What is a Coolerado?

Coolerado is an air conditioner that uses renewable, atmospheric energy to obtain extremely high efficiency.

What are the benefits of a Coolerado air conditioner?

Coolerado delivers fresh, filtered, comfortably cooled air that is affordable to install and operate.  Coolerado does not use any chemical refrigerants such as Freon, or an energy-expensive compressor to reject heat.  Yet the Coolerado air conditioner rejects heat from one location where it is not wanted and transfers it to another, just like refrigeration.

Does the Coolerado air conditioner reduce pollution?

Yes, the air conditioner uses 60 to 80 percent less electricity depending on the humidity and elevation above sea level.  The power plant electrical demand is significantly reduced, thereby reducing the amount of fuel burned and all associated pollutants.  The Coolerado air conditioner is at its greatest efficiency during peak cooling periods, further reducing peak power loads.  In addition, the Coolerado air conditioner does not use any chemical refrigerants.

How energy efficient is the Coolerado air conditioner?

By using water as a fuel to tap into renewable, atmospheric energy, Coolerado uses about one forth the amount of electricity of a traditional air-conditioner. No humidity is added to the building supply air stream.

What is the operating cost of the Coolerado air conditioner compared to cooling the same home with a standard vapor compression air- conditioning system? 

Based on hourly weather data and holding the same building temperature, the Coolerado air conditioner uses one fourth the amount of energy throughout the cooling season in Denver, Colorado.  Depending on the amount of make up air required (25% used in this example for existing AC, 100% for Coolerado air conditioner), weather conditions, building temperatures desired, and elevation, energy efficiency will vary.

How much water does the Coolerado air conditioner use? 

For an average size home (2,200 square feet) in the western USA during mid-summer, maximum water usage is 8 gallons per hour during the hottest part of the day, and 3 gallons per hour during the morning and evening.  The maximum average use over the cooling season is about 3.5 gallons per hour.  In general, Coolerado air conditioners use from about the same amount of water as an evaporative (or swamp) cooler uses to cool the same space.

Does the Coolerado air conditioner recirculate water? 

No.  The air conditioner evaporates away 50 to 90 percent of the water that goes to it, depending on the quality of the water. The Coolerado is capable of evaporating 100% of the water, however, excess water is used to carry away dissolved minerals in the water that are not filtered out.  The purity of the water going to the air conditioner is what determines how much excess water is needed to carry away minerals.

Is it better to use a standard air conditioning (A/C) system during a drought? 

Almost never.  The exception is if water to cool the air is more expensive then the added electricity to run an A/C system.  Power plants also use water to generate power.  So even though the standard A/C system does not use water at the home, it uses electricity that was generated evaporating water.

How much moisture does the Coolerado air conditioner add to the incoming air? 

None.  The Coolerado air conditioner removes heat from the air with a heat exchanger (much like a radiator on a car), but it does not add moisture to the product air stream.  There is an exhaust air stream that has a very high humidity that is rejected to the outside air.

As a comparison, a direct evaporative cooler does not remove energy from the air; it instead only replaces hot, dry air with cooler, moist air.  The Coolerado air conditioner removes energy from the product air while cooling it, and no moisture is added. 

Can the Coolerado air conditioner be used in humid climates?  

The Coolerado air conditioner can be used in any location.  In some humid locations, it may need an air drying system such as a desiccant wheel to reach optimum indoor temperature and humidity.  Many commercial and industrial applications do not require low humidity or temperatures below 80^oF such as for makeup air in a commercial kitchen.

What is Atmospheric Energy?

Renewable, atmospheric energy is always around us in the form of latent energy.  Latent (which means not visible or hidden) energy comes in the form of the available water vapor that can be absorbed in the air of our atmosphere. 

Heat energy is captured in the form of vapor as the water evaporates.  The suns energy is transferred into air in the form of latent heat as water evaporates from oceans, lakes, and even our skin.   This energy transfer cools the atmosphere, the ground and our bodies. 

The air and moisture containing evaporative energy from the ground is carried up and condenses to form clouds.  The heat energy that was captured into the air through evaporation is then released as water vapor that is again condensed.  This continuous process of evaporation and condensation transfers heat from the ground into the upper atmosphere.

