Colombia. The Pontifical Bolivarian University (UPB), the United States Agency for International Development – USAID and Colciencias, presented last week in Medellín a sustainable air conditioning project with solar energy that is located in the facilities of the university campus.
The project consists of an integration of energy-efficient technologies in air conditioning systems operated with thermal energy and the implementation of an air conditioning system with solar energy using an absorption cooling cycle.
César Isaza, leader of the Research Group in Energy and Thermodynamics (GET) of the UPB, told us about the results that the project has left so far: "For these days that have been intense heat in the city, we have received very high sources of heat energy. Medellín is a city that can lend itself to take advantage of solar energy very well. The equipment has needed certain adjustments, but we have found very interesting results due to the humidity and temperature conditions of Medellín, for example, the indirect operational cooling systems that have worked correctly, and we had an experience in the assembly that was very enriching because aspects such as finding local suppliers, knowing what we have to bring, and other aspects that one faces in these projects and sometimes does not size them".
The project, which presented several technologies, aims to provide comfort conditions with equipment that consumes energy from renewable energy resources. One of the technologies they are implementing is radial roofs. These are ice water mats that generate a cold surface so that the heat generated by the building is transferred to that surface by a means called radiation, that medium does not need air flow to make it circulate, so they managed to reduce energy consumption.
To ensure air renewal there , they also implemented an indirect evaporative cooling system, which introduces outside air, to pass it through a heat exchanger that cools air by means of a system that works with water, and inject renewal air at a temperature even below what is required for comfort.
The third technology is a cooling system with solar energy. Here the radiant roof works with ice water, they have two tanks, one of ice water and another of hot water, the latter is the source of energy for the ice water production system that delivers ice water to the tank which supplies that water to the radiant roof. Both the hot water tank and the ice water tank are systems that generate heat and that heat is taken out into the environment through the cooling tower.
"The project has been studied for many years at the university, and about three years ago, in a call from Colciencias for a knowledge network in energy efficiency, we presented this project which was favored and is the result we are seeing today," said César Isaza.
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