Hong Kong-produced air-conditioners energy saving equipment. Help businesses saving energy by 40%

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1 Hong Kong-produced air-conditioners energy saving equipment Help businesses saving energy by 40% As we all know, air-conditioning accounts for a high proportion of power consumption in commercial buildings. A Hong Kong company has developed a device which can reduce the operating hours of the most power consumed compressor in air-conditioner, and save 30-40% electricity easily. This technique also applies to refrigerator and freezer, the market prospects are very bright. Kevin Moore, Chief Executive Officer of Agile8 Consulting Limited, had been working at a famous oil company in UK, and later set up a consultancy in Hong Kong. At one point, someone had suggested that he studied the technology of reducing power consumption of air-conditioner, and believed there would be a great prospect. At first, he thought, since American engineer Willis Haviland Carrier had invented the world's first air-conditioner in 1902, for more than 100 years, air-conditioner technology was very difficult to have a big breakthrough, right? He was holding the mentality that why not giving it a try, and found that window-type and split-type air conditioners indeed have a considerable room for energy saving. The key is to accurately control the operating hours of the most power consumed compressor in air-conditioner and get it run when really needed. 7-years, $3million R&D investment In 2005, he developed a device that can reduce the operating hours of air-conditioner s compressor, thereby save power significantly. But the temperature control technology used in first generation device is not very good, which is not stable at room temperature. In 2009, he developed the second-generation device. In October 2012, he then developed the third generation device called COOLNOMIX. So far, the company has invested approximately HK$ 3 million in research and development on COOLNOMIX, also spent approximately HK$ 2 million for applying patents in many countries and regions. The number of COOLNOMIX being produced and installed are in thousands, with a customer base in about 25 countries and regions.

2 Among them, the ones that Hong Kong people familiar with include: HGC, CTM, Ocean Park, 7-Eleven (Malaysia and Thailand), Manning, McDonald's (Australia), CHI Residences service apartments, pre-school institutions of Woodland Pre-School and so on. Moore said that the power consumption of his customers' air-conditioners are decreased by 40% on average, or saving about 30% at least. In Woodland Pre-School, for example, it uses five newer model air-conditioners which are energy efficient inverter-type. After installing 5 COOLNOMIX, the power consumption of those five air-conditioners are reduced by about 30% on average. Refrigerators, air-conditioners all can use Since refrigerator and air-conditioner use the same cooling principle, COOLNOMIX can also be applied to energy-efficient refrigerators. At present, COOLNOMIX has two models, AC-01 and AR-01, for air-conditioner and refrigerator. Fairwood and juice maker Shine & Shine have the installation of AR-01. According to Moore, after installating COOLNOMIX to his clients refrigerators, power consumption has been dropped by an average of 30%.

3 Selected environmental projects for US Department of Defense Months ago, COOLNOMIX participated in the environmental programs (Environmental Security Technology Certification Program) sponsored by the US Department of Defense's "energy and water" category, and was selected as one of the 10 projects in this year so far. Intends to partner with manufacturers for market expansion At present, the US Department of Defense is testing three AC-01 and three AR-01 at different bases. As the US Department of Defense has a lot of buildings, if she satisfies the energy saving performance of COOLNOMIX, a lot of orders may be brought in the future. In the long run, the company will follow the Intel Inside strategy. That is, in cooperation with manufacturers of air-conditioner and refrigerator, allows them to directly install COOLNOMIX in the products. Those air-conditioner and refrigerator manufacturers will then need to put the marking of COOLNOMIX on the packaging. Agile8 has six shareholders, four Hong Kong residents and two Americans. But, the four Hong Kong residents are all British, including Moore himself. In fact, the company has only one local Chinese employee. For installation, it is all done by other companies or agents in overseas. Moore is full of praise for Hong Kong because although the basic design idea of COOLNOMIX is by him, the detailed engineering design and software design were done by a local company, while production is given to a factory in Shenzhen. Initially, COOLNOMIX only has the model AC-01 for air-conditioner. Until a customer inquiry on freezer, Moore asked the Hong Kong company's engineers if it could be done. As a result, the latter only took four days to rewrite the program and made the AR-01. "This kind of efficiency, not only better than Singapore, even better than the Silicon Valley!" Moore said.

4 One year payback as selling point [Ming Pao News] In fact, all of the cooling system is not true "cooling", it only transfers heat from an enclosed space (air-conditioned room or freezer) to the outside. With air-conditioner and refrigerator, for example, they make use of refrigerant by cycling it continuously at one end from liquid into gas, absorbing heat in its surroundings (ie, producing cooling effect); and change it back from gas to liquid at the other end, play a role in exotherm. In the process, compressor will pressurize the refrigerant, in order to make it easier to condense (from gas to liquid); and reduce the pressure, in order to make it easier to evaporate (from liquid to a gas). According Agile8 Consulting Limited, air-conditioner and refrigerator compressors are the most power-hungry components, accounting for about 95% of consumption. Regular air-conditioner uses thermostat to detect room temperature, and then decides when to start the compressor. COOLNOMIX operates with dual sensors, in addition to detect room temperature, it detects the temperature at the cooling air outlet. The latter reflects whether the compressor has completed its work of pressurizing the refrigerant. If pressurizing is completed, air-conditioner can use the rest of the cooling capacity without having to run the compressor. At this point, COOLNOMIX will temporarily turn off the compressor to save power. Therefore, after the installation of COOLNOMIX onto air-conditioner, the operation time of compressor will be reduced; the room temperature is more accurately controlled, with an amplitude of ±1 degree before installation down to ±0.25 degrees after installation, hence saving electricity significantly. Attracting commercial users with high power consumption According to Agile8, the installation of COOLNOMIX takes about one hour, no special maintenance and repair, can be used for at least 10 years. Regarding COOLNOMIX price and installation costs, it is calculated based on horsepower and power consumption of air-conditioners. The formula, in principle, is to let customers break-even the investment in a year, but the minimum charge is $3,000. For schools and elderly homes, slight discount will be offered.

5 Agile8 believes that payback within a year is a very attractive term, because the payback period of energy-saving programs in general are two to three years, or even longer. The company admitted that her target customers are the high power consumption commercial users. If customer's air-conditioner is low power, even though the company charges a minimum fee, the payback period for customer is also likely to exceed one year. In principle, all refrigerant-based cooling or heating systems can save electricity through the installation of COOLNOMIX. End of this year, there will be a new model of COOLNOMIX for radiators. Temporarily not supporting central-controlled air-conditioning system However, Kevin Moore admitted that there are still some limitations on. If applying COOLNOMIX to window-type air-conditioner, split-type air-conditioner, non-sub-zero refrigerator and freezer, the energy saving effect is very good. However, if using in central-controlled air-conditioning system, or sub-zero refrigerator and freezer, it can only save electricity by about 10-15%. Therefore, at this moment, the company does not undertake these types of business. He hopes to improve the existing solutions, make it have 30% power saving on central-controlled air-conditioning systems and sub-zero refrigerators and freezers, before undertaking these types of business.