Amazon bets Nobel Prize-based dehumidification can cut its energy use
It’s not just you: restaurants, malls, and offices on steamy summer days really are kept colder than necessary. Air conditioning is as much about dehumidification as it is about cooling, especially in hot, humid climates like the U.S. South, where buildings can be fertile ground for hazardous molds.
“The reason they blast the air conditioner so much is because they’re trying to reduce the humidity,” Sorin Grama, co-founder and CEO of Transaera, told TechCrunch. “In some cases in commercial buildings, the air is so cold that they have to reheat it back up.”
So Transaera has developed a new type of ventilation unit that, the company says, is significantly more efficient than existing dehumidification techniques, saving users energy and money.
Amazon, which has been testing the unit for several months in Houston, recently signed on as a customer. Other companies are following suit, to the point where Transaera now has “nine figures” worth of purchasing targets from customers, Grama said. For Amazon, the purchase reserves capacity over the next three years.
“Amazon is considering this a design solution,” he said. “Once they find a solution that works, they put that into their design standard and replicate it across their building stock.”
The device, known as a dedicated outdoor air system (DOAS), can keep the air inside commercial buildings fresh while also lightening the load on the AC. It can remove 100 pounds of water from the air every hour, meaning the AC doesn’t have to run as hard.
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