評論
打印
Business.
商業
Air conditioning
空調行業
Cool innovation
很酷的發明（制冷方面的發明）
An upstart hopes to make rival cooling companies sweat
這個挑戰者渴望把與之競爭的空調公司逼出汗來
ON A hot July day in 1902, the world's first air conditioner was switched on in Brooklyn. Since then, air conditioning has saved lives, raised productivity and made the American South liveable in the summer. Yet as it turns 110, critics fume that the technology cooks the planet even as it cools homes. As Stan Cox points out in his book, "Losing Our Cool: Uncomfortable Truths About Our Air-Conditioned World", America uses more energy for air conditioning than Africa uses for everything. Enter Advantix Systems, a firm that makes air-conditioning systems that consume 30-50% less energy than conventional ones.
1902年的炎熱7月，世界上第一臺空調在布魯克林區開始運轉。自從那時起，空調就開始拯救生命、提高生產力，并且讓夏天的南非更適于生活。時值110年后，批抨者們卻很不滿，因為這項科技成果既加熱了地球，也加熱了我們的家。正如Stan Cox在他所寫的《失去我們的清涼：我們這個被空調冷卻的世界中，一些讓人不安的事實》一書中指出的，美國在制冷方面消耗的能源比非洲總的能源消耗還多。Enter Advantix Systems是一家空調制作商，其產品能耗比普通產品少30%-50%。
Many air conditioners work something like this. First, cool the air to well below the desired room temperature. Then, blow it over a metal plate to make the moisture in it condense (and rain on the heads of passers-by, if the cooler is in New York). Then, warm the dry air back up to the desired temperature.
很多空調制商都在制產下面這樣的產品：首先，將空氣冷卻到低于理想室溫的程度。然后，將它吹過一個金屬版，使其中的水分被壓縮（如果是在紐約的話，這些水還會滴到路人的頭上）。最后，將干燥的空氣再加熱回理想溫度。
Advantix's "liquid desiccant" technology, by contrast, passes the air through a brine solution to dehumidify it, without the need to waste energy overcooling it. Its machines are especially effective in humid places, which is where much of the world's growth is.
Advantix的"液體干燥技術"則正相反，空氣通過鹵水系統被干燥，因而不需要浪費能源過度冷卻它。這種機器在潮濕的地方尤其有效，而這些地方也正是世界的主要增長區域。
Advantix, which used to be known as DuCool, stumbled on the technology. It was founded in the 1980s by Israeli brothers who built ice rinks in the Middle East. They found that many coolers could not cope well with the humidity there, so they created ones that could. MatlinPatterson, a private-equity firm, bought a stake in 2010 and brought in managers who concocted an ambitious plan to sell cooling systems for commercial and industrial buildings. Advantix recently announced a big deal to air condition a Procter & Gamble factory in India that makes laundry liquid pods.
過去被稱為DuCool的Advantix公司曾在技術上遇到問題。它由建造了滑冰場的尤太人于19世紀80年代建造。他們發現許多冷卻設備都不能應對潮濕的情況，因此他們制造了能解決這一問題的設備。私人股權公司MatlinPatterson在2011年入股并且帶入了一位有雄心壯智將產品賣到商務和工業建筑中的經理。Advantix近期也宣布了一項大合約：該公司將為印度一家制造箱裝洗衣液的寶潔公司安裝空調設備。
Competition will soon heat up, however, as rivals develop their own liquid desiccant air conditioners. In this business, you have to sweat to keep up.
但是競爭對手也開發了他們自己的液體干燥技術空調，競爭將會越來越白熱化。在這行，你得努力工作才能不被落下。
