On Novembre, 15th, The Global Cooling Prize Committee presented the finalists for the prize: eight groups of researchers, companies, start ups, innovators, presenting breakthrough technologies for room air conditioning.
Among them also Gree — the world’s largest residential air conditioners (AC) manufacturer— which is collaborating with Tsinghua University, one of the top universities in engineering field in the world, to develop a super-efficient and climate-smart residential cooling solution.
The innovative hybrid solution is designed to have an automatic, climate-smart operation in three unique modes – vapor compression refrigeration, direct evaporative cooling, and ventilation – which will switch between each other or operate the three modes in parallel to each other depending on the outside weather conditions to provide optimized indoor cooling.
The vapor compression refrigeration mode of the cooling solution adopts an innovative temperature-humidity-independent-control cycle. It uses an ingenious compressor technology with a low global warming potential (GWP) refrigerant in conjunction with improved design of evaporator and condenser systems to more effectively cool and dehumidify the air, thus using dramatically less energy than today’s typical products.
The solution has a small solar PV panel integrated into the outdoor unit to further lower the overall grid-electricity consumption of the solution. This hybrid cooling solution not only demonstrates the application of a low GWP refrigerant, it also highlights the extent by which the efficiency of today’s predominant technology, vapor compression technology, can be expanded through smart, hybrid design.
More information HERE
