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Video length: 2 min
Heatwave: green solutions to replace air conditioning
Heatwave: green solutions to replace air conditioning
(France 2)
When faced with intense heat, indoors, the reflex is often to use air conditioning. But alternatives to this energy-consuming approach are increasingly developing.
To face the heatwave and find a bit of freshness, in recent days in Levallois-Perret (Hauts-de-Seine), many residents have taken refuge in the shopping center. The building does not use air conditioning, but a cooling network in the basement, which does not cool air but water to 4 °C. Pumps propel it into a closed circuit of pipes that diffuse the coolness once it arrives in the buildings connected to the network. The heated water falls back into the plant and so on. A system as efficient as air conditioning, while being less polluting.
In Chambéry (Savoie), to cool his house, a resident has found a brand new technology called an air cooler, which uses water evaporation. An innovative system designed in a Grenoble start-up. The device does not use any refrigerant and emits 80% less CO2 than a conventional air conditioner. But it comes at a cost: €3,000, three times more than an equivalent air conditioner.
