UTFacultiesETEventsPARTLY DIGITAL - ONLY FOR INVITEES (PILOT 1,5m) : PhD Defence : PhD Defence Matthijs Meulenbelt | Cooling is Hot! - An Energy-Efficient Individual USB Air Conditioner

PARTLY DIGITAL - ONLY FOR INVITEES (PILOT 1,5m) : PhD Defence : PhD Defence Matthijs Meulenbelt | Cooling is Hot! - An Energy-Efficient Individual USB Air Conditioner

Cooling is Hot! - An Energy-Efficient Individual USB Air Conditioner

Due to the COVID-19 crisis measures the PhD defence of Matthijs Meulenbelt will take place (partly) online in the presence of an invited audience.

The PhD defence can be followed by a live stream.

Matthijs Meulenbelt is a PhD student in the research group Design Engineering. His supervisor is prof.dr.ir. A.O. Eger from the Faculty of Science and Technology.

Generic air conditioning systems use convection as method to cool down their users. This makes for systems, laid out for cooling down the air in entire spaces.

This dissertation reports whether it is feasible to use a different approach to cooling down people:

 Change the radiation balance between a person and his environment.

For this purpose, a new cooling device was developed and tested. It focuses on ‘radiation absorption’ by being- slightly- cooler than its environment, and uses water as a coolant, which may render it very environmentally friendly and efficient, because of the high enthalpy of vaporization of water.

The new cooling device focuses on a single person at a time and leaves the ambient temperature virtually unchanged.

To test the effectiveness of the device and the method it depends on, two series of tests were conducted: One to test whether its users perceive the effect of the device, and one to physically measure whether its users kept cooler at the new cooling device.

The tests showed, that the effect of the new cooling device is measurable and indeed perceived.

To complete the research on the effectiveness of the device, a single test was performed to establish the longevity of the effect of the new cooling device, also with a positive outcome.

The research shows that the new cooling device gives a cooling effect for a single person in a simple, silent, virtually windless, energy-efficient, environmentally friendly, inconspicuous, comfortable and healthy way.

The novelty of the design was underlined with a granted US- and EU-Patent.