Now, heat water through your air conditioner

Published on Tuesday , October 30, 2007 at 14:05 in Sci-Tech section

Singapore: Inventors don't usually make housecalls, but for Philip Lee, his invention hopes to revolutionize how people live - one home at a time.

Architect Mohammed Jaafar is one of these people. Lee has created a heat recovery system which channels waste heat from air conditioners to heat water.

For Jaafar that means he and his family save energy and money while enjoying the cool comforts of air conditioning.

The moment they turn on their air conditioner, the waste heat is harnessed.

Within minutes, they have access to hot water, at no extra cost. For now, the small-scale production means the cost of the system runs high, as does the skepticism.

“My wife said you're mad, it's just too costly, but I said I think this is going to be the trend, this is where we experiment, and be supportive of new ideas as coming on board,” says Jaafar.

Singapore is less than two degrees from the equator, and its citizens are used to their air-conditioned lifestyle.

In this urban maze, air conditioning units peer from virtually every high-rise home.

Lee's work originally started in solar panels, but the lack of space in Singapore required a different green solution.

“We were looking at the air conditioners which produce a huge amount of heat, and it was going into the atmosphere as waste heat, so why not harness this, use this in useful applications,” says Lee.

People are aware that the world is getting hotter, but always individuals have this sense of powerlessness, what can I do, so what we are doing is a very small part, we believe that small numbers make up that quantity.

Trying to garner those small numbers keeps Lee busy, but he often finds himself here at this local teahouse.

This bustling 24-hour kitchen is the unlikely home of Lee's original prototype.

The unit saves the owner, Seah How Chai, more than $250 a month on his electricity bills.

“The machine is more than 10 years old, really old, but he was willing to give it a try. He said if he couldn't do it, he'd get me a new one,” says Seah.

It’s still early days for his invention, but Lee says he's prepared to take on the skeptics, one person at a time.