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NP students’ invention recycles air-con heat for warm showers

SINGAPORE — Three Ngee Ann Polytechnic (NP) students have found a way to recycle waste heat generated by air-conditioner compressors to heat water for showering.

Ngee Ann Polytechnic mechanical engineering students (from left) Goh Ray Gin, Desmond Lou and Irene Carisa Lee’s Domestic Waste Heat Recovery System absorbs heat from air-con compressors. Photo: Wee Teck Hian

Ngee Ann Polytechnic mechanical engineering students (from left) Goh Ray Gin, Desmond Lou and Irene Carisa Lee’s Domestic Waste Heat Recovery System absorbs heat from air-con compressors. Photo: Wee Teck Hian

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SINGAPORE — Three Ngee Ann Polytechnic (NP) students have found a way to recycle waste heat generated by air-conditioner compressors to heat water for showering.

Their project, known as the Domestic Waste Heat Recovery System, can help households shave off about S$20 from their monthly utility bills.

The system uses a heat exchanger to absorb 10 to 20 per cent of the waste heat from the air-con compressor and channel it to a water storage tank, which can heat the water for domestic use immediately or later on.

A heat exchanger, which is normally used to cool engines in vehicles, is a device that facilitates efficient heat transfer from one medium to another.

When a family using this system uses their air-conditioner continuously for eight hours, they can get heated warm water for showers without having to switch on their instant heater, which consumes more electricity.

This will save them about 20 cents per day per usage, or S$20 a month.

Trials with the system have shown that it provides sufficient energy to heat 110 litres of water up to 40°C — enough for a person to take four warm showers daily.

Said NP’s School of Engineering lecturer Soh Kok Sua, who is in charge of the project: “Plans to commercialise the Domestic Waste Heat Recovery System by 2016 are in the works, but several companies have already expressed interest in our system.”

The trio behind the project — NP mechanical engineering graduating students Goh Ray Gin and Desmond Lou, both 21, and Irene Carisa Lee, 20 — noted that families have been advised to cut down on air-conditioner usage to reduce their electricity bills. However, given the hot weather in Singapore, they may not find it easy to do so.

Hence, the students came up with the idea of using heat exchangers to recycle waste heat.

Mr Goh said: “We realised that a lot of Singaporeans (use) their air-con at night. So ... with this Heat Recovery System, families can stretch their dollar by enjoying (cool air from) the air-con and saving money, by recycling waste heat generated by the air-con processor.”

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