Many people think of natural gas as a source of heat for warming a building. But, natural gas can and is used to provide cooling and refrigeration. There are several types of gas cooling system:
Absorption – uses a cycle of condensation and evaporation to produce a cooling effect. The advantages of absorption systems are:
Engine Driven Chillers – very similar in principal to electric motor driven chillers. The advantages of engine driven chillers systems are:
Hybrid HVAC systems are available that utilize different energy sources to take advantage of the best technology and of favorable energy pricing during 24-hour, 365-day-a-year operations. Chiller plants with gas/electric combinations are the most common.
Desiccant Dehumidification Systems – used in many applications where moisture can be a problem. Desiccants cool the air by reducing the humidity. In turn the cooling system does not work as hard to cool the air. The advantages of a desiccant dehumidification system are:
Usually the initial cost of a gas cooling system is higher than that of a comparably-sized electric system, a gas system’s payback can be attractive. This is due to gas being lower priced in the summer resulting in the avoidance of high electric demand charges.