Second Place Solar Home Uses Liquid Desiccant Waterfall
Some interesting ideas for saving electricity.
Second Place Solar Home Uses Liquid Desiccant Waterfall
The LEAFHouse team is exploring a technology relatively new to single-family home design called a Desiccant System. This concept has been proven sound on larger buildings. The basic idea is to use a material called a desiccant (in our case a type of salt called calcium chloride) to absorb water directly from the air without all the complicated machinery and energy requirements of conventional AC. As the desiccant absorbs water, it becomes diluted and its ability to dry the air declines. The desiccant needs to be regenerated. This can be done by simply heating up the desiccant and letting the water evaporate to the outside air. Thus, the desiccant is concentrated and ready to return to its job of drying the indoor air. LEAFHouse uses heat from the Solar Hot Water collectors to regenerate the desiccant.
