Air conditioning rejects its heat through a condenser, and the hotter the condenser, the more electricity the compressor draws. HOMeS is a thin, facade-mounted evaporative panel that produces cold water to pre-cool the condenser. A sub-millimeter hydrogel layer on a porous metal scaffold keeps the panel surface wet at high heat flux, so fins can be added to multiply the cooling. The project builds a large-scale prototype and measures its performance, including a first area-enhanced version.
- Field: Thermofluids; materials engineering; building energy
- Laboratory: Energy Transport Advances Laboratory (STI-ETA-Lab)
- Project leaders: Zhengmao Lu and Gautier Rouaze
- Budget: 30’000.00 CHF