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Recycling energy offers huge potential savings
Each day, energy worth millions is literally blown away as cool air vented out from building air conditioning systems.
Monash researcher Associate Professor Dr Ong Kok Seng and his team are working with one of the world's leading producers of air conditioners to produce a system that will harvest some of this energy back into the air conditioning system, saving money and the environment over the long term.
Dr Ong, an expert on heat pipes, says the system could translate into huge savings for corporations with large air conditioning bills.
It uses a very efficient heat pipe to harvest the colder temperature from air being let out of the air conditioning system to reduce the temperature of air going into the air intake outlet.
Heat pipes are highly efficient heat exchangers. This consists of a metal pipe vacuumed and filled with conducting liquid or gas. They are also used in laptops and satellites for cooling electrical components.
Recycling energy offers huge potential savings
Dr Ong says the experimental heat pipe assisted air conditioning system has been fabricated with the assistance from OYL Research and Development Centre and is currently undergoing testing at Monash University's Sunway campus.
Aside from the project developed by Associate Professor Ong, other uses and technologies related to heat pipes were also showcased at the 9th International Heat Pipe Symposium hosted by the School of Engineering in late 2008 at the Sunway campus.
The international symposium was run from the 17th to 20th November 2008, and is an international event that brings together academics and industry people involved in heat pipe development and use to discuss current issues and applications of the field.
It brought together engineers, scientists and industry working in the field of Heat and Mass Transfer especially in heat pipes, heat pipe heat exchangers and semi-conductor cooling.
Participants of the symposium had the opportunity to exchange the latest in scientific R & D information as well as the technologies developed for commercial development of heat pipes.
Jasbir Singh