Revolutionary A/C on the horizon...

Holy desiccant-enhanced evaporative air conditioner, Batman!

(From the don't-try-this-at-home dept)


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 desiccant for pulling the water vapor out
of the cooled air stream.

The liquid desiccant, a very strong aqueous solution of lithium chloride
or calcium chloride (Kurt - do NOT drink it), is separated from the
air stream by a permeable hydrophobic membrane. The desiccants are,
compared to typical refrigerants like HCFCs, relatively benign on the
environment.

And if that isn't enough to get you excited...

DEVap helps the environment in many ways. DEVap uses 50 percent
to 90 percent less energy than top-of-the-line refrigeration-based air
conditioning.

Because DEVap uses salt solutions rather than refrigerants, there are
no harmful chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) or hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs)
to worry about. A pound of CFC or HCFC in refrigerant-based A/Cs
contributes as much to global warming as 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide.

A typical residential size A/C has as much as 13 pounds of these refrigerants.
The release of this much refrigerant is equivalent to burning more than 1,300
gallons of gasoline, or driving over 60,000 miles in a 2010 Toyota Prius.

Traditional air conditioners use a lot of electricity to run the refrigeration cycle,
but DEVap replaces that refrigeration cycle with an absorption cycle that is
thermally activated. It can be powered by natural gas or solar energy and uses
very little electricity.

Here's the scoop, dawgs...

NREL: News Feature - Energy Saving A/C Conquers All Climates

Edit: Egregious, outrageous, and unlawful spelling errors corrected for our Peter.