09/05/09 - A Cool Idea For Saving Energy

A Cool Idea For Saving Energy                    by  Bob Bruggner

You’ve probably heard the old joke, “If a man speaks in the woods and his wife is not around to hear what he says, is he still wrong? “  Those of us who have been married for a while are well aware that the genders in this joke can easily be reversed without inflicting any real damage to the punch line.

In the interest of full disclosure I must state upfront that I have been happily married to the same wonderful woman for over 30 years and we seldom have any major disagreements.  But about a year ago, my wife and I became embroiled in a major confrontation over what temperature to keep our home thermostat set on.  Coincidently, this conflict began about the same time that I first became aware that the phrase, “Hot mid to late 50s,” could be used to describe something other than a 259 Studebaker.  It was clear that global warming had struck my wife’s HVAC system (an acronym for the closely related functions of ”Heating, Ventilating and Air Conditioning”) and I needed to find a solution…..  in a flash.

After a great deal of exploration and discussion, it was decided that keeping the house cool at night for sleeping lay at the heart of the crisis.  As I weighed my options of either turning our entire house into an evening meat locker by lowering the thermostat or installing one of those noisy, inefficient window units that would provide a nightly reminder of my last night in a La Quinta Inn, a friend suggested I look into something called a split ductless air condition system.

Split ductless systems have been used extensively in Europe and Japan for many years and, as I discovered, are a smart way to add air conditioning and/or heating to a limited number of rooms without having to open up walls to install ductwork.  Like traditional central-air-conditioning systems, the split-ductless system has an exterior condenser unit but the evaporator (that unit that houses the cooling coil, fan, and controls), is located indoors, usually mounted high on the interior wall of the room or area you want to cool.  (Envision a small computer printer operated by a hand remote mounted high on the wall blowing out cold air.) Instead of using air ducts, cool air flows from the exterior condenser to the indoor evaporator through a small ½ inch copper pipe.  Some larger models are designed to power up to four room evaporators from one condenser allowing for zone cooling of individual rooms.

As it turned out my friend with the good advice had also just replaced all his old ductwork and central-air-conditioning unit in his home with a split ductless system.  I went over for a look, and, along with a little Internet research, here’s what I found most attractive about these systems.

SEER Efficiency - The efficiency of air conditioners is often rated by the Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio (SEER).  The higher the SEER rating of a unit, the more energy efficient it is. In the late 1980's the average SEER rating for an air conditioner was around 6.0. The United States now requires that residential systems manufactured after 2005 have a minimum SEER rating of 13, although window units are exempt from this law so their SEERs are still around 10.  Substantial energy savings can be obtained from more efficient systems. For example, by upgrading from SEER 9 to SEER 13, the power consumption is reduced by 30% and can result in an energy savings valued at up to $300 per year depending on the usage rate and the cost of electricity.   Split ductless systems offer high efficiency units ranging from 16 SEER all the way to 20 SEER.  Factor in the absence of leaky, often dirty ductwork and the potential for energy savings is considerable.

They’re Really Quiet –Split ductless systems have indoor decibel levels as low as 22Db and you often have a hard time knowing when the systems are actually operating. To put this in perspective, a human whisper is in the range of about 40Db and a quiet refrigerator is around 48-55 Db. 

Eco-friendly Refrigerant – All Split ductless systems use R-410a refrigerant which is a totally friendly, non-ozone depleting refrigerant, making smaller, more energy efficient systems practical. The United States Environmental Protection Agency has mandated that R-22 refrigerants (chlorodifluoromethane) along with other hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFC's) be phased-out in the U.S. Only a few window-mounted air conditioners are available that use newer R-410A refrigerants.

After my tour I was pretty much sold on this new technology and placed an order for a 15,000Btu air-conditioning split ductless system manufactured by Mitsubishi Electric. My brother (the electrician) and I were able to do the installation in a few short hours and I’m happy to report that my wife is now sleeping much better and we’ve returned to arguing over more sensible issues such as who controls the television remote and who will be next contestant eliminated from Dancing With the Stars.