Coolerado (Solar Air Conditioner)

[milkmania]

Don’t know anything about them... found through a google search
Efficient Air Conditioners Coolerado climate wizard

Air Conditioner Uses Just 600 watts, 3 or 4 Solar Panels
Home Design Find
6/10/09
By Susan Kraemer
Link to article
For homeowners considering solar in hot climates, the back of the solar panel is key to solar efficiency. Solar panels need to be cool to work most efficiently.
And that’s where the Coolerado’s novel approach to air conditioning comes in:
Air conditioning accounts for an astounding 50 percent of the summer peak power load in California. But the energy cost of A/C is a hidden cost for home buyers. Nobody really looks at an air conditioned home and sees the hundreds of thousands that it can cost over the years to stay cool.
Like a refrigerator, an air conditioner works by piping a chemical refrigerant through cycles of compression and expansion. The refrigerant absorbs heat from cool interior air and releases it to the hot air of the great outdoors.
Heat naturally flows from a hot area to a cold one so an air conditioner has to mechanically compress the gaseous refrigerant into much hotter liquid form and pump it through outdoor coils from which it can release the heat it has absorbed. A typical air conditioner can use 6,000 watts.
That takes a lot of energy, usually from a fossil-fueled power plant.
But let’s say you are considering putting your own power plant on your roof. You have decided to go solar. Instead of putting in another 6 KW of solar power on your roof to power a traditional energy guzzling air conditioner, take a look at a completely different kind of air conditioner to go with your solar installation: The Coolerado can cool 3,000 square feet with just 600 watts of power; or just (depending on watts) 3 or 4 solar panels. That’s one-tenth the amount of power the traditional air conditioning system needs.
This novel air conditioner forms a synergistic combo with solar. Solar panels work most efficiently in cool weather. (That is why panels in foggy places like San Francisco can be surprisingly effective in generating solar electricity.) The Coolerado exhausts air to the outdoors in the process of sending cooled air indoors.
So you can use the moving air to cool off the panels, relatively speaking: solar panels can get as hot as 150 degrees on a hot sunny day, but the fan blowing air exhaust from the Coolerado can bring them down to about 110 degrees, making them produce electricity more efficiently than un-cooled solar panels in the same climate.

[PNW_Steve]

Revolutionary!!!

My Granddaddy called it a "swamp cooler".......

[milkmania]

Originally Posted by PNW_Steve

Revolutionary!!!

My Granddaddy called it a "swamp cooler".......

Our swamp cooler only cooled 12” in front of it, if we ran around back and filled it with water

[scoolbus1]

I have tried a few different cooling methods in our mid size 1992 bluebird and despite not wanting to have to remove a window and have an A/C unit stick out, we eventually went to that. We initially tried an "IcyBreeze" unit which cooled about a 2 foot radius in front of it. I really wanted the icybreeze to work and it had great reviews but fell short in the cooling department. We next went with a portable AC unit-12000 BTU's and vented to the outside of the bus with the big 6" diameter hose. We tested the unit for a considerable length of time and gave it the benefit of the doubt when it didn't lower the temperature, we let it go another 4 hours but it didn't matter and didn't lower the temp. I also tried the double window fan unit, 4 of them and they actually did better than the AC unit. But when I built enclosed window screens the fans wouldn't fit right in the windows. I considered a roof unit but really didn't want to creat new holes in the roof or their subsequent leaks so I finally broke down and bought a 10000 BTU window smart AC. I took out the drivers side rear window and mounted it in...It works great and cools the entire bus 15' x 8' with no problem. I did add a small usb fan that helps to circulate the air but other than that it is great. and I painted the AC unit to match the bus color and blend it in more than just a big metal box sticking out the back...

[Tango]

Some of the new window units are remarkably efficient. Shop and read.


As for swamp coolers...they only work in VERY dry climates. A little humidity and they do zip.

[PNW_Steve]

Originally Posted by Tango

Some of the new window units are remarkably efficient. Shop and read.


As for swamp coolers...they only work in VERY dry climates. A little humidity and they do zip.

We had swamp coolers in TX and AZ and they were helpful as long as the humidity didn't get too bad. But on those 90% days we suffered.....

Interesting link: https://www.google.com/search?q=how+...gNSEXZobRAOaM:

[Tango]

Ya...I have always appreciated the irony in the name. "Swamp" coolers...they don't work in a "swamp"...like Houston.

[cadillackid]

Originally Posted by Tango

Ya...I have always appreciated the irony in the name. "Swamp" coolers...they don't work in a "swamp"...like Houston.

no but mis-use of them.. or should i say over-use and your house will feel like a cold clammy swamp
-Christopher

[Tango]

One of the nastiest jobs I have ever had (and I have had some nasty ones) was when I was 10 years old and working for the little neighborhood grocery store. In the fall, as things began to cool a bit, I had to climb inside the wooden water tower for the old Italian owners swamp cooler (only bout 10 feet high) and scrape out all the slimy algae that had grown in there over the summer. Stank to high heaven and took most of a week to clear it all out.


Ya...seriously nasty.