Your future air conditioner might act like a battery

6 comments

1. **From the article:**

   As temperatures climb on hot days, many of us are quick to crank up our fans or air conditioners. These cooling systems can be a major stress on electrical grids, which has inspired some inventors to create versions that can store energy as well as use it. 

   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~](https://iea.blob.core.windows.net/assets/0bb45525-277f-4c9c-8d0c-9c0cb5e7d525/The_Future_of_Cooling.pdf) 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.  

2. Interesting article. I think we’ll start seeing appliances with batteries increasingly in the next decade, as solar and batteries become cheaper every year and time-of-use tariffs become widespread. Storing heat (or “cold”) in small scale sounds like something very feasible and useful as well, as most countries are reaching new peak demand records every year due to heatwaves and higher AC ownership levels.

3. This is decades old: Calmac, now owned by Trane, and Ice Energy, which went under and I think is now owned by Thule Energy, are two companies which have discovered the breakthrough tech known as “ice”.

4. Most of this will come from hydronic split heat pumps that also work as your domestic water heater. My research team has installed massive, 1200 gallon heat pump water heaters for apartments that can lag about 4 hours behind the peak right now. We are piloting 120 gallon sfh designs too, they can likely shave about 2 hours off of demand changes while still giving you 120 degree water.

5. Cool!

   This and the new refrigerant gives me more hope for the future!

6. The article says that using this system is less energy efficient than not using it and this is being done to time shift demand on the grid. Wouldn’t it be better to solve this on the supply side by installing solar panels, whose production peaks when demand for cooling is the highest?