BLOCKS OF ICE INSTEAD OF AIR CONDITIONING

Some office towers and buildings in New York are keeping their air conditioning use to a minimum by using a new energy-saving system. They use blocks of ice to pump cold air. This saves both electricity and money. “If you take the time to look, you can find creative ways to be energy efficient and be environmental” said William Beck, the head of engineering systems for Credit Suisse, a famous financial services company. The company offices are at the historic Metropolitan Life Tower in Manhattan. Beck says they save a lot of money using this system and adds that ice cooling also cuts down on pollution. The system uses electricity to freeze water in large tanks. The freezing takes place at night as less energy is needed at night. The ice in the tanks is used to cool air. This air is then piped through the building all day. The following night, the water is frozen again and the cycle repeated. The idea of using water or ice to cool rooms is very old. It was used before the invention of the first air conditioner. In India, people used wet grass mats hanging over windows to cool their homes in the 1800s. Then a doctor in Florida blew air over buckets of ice to cool hospital rooms. Today, ice cooling is becoming more popular. Ice systems use less electricity than air conditioning. This saves money. In addition, less electricity is used during peak hours - the time of day when people use electricity the most. Water is frozen in large silver tanks at night when power demands are low. Ice cooling also produces less pollution because it uses less electricity. Credit Suisse engineers say that the system works well. In many ways, it is better than air conditioning. “When you make something mechanical, it can break. But a big block of ice ... isn’t going to do anything but melt,” says Todd Coulard. He works for Trane Energy Services, which built the Credit Suisse system. Trane has also developed ice- cooling systems for other companies. How much energy does ice cooling save over air conditioning? Ice cooling at Credit Suisse saves enough energy to power about 200 homes. Ice-cooling technology is not for every office. It is better for large companies. Why? A building must have enough space for the large tanks. It is also not very cheap to set up the system. Credit Suisse spent more than three million dollars on its new system. The company spends a great deal to cool its building. Therefore, the cost of setting up the ice system at Credit Suisse was worthwhile . However, that might not be true for all companies. “This is for companies that want to go green but it works for larger companies because their cooling costs are much higher than the others.” says Coulard.