![]() We like them to have a certain boiling point. Roughly 1,000–3,000 times more potent than CO2 as a greenhouse gas, these refrigerants slowly leak into the atmosphere and escape when air conditioners are destroyed.ĭespite decades of searching, few refrigerants have proven to be viable alternatives to HFCs, Bullard says. In addition to making air conditioners more efficient, there’s an urgent need to replace the hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) refrigerants that most air conditioners still use, despite global efforts to phase out the chemicals. Today’s $60-billion air-conditioning market, dominated by a few large corporations, has long focused on lowering the cost of vapor compression–based air conditioners, not reducing the amount of energy needed to power them. Meanwhile, a fan blows over the cold metal coil, cooling the air and removing humidity as water condenses on the coil like droplets “on a cold beer glass,” Bullard says. When it reaches the outdoor coil, the refrigerant condenses, ejecting heat into the air before beginning the next cycle. As the refrigerant vaporizes, it gets cold and chills the metal coil inside the room. A liquid refrigerant circulates through the coils, alternately evaporating and condensing under varying pressure. ![]() In its most stripped-down form, it consists of two metal coils, one located inside the space to be cooled, one outside. It is known as the vapor-compression cycle, explains Clark Bullard, a mechanical engineer and professor emeritus at the University of Illinois. ![]() To understand the challenge, it helps to picture the basic system that Willis Carrier invented-and that we are essentially still using today. After receiving in November $200,000 to refine their proposals, the eight teams are now racing to build prototypes that will be shipped to India for testing in fall 2020. The winning unit must cost no more than twice what a standard room air conditioner costs and must keep people cool in the sweltering heat of an apartment block in Delhi, India, where the heat index-a measurement of how hot it feels-can reach 140 degrees Fahrenheit. If such a technology were rapidly deployed, it could prevent up to 100 gigatons of CO2-equivalent emissions by 2050, RMI estimates. The prize aims to accelerate the development of air conditioners that use dramatically less energy together with climate-friendlier coolants. Launched in 2018, the competition is sponsored by the Indian Department of Science and Technology, part of the Indian Ministry of Science and Technology the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) a coalition of 24 additional countries and Richard Branson, founder and CEO of the Virgin Group. In November 2019, eight finalists were announced for the $1 million competition to design a room air conditioner that produces five times less greenhouse gas over the course of its lifetime than does a standard room unit. homes, nor on window units, but on a single-room air conditioner similar to those commonly installed in apartment buildings in India, where the competition will take place. ![]() Strategically, the prize focuses not on the central air systems common in U.S. Making sure that this wave of new customers can afford more-efficient air conditioners is the motivation behind the Global Cooling Prize. Whether they’ll be able to afford climate-friendlier units-or the pollution-heavy models that have long dominated the market-hangs in the balance. In countries with fast-growing economies and already-dangerous levels of heat and humidity-such as India, Indonesia, and Brazil-billions of people will soon buy their first home air conditioner. It is no hyperbole to say that air conditioning has shaped our modern world-and will continue to do so well into an unprecedented climate future. The basic cooling technology behind air conditioning and refrigerators hasn’t changed significantly since 1902, when a young American engineer named Willis Carrier devised the first air conditioner to solve a humidity problem for a printing company in New York City. In short, air conditioning urgently needs an upgrade. By the end of the century, greenhouse gas emissions from air conditioning will account for as much as a 0.5-degree Celsius rise in global temperatures, according to calculations by the World Economic Forum. By 2050, researchers expect the number of room air conditioners on Earth to quadruple to 4.5 billion, becoming at least as ubiquitous as cell phones are today. One of the great ironies of climate change is that as the planet warms, the technology that people need to stay cool will only make the climate hotter.
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