by Shane Henson — December 4, 2013—Ice Energy, a California-based provider of distributed thermal energy storage and smart grid solutions, recently announced its success in helping a public library located in the City of Azusa to overcome a major air-conditioning equipment failure.
According to Ice Energy, the California library was faced with the breakdown of its 30-year-old, 30-ton air-conditioning unit right in the middle of a sustained heat wave, posing a problem for both library staff and guests. After being contacted by Azusa Light and Water, the city’s public utility, Ice Energy stepped in to provide its Ice Bear system as a more reliable and efficient solution.
Azusa Light and Water has already successfully used the Ice Bear system since 2005 to help reduce summer peak capacity requirements set by refrigerant-based air conditioning. Units are located at major city facilities including the event center and gymnasium, police station headquarters, critical data centers, Azusa Light and Water main offices, and the utility’s largest customer, Azusa Pacific University.
The Ice Bear system is an intelligent distributed energy storage solution that works in conjunction with commercial direct-expansion air-conditioning systems. The system stores energy at night, when electricity generation is cleaner, more efficient and less expensive, and delivers that energy during the peak of the day to provide cooling to the building.
Within just two weeks, Ice Energy installed four Ice Bear thermal energy storage units that were integrated with ceiling and wall-mounted ductless cassettes—eliminating the need to circulate air through existing uninsulated and inefficient air ducts. With the significant efficiency improvement, 20 tons of Ice Bear capacity displaced the 30-ton vintage air-conditioning system and eliminated the peak overload situation on the facility’s main electrical panel, says Ice Energy.
Through installing the Ice Bears, the city was able to not only keep library visitors comfortable, but save money on energy costs as well.
“Ice Bears not only solved the cooling problem, they added to our utility’s peak reduction and energy efficiency objectives, which ultimately drive greater grid reliability and support our efforts to maintain the lowest cost of service to our customers,” said George Morrow, general manager of Azusa Light and Water.
