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Your future air conditioner might act like a battery (www.technologyreview.com)

submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Cooling represents 20% of global electricity demand in buildings, a share that’s expected to rise as the planet warms and more of the world turns to cooling technology. During peak demand hours, air conditioners can account for over half the total demand on the grid in some parts of the world today.

New cooling technologies that incorporate energy storage could help by charging themselves when renewable electricity is available and demand is low, and still providing cooling services when the grid is stressed.

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

In plenty of places, the wet bulb temperature is high 24 hours a day. At night, the temperature goes down, but relative humidity goes up, so you feel cooler, but also worse. You still need AC during that time, but mainly to dehumidify.

Also, in many places, peak demand is actually in the early evenings because people let their houses get hot while they are at work, but turn the AC on when they get home.

Any way you can store energy for even a few hours is really nice, and these kind of solutions could help adjust the daily demand curve to meet the supply curve.