Commercially available air conditioning systems on the market are too expensive to own and operate

Context

Commercially available air conditioning systems on the market can be prohibitively expensive for individuals and businesses to install, especially for developing countries and low-income populations.

"As cooling increasingly becomes a necessity for comfort and safety in buildings around the world due to climate change, an estimated 3.3 billion air-conditioning units are expected to be installed in the next few decades." - Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), "Clean Energy 101: Heat Pumps"

Groups working on this bottleneck

• Globabl Cooling Prize
• Global Cooling Efficiency Accelerator (GCEA)

Technical solution pathways

Super-efficient AC Units

A new class of super-efficient ACs — using high-efficiency components and designed and optimized for real-world conditions — can deliver better dehumidification and comfort while using 60 percent less energy than today’s common models. In real-world conditions, super-efficient ACs used 60 percent less energy than typical AC units, while reducing peak demand and enhancing occupant comfort. The study also uncovered critical gaps in current testing standards — particularly around performance in humidity. The current testing standards underestimate the real-world energy use of ACs in warm and humid climates largely due to the extra energy used by typical ACs to attempt to control humidity.¹

Pre-cooling

This super cooling AC technique involves significantly lowering your thermostat setting to much lower settings during the coolest parts of the day and letting the temperature slowly drift upwards during the heat of the day when your system is off.

Your air conditioner does not have to fight the heat of the day to reach and maintain super cooling at night. It can rest during the early part of the day, not switching back into cooling mode until later in the afternoon. The net result of super cooling is that you could pay less for electricity and put your HVAC through less wear and tear. ²

Heat pumps

Heat pumps provide a leap in efficiency relative to fossil fuel heating systems and conventional compressor-based air conditioning. Because heat pumps move heat — as opposed to fossil fuel furnaces or heaters that rely on combustion to generate heat — they can produce over four times as much heat energy as they consume in electricity, saving up to half the total energy while producing zero direct emissions. Switching from fossil fuels also reduces indoor air pollution and removes potential risks of carbon monoxide poisoning and gas leaks.³

Philanthropic Support

Suggested by ClimateWorks as “Potential priority agendas for philanthropy”^⁴

Advance affordable and high-quality clean cooling solutions (mechanical and passive) through:

1. Financing mechanisms
2. Research for new solutions
3. Support for the uptake of heat-resilient building materials, especially in low-income settings.