| New Reduced Cost to join the Cooling Consortium
February 2007
ESC's Cooling Consortium is stepping up to address the exciting changes on the horizon in gas cooling.
Novelaire's new residential gas fired desiccant system is making its way into several national restaurant chains. Southwest Gas unveiled at our February 2007 TMAF its new 10 Ton GEDAC heat pump which has the highest gas heating efficiency on the market. Robur is dedicating resources to the roll-out of its new heat pump offering. Several small tonnage unitary type gas cooling products are also coming to market.
Why are several manufacturers developing and commercializing small sized gas cooling products? It's easy to see why. Electric demand keeps growing and, even if capacity keeps up, the electric transmission and distribution network is congested and constrained in many parts of the US. In Ontario, there is a shortage of capacity that isn't expected to be met until 2010.
Today we all have small heaters at our desks known as computers. Additionally, ASHRAE guidelines encourage more fresh air introduction in our buildings, which increases the need to condition hot, humid air. And while all this is going on, people are becoming ever vigilant in ways to be greener and conserve energy and water.
New cooling products are now available, and other products are on the way. The ESC Cooling Consortium website now has 5000 monthly visitors. It's time to get the word out and get more involved with this market opportunity.
The Cooling Equipment and Marketing Consortium voted to reduce the investment to $1K .
This is great news for utilities, unitary equipment manufacturers, and humidity control manufactures. See the newly revised Investment Prospectus for your review and consideration. We hope to structure a new set of deliverables in a couple months once new members are on board and have input.
Consortium Background
 Natural
Gas is the fuel of choice and widely used for heating, hot water, cooking, industrial
equipment, etc. In addition it can also keep homes, buildings, and other facilities
cool during warm weather with significant operating cost savings and lower global
emissions than compared to electric alternatives.
Natural gas air conditioning
is not new and in fact during the 1930s and 1940s most United States cooling needs
were met by natural gas. Electric cooling was introduced to the market in the
1960s and it grew because of lower capital cost, efficiency and very low electric
rates. By the 1970s, use of electric air conditioning increased while natural
gas air conditioning declined, and by 1990, only 5% of all air conditioning in
the United States was powered by natural gas. However, during the 1980s the Japanese
government backed efforts to accelerate the development of more-efficient natural
gas air conditioning, and by 1991, nearly 30% of Japan's air conditioning needs
were met by natural gas.
New natural gas
air conditioning technology provides much higher energy efficiency than older
systems, and is becoming available in a variety of sizes to meet virtually every
customer's need – from homes of all sizes to the largest commercial or industrial
facilities.
Marketplace
Need
Electric
demand has grown over 35% in the past ten years. Consequently, increased electricity
capacity constraints, transmission and distribution delivery issues and electricity
reliability provide new incentives to utilize natural gas cooling. Gas air conditioning
reduces electrical peak demand and alleviates many electricity distribution problems.
Additionally, Gas fired air conditioning can typically take advantage of existing
gas services and increase the gas utilities load off peak times for the gas utility
who's peak usually occurs in the winter.
The United States commercial
building sector alone is comprised of 3.4 million air-conditioned buildings offering
opportunities to Energy Solution Center (ESC) utility, natural gas air conditioning
equipment manufacturers and equipment specifiers. Approximately 2.2 million or
two-thirds of these commercial buildings have natural gas at the premise.
Natural gas cooling provides
additional gas through put for gas utilities. Gas cooling equipment can provide
real solutions to the national energy issues. Consumers have a choice of total
electric or a better choice of flexibility through the use of natural gas cooling
equipment.
Market
Potential & Segmentation
Residential, commercial,
and industrial natural gas cooling equipment have an opportunity to take advantage
of the nation's growing concerns over electric supply, capacity, rising energy
prices, electric system constraints and air quality.
Used as standalone
systems, hybrid applications or other thermally activated CHP systems, natural
gas cooling equipment provides residential, commercial and industrial customers
with equipment system flexibility and an energy choice. Major equipment manufacturers
provide absorption, engine and desiccant gas cooling equipment, ranging is size
from 3 to over 3,000 tons. Process cooling, refrigeration and other specialty
cooling applications can all be accommodated by natural gas equipment.
