Sustainable cooling technology manufacturers are not a cohesive community of enterprises. They tend to function in siloes of creativity, knowledge, and best practices. They are perceived as sub-standard cooling technology manufacturers whose’ solutions provide inadequate cooling, cannot leverage economies of scale available to large manufacturers and are usually costlier to implement in terms of first-costs. There is a perception of them as being providers without a wide service and maintenance network. They generally fall outside the purview of BEE’s Standards and Labelling Programs making comparison with conventional cooling technologies difficult.
Several of the problems above are largely the outcome of active manipulations of scientific and engineering data by the mainstream HVAC industry which stands to lose market share to new players if thermal comfort, life-cycle energy cost savings, and environmental considerations start to predominate in the users’ mindset. Thus, many of the problems can be addressed through directly correcting perceptions and combatting misinformation amongst large buyers and opinion-moulders. Through their procurement and purchasing practices, these prestigious cooling solutions customers lead the change and shape the terrain of the industry.
The proposed program will seek to correct the trust deficit towards manufacturers of sustainable cooling technologies. A standardization and labelling program will also lead to enhance credibility of their offerings. A low-cost and preferential financing mechanism addresses project risk-sharing issues based on energy performance contracting. This will enable this ‘sunrise’ sector to unleash it’s immense meaningful and dignified employment potential.
R290 refrigerant gas uptake for ACs & centrally-cooled buildings: R290 split-unit ACs are not only far more energy-efficient (20% more compared to conventional split-unit ACs), but lead to lower GHG emissions from fluorinated refrigerant leakage.
Direct/Indirect Evaporative Cooling uptake: The lowest annual energy consumption and GHG emissions per unit area of cooled space in hot and dry regions is achieved through the use of direct as well as two-stage (direct/indirect) evaporative cooling when compared to the business-as-usual options of unit ACs or central AC systems.
In this technology, naturally cooled water (from a ground or surface water source) is circulated through ceilings or floors by means of a simple plumbing system consisting of pipes & channels.
Vapour Absorption chillier machines (VAM) produce chilled water using a solar source rather than electrical input as in the case of vapour compression cycle.
Besides the above active (machine) cooling technologies, the project will also promote passive cooling technologies and design approaches in buildings. The more prominent amongst these are: Roof and Wall-Insulation, Radiant Barriers / Night-Sky Radiation Systems that shield roofs from solar radiation during the daytime and promote rapid heat dissipation through radiation at night using retractable low-emissivity radiant barriers and high-emissivity roof coatings, Efficient Fenestration Systems such as Engineered Glazing and Double-Glazed Units, Shading Devices, and Spectrally Selective Window Films.