Our 25 Year Journey to Create the Ideal Air Conditioning System

In the early 1990’s, we invented an Energy Master Plan for a Hospital to dovetail with their new Facility Master Plan. The 30 year goal for the facility was energy independence. The Plan revealed the air conditioning systems as the major energy and comfort problem.

From our Energy Master Planning and working with hundreds of building owner’s, facilities managers and operators and occupants, we understand all the problems of current air conditioning systems. 

We developed a “wish list” for the ideal air conditioning system. The list consisted of:

• Operate on clean renewable energy sources
• Separate control of humidity and temperature
• Filter, purify and sterilize up to 100% outside air
• Uses up to 92% less electricity than conventional systems
• Same cost for new installation; 2yr payback for replacements
• Every size and application
• No electric refrigeration; No toxic chemical refrigerants
• Year ‘round comfort; Optimized Indoor Environment
• Easy maintenance for extended life cycle​
  

Twenty years later, we partnered with an LDAC company looking to commercialize a highly complicated system. We improved the system, reducing the size and increasing the efficiency.

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This became our MVP, from which we gathered the data required to create the optimum system. 

We believed that the system needed further development, however, the company was happy with it as we had improved it so we parted ways and started NEMCO LDAC. We further developed the system to include all of our wish list and more. Three years later we received the NEMCO LDAC patent.

Why NEMCO LDAC Is The Future Of Air Conditioning Units

Research organizations, including BSRIA, have predicted that a third wave of technology for the air conditioning industry is imminent. The first wave was the open fire and technology such as the Franklin Stove, burning wood and coal. The second wave is the current electricity driven heating and cooling technology which is still powered by burning fossil fuels. 

Over 100 years ago, Willis Carrier invented the current air conditioning system. Metal boxes with metal cooling and heating coils served by metal compressors with toxic refrigerants and electricity providing the primary driving force. These systems are only 10% efficient from well to end use yet this remains the basic system today.

The third wave is NEMCO LDAC technology, powered by clean, renewable energy sources. NEMCO LDAC represents a total makeover for air conditioning unit manufacturing, utilizing recyclable plastic and cellulose materials. It is packable for ease of shipping and erection. The cooling source is ground heat exchange or existing chiller plants of which we double the efficiency. The warming source is solar thermal or waste heat. The small electrical source is solar PV or grid. 

Safety, Health, Comfort and Productivity

The near 100% contact of the conditioned air with the liquid desiccant saturated media provides air that has been filtered, purified and sterilized. This means no more recirculating of airborne diseases, reducing the incidence of colds and flus spreading throughout a building. And also reducing Hospital Acquired Infections.

The ability to separately control temperature and humidity is another feature of desiccant technology. The systems does not need to drop the air temperature to remove moisture from the air and then reheat the air to bring it up to a comfortable temperature. With separate temperature and humidity controls, we can reduce the humidity levels in the summer below what current systems are capable of and add humidity in the winter when it is needed. 

NEMCO LDAC answers all the problems current systems have with comfort and health in buildings.

TECHNICAL SECTION

The laws of thermodynamic state that using fossil fuels or other high energy product to produce electricity and using that electricity to make heat or cold is the most inefficient energy cycle, about 10% efficient overall. This is the current air conditioning thermodynamic cycle.

NEMCO LDAC uses direct heat exchange from the ground (sometimes called deep solar) and solar thermal as the primary energy sources. Our technology also works with the annual weather cycles because we require more heat during hot and humid weather to dehumidify the air and the solar radiation is most intense, if only for a few hours, to provide warmth during the coldest days. The ground heat exchange provides all the cooling required and will provide preheating during the heating season.

NEMCO LDAC technology has been developed to be applied globally. Where there are warmer annual temperatures, such as Saudi Arabia, we can still use ground heat exchange to operate absorption refrigeration, which is heat driven, to generate 65°F cooling.

Most Efficient and Effective

NEMCO LDAC units can take hot and humid air and use 130°F heat to dry the air and 65°F cooling fluid to cool the air to produce 67°F dry air. This dry air has half the humidity that conventional units produce so we provide lower indoor humidity conditions during the summer.

During the winter, we use 90°F heat to provide 88°F, humid air for ideal comfort conditions. Our units can use waste heat sources such as from combined heat and power (CHP) plants or clean, renewable thermal energy sources such as solar thermal for drying the air and removing humidity in the summer and warming the air in the winter, and ground heat exchange for cooling in the summer and pre-warming in the winter.

To air condition a 10,000 ftsq building in New York, Miami, Hong Kong or London, a conventional electric refrigeration HVAC system uses 50KW during a hot and humid day and 15KW during a cool day. Our units require only 4KW of electricity throughout the summer, whether during a hot and humid day or a cool day. 

The Most Economical

NEMCO LDAC units have a competitive installation cost and are easy and simple to maintain over an extended life cycle. The ability to condition 100% fresh air using no more electricity will eliminate the high operating costs in manufacturing and institutional facilities while providing the 100% fresh air requirement. Our systems can have an operating cost 50-90% less than conventional systems and a life cycle operating cost less than 30% of a conventional system.

These operating cost benefits do not include the huge income benefits from the healthy, comfortable and satisfied building occupants that our systems create. These benefits create a 5% to 15% increase in productivity in commercial, institutional and industrial buildings that can be worth 3 to 5 times the operational cost savings.