Air Care LLC's 1.5-Ton, 18,000 BTU Solar Powered Air Conditioner

Summertime cooling is one of the biggest drains on energy in the U.S. and every year power companies ask their customers to turn the thermostat up a few degrees and conserve electricity wherever possible. But what if you could take the reason we turn our air conditioners on in the first place, the sun, and use it to cool your home?

Well, perhaps now you can do just that. AirCare, LLC. is going to be demonstrating a new solar-powered air conditioner in Arizona this spring in preparation for making it available to the general public. It runs on 24 volts of DC power, rather than the standard 110 AC power that comes out of your wall, but is still powerful enough to cool a fairly large home even though it uses 75% less energy than conventional air conditioners.

The nicest part is that you can install this unit even if you don't live in a particularly sunny area. While it's primarily powered by solar, you can also use wind or hydro power to run it. If all else fails, it will charge its batteries from standard wall power as well until the renewable resource is available again.Even better, you can connect lights, ceiling fans, and other devices (laptops and cell phones) to the battery system to reduce your reliance on grid power even more.

If you're looking for a new air conditioner this summer, this one might be your best alternative.