Coolerado Shows Off Solar-Powered Air Conditioner
I had the chance to take a look at a Coolerado air-conditioning unit this past August at the West Coast Green Conference. At the time, the company was showing off an energy-efficient model that uses thermodynamics to cool outside air without chemical refrigerants.
Now Coolerado has added another element to its air conditioners: solar power. According to Coolerado, any solar contractor can easily work with installers in the company’s network to add solar photovoltaic systems to air conditioning units. A demonstration solar-powered Coolerado air-conditioner is on display now at RETECH 2009 in Las Vegas.
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February 28th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
This is NOT a solar air conditioner – it is not even an air conditioner in the first place, it is a swamp cooler run by dc-powered fans and pumps that so-happen to have a solar source. Actually there are solar air conditioners on the market, see solarpanelsplus.com or solarsa.com. You guys need to tighten up a bit.
March 2nd, 2009 at 6:00 pm
You are right. This is not a Solar AC. it seems to be a traditional cooler powered by solar electricity.
A solar ac uses refrigerant cycle to cool air and rather than using solar electricity, a solar ac uses heat from sunlight.
March 4th, 2009 at 9:25 pm
Swamp cooler it is….I like how they barely mention that you need the water hook-up and that it uses around 4 GALLONS of water an hour. I guess that makes the that portable unit a little tougher out of the city.
March 5th, 2009 at 12:41 pm
Ghosting the Trees – That’s a good point about the water. The thing is, it takes water to generate electricity, too. We just don’t see it bc that water is consumed at the plant. I guess the question is, does it take more or less than 4 gallons of water to power a standard AC unit for an hour?
I have no idea how much water power stations use apart from “kind of a lot.” Does anyone else know?
March 5th, 2009 at 6:13 pm
Hi-
Thanks for all of your comments! Let me add a couple of clarifications.
First, this is definitely NOT a swamp cooler. A swamp cooler provides direct contact between the water and the air to be cooled, adding humidity in the process, and not removing heat from the air. The Coolerado units actually remove heat from the air, and do not add humidity, as the water used for cooling is separated from the air. By removing heat, they qualify as air conditioners.
Second, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Co, a Coolerado unit connected to the grid is net water neural. As all electricity uses water for generation, the water not used by the electric company due to the energy savings from a Coolerado unit (600 watts vs. say 6K watts for a traditional DX unit) completely makes up for the water used to cool the air.
At Coolerado we’re very committed to the environment and doing our part to keeping our world clean. Please feel free to go to our web site and send us an email, or even give us a call. We’re happy to hear all of your comments.
–Tom
March 6th, 2009 at 10:07 pm
OK, I have a question. Suppose someone collected rainwater as the water source. Firstly, what water pressure is required? Secondly, how does the temperature of the water affect the cooling efficiency? Saying I had a rainwater tank that sat outside, and in the summer warmed to about 80 degrees, would that affect the cooling efficiency?
March 7th, 2009 at 7:27 pm
Got the big issue with the water. But, since we make poor use of our water to begin with (as a friend notes, we are the only people in the world who p*ss in potable water) – will this think operate on filtered gray water? Would that make a difference? If so, how much?
I think that we are rapidly coming to a point where we need to get over our national case of the “icks” with gray water uses.
E.
March 7th, 2009 at 10:21 pm
can fresh water lakes or rivers be used as the water source, like the old Fla. heat pumps?
March 7th, 2009 at 10:37 pm
I think this would be good on lake and rivers. Why not?
March 8th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
Ick!
Okay, I want a solar powered small window air conditioner that doesn’t need water, just plug the air conditioner into the solar panels, and voila! cool air. Is there anything like that?
March 8th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
Swamp cooler with an air to air heat-exchanger. The indoor air is cooled by passing through the heat exchanger. . . the heat exchanger is cooled by evaporating water (and yes, treated water)
So if we all collect some rain water; pipe it to our toilets, flush with it, that’s 30% of a homes water, & the carbon footprint from pumping it, treating it, pumping it to our houses, etc. Then if we can cool our air with some moore of the rain water, that would acctually be very water neutral.
Sorry if you live in a humid area. . . Houston, you have a problem. . . only going to drop the air temperature about 5 – 10 degrees; Austin, 10 – 20 degrees.
Rain Water Sizing requirements (approx) = family of 4 1,500 Gallons Per Month – flushing; same typical house for cooling 1,500 Gallons Per Month = Total of 3,000 Gallon storage needed for 1 inch per month area.
Food for thought. . . Marcus
March 12th, 2009 at 5:59 pm
I never heard a solar-powered air-conditioning before. I think it is beneficial especially this time when we are cutting off expenses.
March 17th, 2009 at 4:11 am
i understand that it doesn’t add humidity. but does it remove it? this is a very important fact that needs distinction. if its 80% humidity outside, i need it to REMOVE moisture from my house, simply “not adding” humidity doesnt sound like the kind of feel a real a/c would give you.
