Low carbon cooling

The Problem

New houses are having to meet increasingly strict building regulations designed to substantially reduce their use of energy. Because air leakage accounts for a significant part of the heat loss in a traditional house, new houses have to be made almost completely air-tight, as well as ultra-insulated. However, fresh air is still essential for a healthy house, so controlled mechanical ventilation with heat recovery is set to become the norm for new houses.

In such highly insulated houses, it is predicted that cooking, lighting and appliances (televisions, washing machines etc) will actually use more energy, and therefore produce more heat, than the main central heating system. With such high levels of insulation, this waste heat will be unable to escape, and in the summer the houses will become very susceptible to overheating.

The Traditional Solution

Is to use air conditioning. This is predicted to become much more common in UK domestic housing, particularly in the South where the effects of global warming will be more pronounced. However, it is expensive to install and operate, and negates much of the benefit of the low energy house design.

Although heat pumps can be designed to also provide air conditioning, eliminating the cost of a separate cooling system, it compromises their heating efficiency, and in cooling mode they still use as much energy and produce just as much carbon dioxide as a conventional air conditioner.

The Soleco Solution

Uses the naturally cool borehole water to provide cooling via third party ventilation systems. It provides fresh cooled air during the summer, cleverly complementing the heat recovery provided by the ventilation system during the winter.

In contrast with traditional air conditioning systems, the Soleco natural cooling system is inexpensive to install and uses minimal power – just the existing borehole water pump to circulate the ground water to a heat exchanger connected to the ventilation system.

We currently offer this low cost, low carbon, natural cooling solution for ventilation systems from Villavent Limited (for more information on their products, see www.villavent.co.uk).

We plan to introduce similar cooling units for other makes of ventilation in due course, but if you use, or are planning to use, a ventilation system from a different manufacturer, and would like to enjoy the benefits of our low carbon cooling system in your house, please contact us (details on the back page) and we will be delighted to discuss your requirements.