Pairing its revolutionary Ice Bear energy storage module with a standard commercial air conditioner, Ice Energy delivers the industry's first hybrid cooling solution specifically developed to reduce air conditioning energy demand for small to mid-sized commercial businesses.

Using thermally efficient, off-peak power to produce and store energy for use the next day, Ice Energy’s Ice Bear delivers superior cooling using just a fraction of the peak energy of conventional systems.

Designed for easy deployment, and requiring no modification to existing ductwork or structure, the Ice Bear integrates seamlessly with the conventional rooftop and split-system air conditioners that cool nearly all light-commercial and residential buildings in this country. Each Ice Bear unit can be applied to a 3-5 ton system, or a single 5 ton stage of a 7.5-20 ton system, providing 30 ton hours of cooling at a load of up to 5 tons.

The Ice Bear distributed energy storage system operates in two basic modes, Ice Cooling and Ice Charging, to store cooling energy at night, when electricity generation is cleaner, less expensive and more abundant, and to deliver that energy for cooling during the following day.

At night, the Ice Bear system goes into Ice Charge mode. A self-contained ice charging system freezes 450 gallons of water in the insulated tank, while a small condensing unit pumps refrigerant through a configuration of copper coils within it. The water that surrounds these coils begins to freeze and turn to ice. Once it’s frozen, the condensing unit turns off, and the ice is stored until its cooling energy is needed.

As daytime temperatures rise, the power consumption of air conditioning rises along with it, pushing the grid to peak demand levels. It’s during this peak window, typically from noon to 6 pm, that the Ice Bear unit takes over and the energy intensive compressor of the air conditioner shuts down. The Ice Bear unit, fully charged from the night before, switches to Ice Cooling mode.

The Ice Bear uses the ice, rather than the AC unit’s compressor, to cool the hot refrigerant, slowing melting the ice as it travels through a series of copper coils. A small, highly efficient pump pushes ice-cold refrigerant through the modified Ice Energy LiquidDX® evaporator coil that was seamlessly installed in the building’s air conditioner.

The Ice Cooling cycle lasts for at least 6 hours. Once the ice has fully melted, the Ice Bear transfers the job of cooling back to the building’s AC unit, to provide cooling, as needed, until the next day.

During the cool of the night, the Ice Charge mode is activated and the entire cycle begins again.