It is the release of latent energy in the form of heat that fuels thunderstorms.  An average thunderstorm can release about 10,000,000 kilowatt-hours of energy, which is enough energy to power all of the USA for over a minute.  Latent energy drives these powerful thunderstorms.

How does Coolerado use atmospheric energy to produce cold air?

Coolerado uses the same latent cooling process that transfers heat to a thunderstorm.  Water is evaporated into air in one chamber within the air conditioner, and this cools the air flowing in an adjacent chamber.  The cold air is used to cool the building while the water vapor holding the heat is exhausted to the outside to be renewed by the atmosphere.

Isn’t this just a glorified swamp cooler?

No!  Because the Coolerado air conditioner uses water to cool, it is mistakenly compared to traditional evaporative coolers or swamp coolers, as they are better known.  Swamp coolers only add moisture to air, and they do not reject heat.  The heat in the air exiting a swamp cooler and entering the building is hidden (latent) in the form of higher humidity.

The Coolerado air conditioner is properly compared to a traditional refrigerant-based air conditioner.  In the Coolerado air conditioner, fresh outside air enters the cooler from the supply side.  The heat is removed from the product air with a heat exchanger much like a refrigerant-based air conditioner has cooling coils to cool the air stream with a refrigerant.   Both Coolerado and the traditional refrigerant-based air conditioning reject heat to the atmosphere outside the building.   Coolerado rejects the heat in the form of water vapor and the traditional AC rejects heat in the form of hot air.

What is the difference between this indirect evaporative air conditioner and others on the market?

The Coolerado air conditioner can cool below the wet bulb temperature (which means its wet-bulb effectiveness can be over 100%).  All other indirect evaporative coolers struggle to cool to half the distance to the wet bulb (or 50% wet-bulb effectiveness).  Coolerado’s patented thermodynamic process (the Maisotsenko Cycle or M-Cycle) has allowed this significant performance improvement that has been verified by the U.S. Department of Energy.

What are the cooling calculation basics?

Typically building heat gain is calculated in tons of refrigeration needed:

·        1 ton of cooling is the amount of cooling provided by melting 1 ton of ice over a 24-hour period.

·        1 ton of cooling equals 12,000 British Thermal Units (BTU) per hour.

·        It takes 1 BTU to raise 1 pound of water 1^oF.

·        It takes approximately 1160 BTU to evaporate 1 pound of water.

·        It takes 0.24 BTU to raise 1 pound of air 1^oF.

·        One pound of air occupies 13.7 cubic feet of space at sea level when the temperature is 75^°F.

·        Removing 1 ton of building heat requires cooling 570 cubic feet per minute (CFM) of room air from 75°F to 55^oF at sea level.

·        Removing 1 ton of building heat requires cooling 660 CFM of room air from 75°F to 55^oF at 5,000 feet in elevation. 

How much total cooling is provided by a Coolerado air conditioner in a 100 percent make-up air application?

100 percent make-up air means that no building air is re-circulated to the air conditioner, and all the air is brought in from the outside.  100 percent makeup air applications include meeting spaces, commercial kitchens, and other residential, commercial and industrial processes.  The total amount of cooling provided by a Coolerado air conditioner is:

·        Outside air in the western USA at 100^oF on a dry day is cooled down to about 55^oF, a 45 ^oF temperature drop.  With 570 CFM of airflow and a temperature drop of 45^oF, total cooling is 2.25 tons.  A Coolerado air conditioner with two Coolerado Heat and Mass Exchangers (HMXs) will deliver approximately 570 CFM of conditioned air.

·        Outside air in the western USA at 100^oF on a high humidity day is cooled down to about 68^oF, a 38 ^oF temperature drop.  With 570 CFM of airflow the total cooling is 1.9 tons.

So the amount of cooling two Coolerado HMXs will provide in western USA is roughly 2 tons, or roughly 1 ton per HMX (we use .9 tons per HMX as a rule of thumb to be conservative).

A Coolerado model R600 has 6 HMXs, so it provides about 5.4 tons of total cooling in the western USA.