April 5th, 2009 at 3:09 am
Ok guys, I can really see a problem here in understanding the system. I have actually seen this work. It is no way related to a swamp cooler. If you understand the basics of refrigeration then you would know that a swamp cooler IS NOT an Air Conditioner, as it does not remove heat from the air. The Coolerado DOES remove heat thus it is an Air Conditioner. Secondly, you are correct in saying it is NOT a true Solar AC system, because a True solar system would use the suns energy to drive the heat exchange cycle. In reality, any AC system can be solar driven, it depends on how many PV panels you need to harness enough power. The Coolerado requires 4 x 200 watt panels which is very efficient indeed to cool an area of about 250 m2. Yes water temperature and humidity can effect the cooling cycle, but these can be overcome at a very inexpensive cost for the cooling it provides. As far as I understand, it can use tap water, grey water, bore water, i think it has even been tested on salt water with positive results. Have a look at the website and understand the product before you can it. It just shows how ignorant you are???
You are correct is asking if it removes humidity. NO it does not. What ever the humidity is outside will be supplied inside. The Coolerado never was meant to be effective in all conditions. When you use as much environmental efficient systems that use nature itself, you are also at natures disposal on some counts.
That is the same as a refrigerated system. They do not work in california when you have a unusual high ambient temperature. From my experience, most AC units fail at times of extreme heat instead of cooling your house.
July 2nd, 2009 at 11:46 pm
Any solar panel setup can run an ac/heating unit provided the watts / KW are provided for accordingly. Sizing is critical.
July 6th, 2009 at 11:32 pm
Why does it need fresh outside air? Can it use return air as a conventional a/c? If it is hot and humdid, what is the efficantse of the unit?
July 12th, 2009 at 9:10 pm
My question is what kind of tempature difference are you able to achieve from air input to output, at 95 Deg ambient and 90 % humidity.
July 28th, 2009 at 10:09 pm
How does this puppy provide cool air at night?
August 3rd, 2009 at 4:55 am
let’s keep it real.
Try greenprm.com for a true AC unit running on renewable energy, off grid, not a glorified swamp cooler masquerading as an air conditioner.
or you can go down to walmart and get your $200 AC unit and run it through an inverter to a crap load of solar panels on the roof until the compressor fries in about 2-3 weeks.
August 6th, 2009 at 9:20 pm
Sounds like it might make perfect sense out West, where hot generally comes with dry. East of the Mississippi though, hot almost always comes with staggering humidity. Unfortunately, most of the comfort provided by AC is in the dehumidification, not the coolig, which is why many people can be comfortable at 90 degrees with 15% humidity, but almost no one is comfortable at 90% humidity, at virtually any temperature. (Cool and damp simply isn’t much improvement from hot and humid.)
I guess one could add a solar-powered dehumidifier, and run the Coolerator with the water pulled from the air, but there may be plenty of market share for this in hot, dry climates, without shoehorning it into applications for which it’s not so well suited.
August 8th, 2009 at 4:05 pm
Well I must say its good to see people are trying to make a difference on our ever so dying planet! First of all I will not knock the Coolerado its a low powered swamp cooler that can run from a renewable energy source! I have already built and patented the first ever many years ago along with RP Banning Ca the problem is there is not a large market! good luck guys hope there is no IP problems here. Joey thanks for the plug on GreenPRM! there you will find a true solar powered air conditioning unit,it does use mechanical cooling only using a few oz of 134a refrigerant. the unit ranges from 13,200 BTU’s to 20,00 BTU’s and can run from all power supplys available! All you greeny’s remember you have to feed the beast so dont complain about the cost of solar! you wanted it here it is 24vdc @ 40 amps! 13,000 BTU’s
runnin straight off your panels.Dont have 1000 watts of solar well what ever you do have for solar will have to do plug it in and let the 120v make up the difference add panels as your budget allows until you get there! There are on board batteries so the unit can run during outages how ever long you want!just have to size your battery bank for your desired outage run time! Guys this thing really is the Coolest way to go Green!
November 18th, 2009 at 2:59 pm
Looks like an interesting product, will be a great innovation if it can work as well as it is made out too.
December 29th, 2009 at 7:54 pm
Ok im not an engineer but i am a highly trained and expeienced hvac technician,installer and innovation/gadget nut. let me start by saying water nuetral sounds like some gov’t language used to cover the fact that something is b/s. You cant save money on green power sources yet, the technology just isnt there,period. we can try to add batteries to stuff,make stuff run on solar,dual fuel or hybrids,all of these things need power to manufacture,ship,service,and whatever other processes neede to get the product to the end user…
case in point a toyota prius hybrid when all factors of energy usage from star of manufacture to end of effective lifespan will have consumed more energy than a Hummer H1 (thats the really big one).
oh yeah and the Hummer has a life expectancy twice as long as the prius.
anyway, solar is the future, but until someone can come up with a cell that is actually energy efficient and cost effective, we’re married to conventional methods of producing and consuming energy.
February 19th, 2010 at 10:13 pm
Robert comment on Dec 29, 2009-
So, you are saying that any green technology is not viable today because of the manufacturing process? How about a wind turbine or solar panel? The producing lifespan of a wind turbine or a solar panel for outweighs the amount of energy to produce them. Solar panels can last 20-25 years producing energy. Just how much energy do you think it takes to make a panel? Ok, now how about this? What if you are the manufacturing and produce solar panels, which you install on the factory to meet your energy requirements to make more panels? Wouldn’t that bring down the carbon footprint of production?