Customer
Benefits
Natural gas cooling provides the customer/consumer the benefits
of an energy choice, energy management flexibility, lower environmental impact
and greater energy security. Societal benefits include increased source energy
efficiency, lower environmental impact, greater national energy security and reduced
stress on our electrical infrastructure. Gas air conditioning can also provide
an edge against the uncertainties of electric industry restructuring, high electric
peak demand and commodity cost, existing power interruptions, uncertain power
quality, and extended and rolling brownout conditions. Other benefits of gas cooling
include:
- Significant lower overall
operational cost (fuel and maintenance)
- CFC –free refrigerants
for absorption cooling
- Can provide a viable option
for applications where existing electrical systems cannot be upgraded easily and
may be expensive to accommodate electric air conditioning
- Can reduce the required
standby emergency generation required at a site
Marketing
& Technology Solutions To Meet Customer Needs
Natural gas air conditioning can be accomplished utilizing Absorption, Engine
driven or Steam driven equipment. Humidity control, hybrid gas/electric systems,
cogeneration, distributed generation and building cooling heating and power (BCHP)
technologies offer the consumer viable, reliable choices to resolve energy and
air conditioning issues.
All Residential, Commercial, and Industrial market segments may have a potential
for gas air conditioning with applications used for space conditioning requirements
such as cooling or humidity control, IAQ, or process applications.
Consortium
Goals
- Provide natural gas cooling
information to Energy Solution Center members and other interested natural gas
distribution companies
- Provide natural gas cooling
equipment manufacturers a forum to work with natural gas utilities interested
in pursuing natural gas cooling opportunities
- Provide meaningful information
on natural gas cooling equipment to natural gas utilities, gas cooling equipment
manufacturers and specifiers of gas cooling equipment
Consortium
Objectives
- Equip consortia members
with meaningful gas cooling equipment information to help target potential customers
- Work with consortia members,
equipment manufacturers and specifiers to gain acceptance of natural gas cooling
as a viable option to electric air conditioning
- Provide educational aids
to consortia members, gas utilities, gas cooling equipment manufacturers and specifiers
on various gas cooling market segments
- Prioritize the types of
natural gas cooling equipment and applications that are best suited for each market
segment
- Develop marketing information
to help train sales representatives and equipment specifiers on the best applications
for natural gas cooling in the new construction and replacement markets
- Develop market strategy
templates and marketing approaches to assist members, gas cooling equipment manufacturers
and specifiers in evaluating potential gas cooling sales opportunities
Consortium
Strategies
- Develop and update gas
cooling information, resources and tools to help educate the gas utilities, gas
cooling equipment manufacturers and specifiers on the best opportunities to promote
gas cooling solutions
- Equip the gas utilities,
gas cooling equipment manufacturers and specifiers with appropriate technical
materials and templates to reinforce the viability of the gas cooling option
- Utilize utilities, gas
cooling equipment manufacturers and specifiers to increase the overall knowledge
of gas cooling within the industry
- Cause regular interfaces
between the gas utilities, gas cooling equipment manufacturers and specifiers
to inform, educate, debate and initiate new gas cooling initiatives
- Create activities and
presentations to help educate, influence and engage gas utilities, gas cooling
equipment manufacturers and specifiers, as well as the consumer
- Develop effective templates,
materials, workshops to accelerate the acceptance and adoption of gas cooling
solutions
- Provide gas cooling information
in various trade journals, magazines and other media such as web page link, fax
newsletters, etc to increase gas cooling equipment installations and gas cooling
equipment manufacturers to increase gas cooling awareness national, regionally
and locally as determined by the gas utilities and gas cooling equipment manufacturers
Technology
Tour Links
Absorption
Chillers
Engine-Driven Chillers
Steam Turbine Chillers
Desiccant Dehumidification Dryers
Humidification Systems
Case Studies
Time
Life - Hybrid Gas Engine, Steam Turbine, and electric Cooling
Methodist
Hospital - Engine Driven Cooling
CNN - Hybrid
Gas Engine / Electric Chiller Plant
Comcast
- Hybrid Steam Turbine / Electric Chiller Plant
Providence
Hospital - Steam Turbine Driven Chillers
South
Jersey Health Care - Absorption Chillers
Go to the Cooling Consortium Web Site
www.gasairconditioning.org
For more
information contact:
Eric Burgis, Director - Residential and Commercial Markets
400 North Capitol N.W., Suite 450, Washington, D.C. 20001
Phone: 610-796-1946, Fax 202-824-9093, e-mail: eburgis@escenter.org
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