ZERO IMPACT STRUCTURE COOLING

ABSTRACT
Airconditioning is an energy-and resource-hungry technology
that has become a major contributor to global warming.
Zero Impact Structure Cooling or Therm-O-Drain is an
attempt to use thetechniques of our ancestors to reduce or
even eliminate the need for airconditioning.
Our heritage buildings, They remain comfortable without any
mechanical cooling system, earth tunnels or wind towers.
Our master builders have been using a three pronged
technique to achieve thermal comfort using no energy:
I.Create barriers
II.Build massive structures and use them as thermal
capacitors
III.Drain out the stored heat
Same results can be achieved by using modern technology.
Heritage Technique - Modern Technology
Real mass - Virtual Mass, being a welded grid of iron pipes
filled with water.
Real river - Virtual River,being a cooling tower,circulating
cool water.
It is possible ,by using the wisdom of our ancestors, to
maintain the bottom of a bare sun lit concrete slab around
30deg.C without any refrigeration or evaporative cooling
system.
What is the Solution ?
• Our heritage buildings! They remain comfortable without
any mechanical cooling system,earth tunnels or wind towers.
• Our master builders of yore have been using a three pronged
technique to achieve thermal comfortusing no energy:
I. Create barriers
II. Build massive structures and use them as thermal
capacitors.
III. Drain out the stored heat.
• The barriers were trees, verandahs, hollow walls, stone
screens etc.
• Mass was created by thick walls and high ceilings.
• Drain for the stored heat was provided by water bodies in
contact with the plinth and by special plasters that promoted
radiation to the sky.
• None of these require any energy at all. Still all our heritage
buildings remain within a comfortable temperature range
throughout the year. They have zero global warming potential
and zero carbon emissions.
Classic Examples

Since this temperature is about 5degrees below human skin The Gol Gumbaz at Bijapur.
temperature, one feels quite comfortable when standing under
the slab. •Size 205 feet square
•Walls 10 feet thick
PROBLEM •Wall Height 110 ft.
•Total Height 200 ft.
Air conditioning systems use refrigeration to pump heat out •Dome diameter
of conditioned space to achieve thermal comfort. •Outside 144 feet
•Inside 125 feet
Pumping requires energy. To cool a small room, even an •Uninterrupted Area 18337 Sq. ft
efficient air conditioner would use one kilowatt of electricity.

To supply this unit, the power plant would have to burn four
kW equivalent units of primary energy such as oil or coal
etc., due to inefficiencies and losses.

Six more primary units are used in drilling, pumping and

transporting fuel to the power station.

Thus ten units of primary energy are used for running an air
conditioner using one kW.

Each kW equivalent unit of primary energy would emit

approximately one half kg of CO2 into the atmosphere.
Isn’t This What The Whole World Is
Looking Desperately For? PIPE GRIDS ON THE ROOF SLAB

• Yes and No!

• Yes to the technique and no to the technology.
• The old technology is obsolete because:

1. Barriers- While trees, verandas etc are still used in

rural and semi urban locations, they are not feasible
in high density cities.

2. Massive structures as thermal capacitors-Too expensive.

Thick walls also reduce the useable carpet area from the built
up area.

3. Flowing water or open water bodies as heat sinks- Cost of

land and decreasing supply of water prevents its general use.

Initial Natural Cooling System FINISHED ROOF & HEAT REJECTION UNIT

• Water in the grids was under vacuum so it boiled at 24

Deg.C.

• The vapour was led to a cooling unit without pumping,

using thermal forces only.

• It was cooled by a heat exchanger located within the cooling

unit and condensed into liquid.

• A small pump circulated evaporatively cooled water through

the other side of the heat exchanger.

• The cooling unit also had an economizer, a fan and controls.

• The next shown is an actual

installation at Jaipur.
ANALYSIS OF READINGS
INSTALLATION

THE KABRA HOUSE AT JAIPUR

THE LATEST VERSION

• Welded steel pipes were replaced by tough INSTALLATION SCHEMATIC

corrugated polypropylene plastic tubing.

• A water tank and a radiator replaced the Heat

Rejection Unit.

• Instead of boiling water under vacuum, a small

pump simply circulated the water through the
pipes and a radiator.

THERM-O-DRAIN

• An affordable and sustainable cooling system.

• Based on Indian heritage and modern technology.

• An innovate, very simple thermal cooling system that has no

impact on the environment, costs little to implement and has
zero running cost.

• Pilot project installed at Thacker IndustrialEstate, N. M.

Joshi Marg, Mumbai 400 001.

• A length of corrugated polypropylene pipe is laid on top of

concrete slab in a joint less loop.

• It is then covered with screed.

• The water from the insulated tank (aprox. 300 liters) is

circulated through the loop by a submersible pump and
returned to the same tank.

• Returning water is cooled by a fan cooled heat

pipe on its way to the Tank.At night, the radiative panel
lowers the tank temperature by direct radiation to the sky.

• A data logger records temperatures from ten

temperature sensors as listed.The system is able to maintain
the slab bottom temperature at very near 30 Deg. C, without
losing any water and using negligible power that was easily
supplied by a PV panel.

• If lower temperature is desired, then a

mechanical evaporative or refrigerated cooling
system could be added.
 Step 1 • Connect the submersible pump in the tank to the loop,
heat pipe and back to the tank.
• Connect sensors to data logger & power up

OPERATION

• A pump in the insulated tank (on right) circulates water.

• Then it picks up heat from the slab (extreme left).
• After that it is cooled by a passive heat pipe heat exchanger
(left).
• Finally it returns to the same tank, closing the loop.

NEWEST INSTALLATION SCHEMATIC

Lay 25mm dia. corrugated polypropylene pipe in a

joint-less continuous loop over the bare slab.

Step 2

Cover the pipe loop with a 50 mm screed/ Water

proofing to be done over it.

Step 3

SKY RADIATOR
• One square meter sheet of aluminium.
• With a serpentine copper coil attached to it.
• Coated with a barite rich paint resulting in high emissivity.
• Laid horizontal to get maximum exposure to the sky.
•Water is pumped only when the panel is cooler than the
ambient temperature.
300 Watt solar panel PV set with a battery back up to run the
system completely on solar energy.
After that, we painted the treated slab with a barite rich paint
resulting in high emissivity. Because of the radiant heat
transfer effect, the slab cool downs.
RESULTS
This chart shows the temperature variation between tank
water and return water from the radiator.
There is a 5 deg
temperature difference across the radiator throughout a day.
CONCLUSIONS
• It is possible, by using the wisdom of ourancestors, to
maintain the bottom of a bare sunlit concrete slab around 30
deg. C without any refrigeration or evaporative cooling
system.
• Since this temperature is about 5 degrees below human skin
temperature, one feels quite comfortable when standing under
the slab.
• The main components are a plastic pipe, a radiator and a
pump, all in a water tank, so the system is quite simple and
inexpensive.
• The total power used by the pump and fan is about 150
watts. The solar PV panels have reduced the running cost to
zero, since there is no water cost.
REFERENCES
MR. SURENDRA SHAH,
PANASIA ENGINEERS PVT LTD.
Thacker Industrial Estate, N. M. Joshi Marg,
Mumbai 400 001.
www,panasiaengineers,com