The present invention relates to an energy-saving and refreshing type air conditioning system utilizing rainwater which is used mainly for buildings, such as ordinary houses and public facilities. The system may also be used for clean rooms in semiconductor producing factories or the like, warehouses for storage of foods and goods, civil engineering materials, construction materials or the like.
Conventional air conditioning systems include, for example, (1) a system which comprises introducing air into a pipe, such as a vinyl chloride pipe laid in the ground to cool air in the pipe, and supplying the cooled air into a room, (2) a system which comprises leading water from a well, and passing water through a pipe arranged under a floor to thereby cool air in a room with the water as a cooling medium, and (3) a system which comprises directly passing rainwater stored in a rainwater tank through a pipe arranged under a floor or on a ceiling to thereby cool air in a room with the rainwater as a cooling medium.
The above-described conventional techniques have problems. For example, in the first system, in order to efficiently cool air in the pipe, the pipe is required to be placed in the ground at a depth, for example, 3 m or deeper. This leads to an extremely high cost. On the other hand, if the pipe is laid at a shallow area to prevent such economical disadvantage, air cooling effect is poor. If the pipe is disposed in a large area, a considerably large area is required, resulting in a high cost.
In the second system, a first requirement is that a well is owned. If a well is not available, it is not practical to bore a well with a view to install an air conditioning system in terms of an area of a site and a cost.
In the third system, since rainwater is used as a heat exchange medium, there may be a trouble of water leakage. Further, this system has a problem that a cost of arranging the pipe under a floor or on a ceiling is high, and a maintenance cost is also high.
The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems inherent in the conventional techniques.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide an energy-saving and refreshing type air conditioning apparatus utilizing rainwater which is capable of efficiently supplying cool air to a room by directly cooling air drawn from outside the room or air drawn from the room without using water or the like as a heat exchange medium in contrast to the conventional techniques.
Another object of the invention is to provide an air condition apparatus as stated above, which is simply constructed and substantially free from the troubles inherent in the conventional techniques.
A further object of the invention is to provide an air condition method and apparatus as stated above, which are economically advantageous, and can fully utilize the benefit of nature.