ASHRAE Journal - January 2023 - 40

FEATURE
a version of the CAT system with minimum tube
exposed to the outdoor elements, and we are currently
measuring the scope of its improvements.
Conclusion
PHOTO 2. A streamlined CAT system installed in a Cusco house in
October 2022.
typically seen in Perú and to build these homes at an
affordable cost.
Aside from the improved housing, which would cost
~$10,000 USD per house to build, the deployment of
CAT technology in 40,000 houses would also require
state-of-the-art project management expertise to
implement efficiently. The Energy Procurement and
Construction company (EPC) involved in our project is
bringing the project management expertise necessary
to support this effort through training and later support
the field deployment of thousands of CAT units.
In collaboration with the university in Perú, we built
two prototype houses on the university's main campus
in Lima, Perú. One house was built with bricks and the
other with adobe so we could demonstrate with empirical
analysis what our mathematical and physics analysis
had already shown us. This was a controlled environment
that addressed the fact that houses are usually
built with either bricks or adobe.
After completing this empirical analysis on campus in
the 2021 winter of the Southern Hemisphere (July), we
installed the fieldable version of the CAT into houses in
Cuzco, Perú. The results were promising in the sense
that the CAT system was able to consistently maintain
the rooms of a house at a temperature of 17°C (63°F)
when the outside temperature at night was −5°C (23°F).
Based on fundamental physics, we determined that
minimizing the distance between the CAT system and
the house was the next step to increasing the CAT's
performance by minimizing the thermal energy losses
when long tubes are carrying the warm air between
the collector and the accumulator during the day and
between the accumulator and the house (the transformer)
during the night. In October 2022, we installed
40
ASHRAE JOURNAL ashrae.o rg
J A N U A RY 2023
The reason so many people lack access to energy
generated from windmills, geothermal or PV systems,
which are sometimes used as off-grid solutions, is that
these regions are isolated and too poor to invest in those
resources. Also, governments do not invest enough in
energy infrastructure development. The combination
of these factors-lack of government investment in
infrastructure and limited financial capital-prevent
these inhabitants from having access to energy sources.
Moreover, even if solar panels or small windmill stations
could be brought to these isolated areas, there are no
highways or tools available to facilitate their installation
and maintenance.
Our team developed an affordable off-grid house
heating system that can be a worldwide sustainable
energy solution for off-grid house heating in deprived
areas without access to PV cells, windmills, firewood
or batteries. Barns, school buildings and medical posts
can also be warmed using this system. Further, the
CAT system also has the potential to meet the needs
of other critically impacted groups, such as warming
homeless populations in metropolitan areas and serving
vulnerable populations in war-devastated areas
where energy infrastructure may be significantly damaged
or no longer present.
If you are interested in engaging this global initiative,
contact the authors at www.crativ1.com/contact-us
References
1. Collyns, D. " Children die in harsh Perú winter. " BBC News.
2009. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8146995.stm
2. United Nations. " Prolonged cold snap in Perú causes deaths
of 60 children, UNICEF says. " 2004. https://news.un.org/en/
story/2004/07/110642
3. Environmental Protection Agency. " Climate Change
Indicators: Cold-Related Deaths. " 2018. https://www.epa.gov/
climate-indicators/climate-change-indicators-cold-relateddeaths
4.
NASA. Technology Readiness Level definitions. https://
www.nasa.gov/pdf/458490main_TRL_Definitions.pdf
5. United Nations. Sustainable Development Goals. " Bridging
global infrastructure gap tops agenda at annual UN Partnership
Forum. " 2017. https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/
blog/2017/04/bridging-global-infrastructure-gap-tops-agendaat-annual-un-partnership-forum/

http://www.crativ1.com/contact-us http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8146995.stm https://news.un.org/en/story/2004/07/110642 https://news.un.org/en/story/2004/07/110642 https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indicators-cold-related-deaths https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indicators-cold-related-deaths https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indicators-cold-related-deaths https://www.nasa.gov/pdf/458490main_TRL_Definitions.pdf https://www.nasa.gov/pdf/458490main_TRL_Definitions.pdf https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2017/04/bridging-global-infrastructure-gap-tops-agendaat-annual-un-partnership-forum/ https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2017/04/bridging-global-infrastructure-gap-tops-agendaat-annual-un-partnership-forum/ https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2017/04/bridging-global-infrastructure-gap-tops-agendaat-annual-un-partnership-forum/ http://ashrae.org

ASHRAE Journal - January 2023

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