Enovatek Energy – Hybrid Solar Air Conditioner

Strategically located at Changi Business Park, DBS Asia Hub is 9-storey business park facility that has attained the Building & Construction Authority’s Green Platinum rating. In an effort to go green, DBS engaged Enovatek Energy to help them reduce their air-conditioning costs and lower their CO2 emissions, by installing a solar AC unit in a security room, on a trial basis. Enovatek Energy identified that the AC being replaced in the security room was switched on 24 hours a day, for 7 days a week, thus incurring high costs daily. Enovatek Energy proposed to replace this existing big brand 12000 BTU air conditioner with the Enovatek Energy Hybrid Solar Air Conditioner instead. The Hybrid Solar Air Conditioner proposed, runs on DC power harvested from solar panels during the day. At night or when there is insufficient sunlight, the air conditioning system switches to conventional AC, the grid. On a cloudy day, the system still draws as much power possible from the sun’s irradiance. Being an intelligent system, the algorithm will always draw as much power possible from renewable sources first and then tap into conventional AC power. The solar air conditioning system operates without inverters, batteries or controllers. The air conditioning system previously used was a big brand 1.5 HP or 12000 BTU aircon, that can commonly be found in offices and homes around the world. Using a BCA approved energy monitoring device, Enovatek Energy collected the data from both aircon units to see and compare the amount of energy used and its costing. from the data, it was shown that Enovatek Energy’s Solar Hybrid Air Conditioning system managed to draw power from the sun for approximately 10 hours in a 24-hour period and it also suggested that in AC mode, the air conditioner used lower power when the outdoor ambient temperature was cooler. It was evident that with the adoption of a Solar Air Conditioner, electricity consumption and CO2 emissions can significantly be reduced by a saving of approximately 60%. A savings of approximately 20% has come from using R-32 gas (compared to the 410 Gas) and an approximate 40% savings has come from using Solar.