Learn more about our cooling technology:
- “Energy center has big plans for the world,” Dateline, 6.22.07
- Western Cooling Efficiency Center
- Energy Efficiency Center
Our researchers involved with cooling technology:
- Dick Bourne, director, Western Cooling Efficiency Center
- Marshall Hunt, program director, Western Cooling Efficiency Center
Advanced cooling systems
Here is a time-traveler’s look at the possible future of energy as influenced by UC Davis activities — a preview of everyday life as we might experience it five to 50 years from now.
Predicted timing: 2027
It is a hot summer Saturday in California.
Global warming has meant record high temperatures here for the past decade, but inside your home it’s a comfortable 75 degrees (and feels cooler).
Producing that cucumber coolness was easy on the environment, thanks in part to the UC Davis Western Cooling Efficiency Center, founded in 2007.
Whereas at the turn of the century, air conditioning caused major summer disruptions in California’s electricity network, today’s AC technology uses far less energy and helps even out electricity demand throughout the 24-hour cycle.
The revolution began when UC Davis experts ripped up cooling technology from its humid eastern U.S. roots and redesigned it for dry western climates.
No more expensive air conditioners
Gone are the droning, Freon-filled condenser units that sat behind our homes and cycled endlessly, off-on-off-on, adding hundreds of dollars to monthly electric bills.
Instead, water silently circulating in pipes in our floors and ceilings absorbs heat and carries it away, needing no help from compressors, air handlers or fans.
The founding director of the cooling center, engineer Dick Bourne, put one of these radiant cooling systems in his new Davis home way back in 1994.
Now Bourne proudly notes that he and his wife, Carol, have never paid more than $25 per year to run their silent and comfortable cooling system, which uses electricity only at night to discharge heat to the cool sky.
This and other advanced cooling systems nurtured by the cooling center have now been installed in millions of homes in the western U.S. and have made a large contribution toward stabilizing regional electricity rates.
— Sylvia Wright