Monodraught has launched a passive cooling and heat recovery system for use in commercial, academic and healthcare buildings

Working in collaboration with the University of Nottingham, Ciba (BASF) and the Carbon Trust, the Cool-phase system provides powered fresh air ventilation with the added capability of storing and discharging large amounts of latent thermal energy.

It does this through the use of phase change material, which it says can provide 4kWh of thermal storage and supplies about 1kW of cooling at any one time.

In cooling mode, cold night air is used to charge the phase change material from 10pm-6am. In the day, the system draws fresh air into the space until the external temperature exceeds 23ºC, when an external damper is closed and air is recirculated. The phase change material is pumped back through the system and air passing through the heat exchangers is cooled.

In heat recovery mode, the phase change material is pumped through the system during the day, absorbing heat from the space, which is returned the following day when it is used for tempering incoming air.

Monodraught