Air conditioner use along with fossil fuels is seen as the primary cause of global warming in recent years. Their use in offices, homes and factories have increased exponentially, and this has contributed towards an imbalanced environment outside. They also add a significant number of dollars each month in our electricity bills. Engineers and researchers have been looking for ways to reduce our dependency on the power-hungry Air conditioners by looking for natural ways to cool off rooms. One of the promising attempts has been the creation of a hydroceramic wall by students from Barcelona.
The Institute of Advanced Architecture Catalunya, Barcelona are behind this project, and they have successfully created a wall that can cool the air in a room with no energy input. How did they achieve this? The Hydroceramic material that has been used in the construction of this wall has Hydrogel particles in between layers of ceramic and fabric. This curious chemical can absorb large quantities of water as compared to its own volume (almost 400 times). When the water evaporates, it cools down the area around it too. Thus, the temperature of the air in the room is reduced up to 5 degrees. The walls can also cut cooling costs by up to 28 percent.
Right now, the wall is just a prototype, but the active experiments conducted on it show that the it has the potential to become a universal construction material in the coming years. The figures below explain the concept in more detail.
See this video for a more detailed explanation.