One Step at a Time - DEVAP is Keeping it Simple

Tech to the Rescue! 


Comfort within the new urban environment is crucial to our perception of livability and central to enablement of active communal spaces. Buildings are the containers that, in many geographies globally, will house these spaces and communities. So when we see small advancements such as this one from the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) that point to 80% efficiency break-throughs for building HVAC systems - coupled with significantly noticeable improvements in perceived occupant comfort - we are enthused! 


Coupled with a productization roadmap that puts the new tech in the field rapidly, we can foresee a time where our urban shells can truly lead to sustainable, community habitation 

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NREL zeroes in on super-efficient AC system for commercial buildings

A new air conditioning system invented by DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory could well be a promising breakthrough for energy efficiency in commercial buildings: a compact, cost-effective cooling unit that uses 90% less electricity and up to 80% less total energy than its traditional counterparts. In terms of commercial buildings, that can mean huge cost and energy savings.

Because the system, desiccant enhanced evaporative air conditioning (DEVAP), also is efficient at managing humidity, it can maintain a comfortable atmosphere for building occupants without the need for overcooling, one example of cost saving.

NREL's Eric Kozubul, co-inventor of DEVAP, explained the system's benefits, technology and its likely path to commercialization in a Q&A which is part of NREL's Lab Breakthrough series.

The outstanding benefits, of course, are comfort for people in buildings equipped with the system: in addition to comfortable temperatures and humidity levels, what they may notexperience is the stuffy, lack of fresh air atmosphere common to commercial buildings. And because of the drastically lower level of electricity consumption, building owners should see an estimated 40-80% reduction in their power bills.

As the name suggests, DEVAP is a combination of desiccant (drying) and evaporative processes, neither of them new to the industry. But as Kozubul explained, attempts to put those processes together in the past haven't worked out. "There have been attempts to put these technologies together, but technical issues prevented successful development. NREL took advantage of recent materials advances and liquid desiccant advances to design a compact and cost-effective system." He added that with those injections of new ideas and materials into existing processes, "we demonstrated indirect evaporative cooling with cooling effectiveness never thought possible – and better than any product available today."

Kozubul said commercial buildings will be the first market targeted for a rollout because "the financial and energy payback for efficient air conditioning is much higher in commercial buildings. Once the product is well-established, a residential rollout will surely follow."

He acknowledged that DEVAP needs work before it's ready for a market debut. "DEVAP will require additional development to get it to a field prototype stage. Although the cooling cycle is largely proven through laboratory testing, we need to make it smaller, cheaper, reliable and manufacturable." That will require support from DOE, NREL and the HVAC industry, he said.

As is the case with so many "breakthroughs," DEVAP didn't happen overnight. NREL has had researchers working on desiccant and evaporative AC technologies for more than 25 years.