Can I Do This At My House?

KVOA.com reported that The University of Arizona has a pretty cool way to cool down their buildings during the day and save money on their electricity bill. And as an added bonus, this makes the campus a more "green" campus.

Traditionally, buildings are cooled by passing air over chilled pipes which is very costly. Now, the campus has 156 tanks of antifreeze running through the pipes in the tank that freezes the water at night. During peak electricity hours (middle of the day), those giant blocks of ice in the pipes melt and cools the 140 buildings on campus.

"The University isn't the only institution using this technique, it is spreading throughout the country. In some places it allows them to offset electricity production to cleaner renewable sources. At night, when demand is lower, renewable sources such as wind and water energy can fulfill a greater portion of the need, offsetting coal usage."

I thought that this was pretty cool for the environment and budget. Based on the data collected, they think it saves them more than $20K a month. I did notice that my office is cooler than it use to be, but my thermostat could just be set lower in the 7 months that I have not been here.

[image via arizona.edu]