In this segment, host Paul Ryan visits Pittsburgh-based research facility IBACOS Innovation Center to see some of the products and projects that are on the cutting edge of home-energy technology.
Air-Circulation Experiments Ibacos works with builders around the country to build high-quality homes that make use of energy-conserving technology and are more durable and comfortable to live in than ordinary homes. In their test facility, they recreate living conditions and design experiments to help develop and improve new technologies. They and make use of such technologies as a test chamber that mimics the conditions of a living room (figure A) to measure the efficiency of heating and cooling systems and how they function in a home.
Temperature controlled air is introduced into the chamber and then tracked to see how it flows through the space. In a more energy-efficient home, it is determined that air introduced from high in the room is more effective than if it were introduced through floor vents. Smoke is introduced into the chamber (figure B) in order to track visually how the air flows through the room. The air flowing across the ceiling, and mixing as it travels down the walls, creates more comfortable conditions in the room. Where earlier studies focused on heating efficiency, cooling performance is now being studied much more extensively.
In heating, larger old-style vent registers (figure C) have been determined to be less effective than smaller re-designed ones. More energy-efficient homes can use smaller registers that introduce less air, but disperse it more effectively from above using open, curved blades (figure D). The new design projects the air across the room, causing more effective mixing and more comfortable conditions.
For standard vent registers, it's important to be sure that vents are not blocked by drapes (figure E), furniture, etc.
New Water-Heating Technology New types of water-heaters are contributing greatly to home-energy conservation. In the heat-pump water heater, ventilation air that's circulated through the house for heating purposes is brought down through a duct system where it passes across a coil where heat is extracted. A heat pump transfers the extracted heat to the water heater (figure F). The system essentially works as a "backwards refrigerator." As a refrigerator cools the refrigeration compartment and dumps the heat into the house, the heat pump is takes heat from the house and dumps it into the water heater.
The heat pump can be used with many existing water tanks. A unit like the one shown in our demonstration costs about $1000, but it can save about two thirds of the energy that would be used on a standard electric water heater.
Energy-Saving Lighting Assuming that a home has been built to thermally efficient standards, lighting emerges as one of the more significant sources of energy drain. At Ibacos, research has been done on lighting used in the kitchen, since that is often the room in which lighting is used the most.
In their kitchen prototype, energy-inefficient incandescent lighting and ceiling fixtures are replaced with soffit-mounted cabinet lights (figure G) and florescent under-cabinet lighting (figure H). These fixtures give an excellent quality of light while decreasing energy expenditure. The shadows typical of indirect lighting are almost completely eliminated.
The new florescent fixtures use the smaller, more efficient T-8 and T-5 bulbs (figure I, center and right), rather than the older T-12 lamps. The slender dimensions make these bulbs easier to use in a wider variety of locations.
Compact florescent bulbs (figure J) are also available for standard screw-in fixtures. The bulbs shown cost around $8, but may have a useful life more than 12 times as long as a standard incandescent bulb, and they use only about 25 percent of the energy. Over the length of a single bulb's life, about $40 to $50 may be saved in electrical costs.
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IBACOS
Ibacos
Pittsburgh, PA 15222
Phone: 412-765-3664
Website: www.ibacos.com
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