Comments on: A Plastic Film That Might Replace Your Air Conditioner

By: abailes

abailes — Fri, 08 Nov 2019 15:30:45 +0000

In reply to Nick. Nick, I have no idea if this

Nick, I have no idea if this has made it to the commercial phase or not. Your best bet is to search online.

By: Nick

Nick — Fri, 08 Nov 2019 02:08:49 +0000

Where can I buy this material
Where can I buy this material?

By: Thomas Garven

Thomas Garven — Fri, 01 Sep 2017 16:41:34 +0000

In reply to Michael Brumfield. I have a slightly different
I have a slightly different view. Where I live in Western Arizona I have a 42,000 BTU heat pump for both my heating and cooling needs. Trust me I would never go back to separate units for both needs. Anyway my all electric home uses almost no electricity during the winter months. My heat pump might run about 30-40 minutes in the morning to warm up my home if it was really cold the night before. However, in the summer my heat pumps duty cycle varies but it runs about 50% of the time if you consider a 24 hour clock. Of course in the morning when it is cool outside it might only run about 10 minutes out of every hour. When it is 110 F. outside it will run almost 75% of the time. In any case even my new TWO speed unit is still an energy hog. What we need in the U.S. is a mandate that all heating and cooling units must be Inverter Units meaning they run at a variable speed depending on needs of the structure. Even a high efficiency AC unit of lets say 18 SEER will cycle off and on. Every one of those off and on cycles is a waste of energy. So this film. Well if I could use this film to reduce my cooling load which by the way makes up about 75% of my energy bill, that would be a huge help. It would also help by reducing the size of unit that must be purchased and therefore the cost of the unit and the natural resources that go into its manufacturer. Now how all of that gets accomplished still needs to be designed and packaged for sale to homeowners. Lets talk again in 5 years, ha ha.

By: Scott Turnbull

Scott Turnbull — Sun, 30 Apr 2017 00:49:52 +0000

Interesting article and many
Interesting article and many comments, although most over my head, that seemed to fill in or question some of the points made in the article. One thing I didn’t see expressed is something most of us find difficult to believe.
It was during the fuel crisis in the 70’s that I remember reading about and seeing on the news two new ‘discoveries’ brought about by the reality that the earth does not have an unlimited supply of fossil fuels. One ‘invention’, from a guy in Fla. was a carburetor that got 75 miles per gal. The other, a guy in N.Y., who had developed an oil burner gun, that instead of shooting a flame into the firebox to create heat, a laser-type gun was shot at a panel on the other side of the firebox, that consisted mainly of a mix of seaweed and some other inexpensive materials.
My point, and the thing most of us find hard to believe, is that the world, esp.I think here in the U.S.,is controlled by those who have money, concerned with only making more, not about you or me saving money so we could have a better life.
The guy in Fla.and the one in N.Y., with those two things none of us ever heard about again, they were probably given 2 options;
sell us your idea for a million bucks, to spend in your lifetime, or deal with our oil companies 100 lawyers and our dozens of lobbyists in D.C.and watch the years go by without being able to produce or sell one of those things you invented.
Someday I’m sure, given time for those money people to figure a way to make yet even more money, they’ll be some sort of exterior covering or solar/battery system for homes that will be almost be free. For now though, don’t think we should hold our breaths waiting for something that would put the electric or oil companies out of business…just sayin.

By: Brad Mccollum

Brad Mccollum — Mon, 06 Mar 2017 17:50:44 +0000

Very interesting. I'm not
Very interesting. I'm not surprised. It seems there are always ideas and advances in every field out there. I'm not sure this would be good for us HVAC Contractors though! lol ;) We would either have to evolve with these new inventions or suffer some loss of business, possibly.

By: Matt Schwoegler

Matt Schwoegler — Wed, 01 Mar 2017 13:31:21 +0000

Allison…fascinating, thanks
Allison…fascinating, thanks for posting, but wondering if I misunderstood something. I would like to look at the main paper more closely as I’m having the most trouble with this sentence: “The spheres play a critical role in tuning the material to emit infrared radiation while not absorbing any of solar radiation that hits the material during the daytime”. I agree with Michael, something does seem a bit off here. A = E, but what these values are varies considerably by the material type and wavelength. Would be interested to know what part of the spectrum they’re dealing with here as well, but as far as I’m aware, you can’t have something that has a high emissivity and a low absorptivity at the same time at a specific wavelength.

By: Leigha Dickens

Leigha Dickens — Thu, 23 Feb 2017 15:12:55 +0000

I know we're not there yet..
I know we're not there yet...but I keep wondering: practically, how would you install it? Laminate it to the roofing or something? Roll it out when needed like a curtain then roll it up again when not needed? (sort of partially kidding..) Among other considerations already mentioned, like how do you move the heat to it from the house (and how do you do that without drastically altering how roofs/attics are constructed, or do you drastically alter how roofs/attics are constructed?), if it's sheet plastic, what about it's vapor diffusion properties?

By: Bill Swanson

Bill Swanson — Thu, 23 Feb 2017 14:10:51 +0000

Why does it need to go on the
Why does it need to go on the roof? Can’t this be a wall panel system?

What effect would this have as a passive wall panel system in a “perfect wall”. Is it better to have this film on the exterior, or inside of the wall exposed to the air gap?

Any idea on cost? Could charities afford this in poor countries?

How does it hold up to dust, wind, rain, snow?

By: David Butler

David Butler — Thu, 23 Feb 2017 01:36:39 +0000

In reply to abailes. > Your house with $100 of
> Your house with $100 of annual cooling costs might use only $50 with this system. So after 10 years, I've saved $500, and after 20 years, $1,000. Just how much do you imagine this system might cost compared to the 1-ton baseline mini-split in my baseline high performance home that might cost $7k or 8k, depending on ducting. You're focusing on energy savings while ignoring what appears to be a very expensive heat transport and removal system. I'm conditioned to hear 'ka-ching whenever I see anything mechanical that's outside the norm, especially if hydronics are in play. I'll eat my hat if this technology can ever compete in terms of life-cycle cost with a conventional compression-based system, at least not in my lifetime or yours. And as others have pointed out, you still gotta have the mini-split or some other system to heat the house. I prefer to stick with conventional equipment and design approaches done well. Ironically, as we make our homes more efficient, the more difficult it becomes to justify the additional cost of the highest efficiency equipment. You can quote me on that :-)

By: abailes

abailes — Thu, 23 Feb 2017 00:58:13 +0000

In reply to David Butler. Oh, come on, David. You are,

Oh, come on, David. You are, too, being a spoil-sport! Look, any type of compressor-based air conditioning system is going to have to move heat to the outside. Whether mini-splits, conventional split systems, or package units, you've got to move a fluid carrying the heat to the outdoors. Let's stick with split systems here.

The indoor coil picks up heat and transports it the outdoor unit in the refrigerant. The compressor is what moves it. With this film, you don't need a compressor. You need a circulator to move a hydronic fluid (probably not just water since it's going to the roof). Hydronic circulators are much more efficient than compressors. Your house with $100 of annual cooling costs might use only $50 with this system.

Yes, you'll still need some dehumidification here in latent-land and that'll add to the cost. But it's hard to build a high-performance house in hot humid-climates and even mixed-humid climates now without supplemental dehumidification.