get a few years use out of it and then sell and hopefully recoup the remainder of the investment. - plhofmei, on 06/25/2009, -0/+150F is too cold for an indoor environment, but it is the temperature the AC unit kicks out. That air mixes with the warmer air and the room and the thermostat regulates how long the AC unit is on to get the room to the desired temperature. The air coming out of the vents though is about 50F.
The air coming out of the vents when the heater is on is closer to 90. (0 isn't acomfy living temperature either, but that works out in your house, doesn't it? -
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