Omani innovation on air-conditioning grabs attention

An Omani innovation in cooling technology is fast grabbing attention.

The study led by Dr Maryam Zuhair al Lawati from the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation found a new and innovative way to apply advanced artificial intelligence (AI) techniques and adapt them in cooling buildings.

"My study is all about using renewable environmental energies through a smart system that integrates these technologies through a specific mechanism that will result in cooling buildings and reducing dependency on traditional electricity," said Dr Maryam al Lawati.

The volume and amount of cooling necessary for the building during summer and winter will be forecast using AI. Based on the predictions, the control system would operate the heat-conditioning system according to the needs of the building.

The 33rd issue of 'Scientific Insights' magazine published by the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation (MoHERI) has conducted a detailed study on the new technology of applying AI in cooling buildings using renewable energies.

"The very idea of the research is based on utilising renewable energy, which is abundant in the country," adds Maryam.

'Scientific Insights' is a bilingual scientific journal published every three months by the MoHERI.

The research also aimed to solve the issues associated with cooling buildings during summer. It can be solved by using modern and advanced AI techniques to find a way that helps reduce costs in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way.

Dr Maryam chose solar energy as a type of renewable energy to cool buildings. This energy operates a thermal air conditioner, which provides energy to cool the building. An example of the technology is the Social Center building in Innovation Park Muscat.

"The heat is reduced through transferring the energy to the earth and utilising the land and geothermal energy. This type of optimal energy use is an innovative method, and the AI and control system has been programmed to determine the working hours that are very suitable for this system."However, there are challenges associated with calculating this cooling load in the current worldwide AI system. Therefore, through this research, Dr Maryam and her team devised a new method of using AI to calculate cooling loads to suit the relevant system.Her study further reveals that the Sultanate of Oman relies on electrical energy to cool buildings. The study proved that the dependence on electrical energy might be reduced from 100 per cent per year to 23.6 per cent when thermal energy based on solar power is introduced. The difference could be more remarkable, as the findings showed that the AI system could predict the amount of cooling for this hybrid system, with a high predictive accuracy of 98 per cent.