Ice Energy®commissioned Ken Nittler at Enercomp Inc. and Bruce Wilcox P.E. (EI/BW) to evaluate the Ice Bear® ice storage air conditioner for impact on the 2005 residential standards. Enercomp’s application, Micropas, is approved by the California Energy Commission (CEC) for residential compliance modeling. Bruce Wilcox was instrumental in developing the new residential standards for the CEC and has been involved in developing California energy standards for over 30 years.

EI/BW evaluated the Ice Bear® product in all 16 climate zones using a standards approved prototypical 1761 ft². home. The analysis uses the standards required assumptions and uses, as a baseline, a home with energy features that exactly match the minimum energy code requirements. The CEC approved Micropas software was used to generate the building loads, with the modeling of the Ice Bear® product done on an hourly basis.

The results show significant TDV savings in cooling climates. TDV cooling savings over a standard SEER13 system for the prototype home range from 19-54% in cooling climate zones 1-5 and 8-16. Of the 108,468 California new housing starts in 2001, 95,488 or 88% were in climate zones 1-5 and 8-16. Climate zones 6 and 7 are coastal environments with minimal air conditioning usage.

EI/BW compared the Ice Bear® air conditioner with other energy efficiency measures by modeling the same house with the added measures shown in Table 03.

Note that duct testing is negative because it is a prescriptive requirement but could be eliminated by a performance modeling approach thus reducing the net savings by the amount shown.

	Non-Residential Impact
	Residential Impact
	Compliance Software