How much building cooling does a Coolerado air conditioner provide when no makeup air is required?

The amount of building cooling a Coolerado air conditioner provides from the first example above is:

·        On the same 100^oF dry day, the same 570 CFM Coolerado air conditioner would be cooling the outside air to 55^oF.  The building air is at 75^oF and sees a 20^oF temperature depression to 55^oF, and therefore there is 1 ton of building cooling.

How do I account for internal latent and infiltration heat gains?

Any infiltration heat gain through doors or windows should be excluded from the building heat gain calculations. This is because the building is slightly pressurized pushing cool air out rather then letting hot air infiltrate.

In the same way latent heat gain from inside the building should be excluded from the building heat gain calculations because the Coolerado adds between 50 percent fresh air with a recirculation system, and 100 percent fresh air without a recirculation system.  The latent load is physically removed from the building rather then being condensed out on a cold coil saving a significant amount of energy.

How much air is needed to cool with a Coolerado air conditioner? 

There are several variables that determine how much air is needed.  These include the size, activities, desired temperature in the building, the moisture in the outside air, the temperature of the outside air and the altitude.  Generally, you need about one third as much airflow as a direct evaporative cooler for the same heat load due to the Coolerado air conditioners lower temperatures and no added humidity.  Generally, Coolerado air conditioners are designed to have a little more airflow than a traditional air conditioning system due to the higher temperature delivered on higher humidity days.

Don’t we want to add humidity to the air in the dry western states in the summer months? 

No, the humidity is at optimum levels in the summer months throughout most of the western USA including the deserts.  Traditional air-conditioners dry the air out too much in this region causing many people to run humidifiers to make it more comfortable.  This leads them to believe added humidity is needed.

Direct evaporative air coolers add too much humidity.  When the air becomes too humid, the skin cannot evaporate moisture off easily and use the body's natural cooling system.  This, and because of the musty smell that comes from the cooler sometimes, is why many people refer to a direct evaporative cooler as a “swamp cooler”.

There is direct evaporative cooling advertising that states that humid air feels colder.  That is true for temperatures 50^oF and colder; however, in the summer months, room air is generally held at about 70^oF or above, where high humidity feels like a swamp.  Skin becomes clammy and can’t evaporate water off easily.

Can Coolerado’s exhaust air stream be used? 

Yes!  The exhaust air stream is saturated with water, but it still could be 10^oF to 30^oF cooler than the outside air on a hot day.  Examples:

·        In a residential application you can use the exhaust air to cool an outside deck or patio. 

·        In a hybrid Coolerado/Vapor Compression air conditioner, you can use the exhaust air to cool the condenser and compressor. 

·        In a combustion turbine inlet cooling system you can use the exhaust air as a pre-cooler or to cool other equipment.

What type of thermostat is needed with the Coolerado air conditioner? 

The Coolerado air conditioner can be controlled with standard heating and air conditioning thermostats.

How often should the Coolerado air conditioner be serviced? 

This will depend on the quality of the water used and the amount of dust in the air.  The Coolerado air conditioner is prepared for operation at the beginning of the cooling season.  Optional water filter and treatment systems need to be replaced more or less often depending on the quality of the water.  Air filters need to be replaced at least monthly depending on the dust in the outside air.  This is no different then changing the filters on a furnace.

Will the unit build up with mineral deposits? 

No, the heat and mass exchanger plates allow dissolved minerals in the water to wick out and flow down an incline across the plates where minerals are flushed away to the drain.  The reason for the excess water is the need to wash the minerals out of the heat and mass exchanger.  This is no different then the other types of evaporative cooling systems such as cooling towers and evaporative coolers.  The major difference is that Coolerado could evaporate all the water away in one pass if desired.  Whereas others evaporate only about 3% to 5% per pass.  This is why Coolerado does not recirculate water in the; the minerals have already been concentrated in one pass, and need to be carried down the drain.

Will a water softener prevent deposits? 

No, but on the other hand it will not create deposits as long as there is enough water flushed through the heat and mass exchanger to carry off dissolved minerals.

Do we need to be concerned with molds?