It’s all over the news during the heatwave:
AIR ambulance helicopter crews are collapsing with heat exhaustion on rescue flights because temperatures in the non-air-conditioned cabins sometimes hit 50C.
Leaving aside the politics of how these helicopters came to be ordered without air conditioning units in the first place, what is needed is a quick, reliable solution. And what do you know? An Australian manufacturer has an existing product designed for truck-cabins which could be perfect – a portable low-CO2 emissions air-conditioning unit which can run to keep the cabin cool without the engine needing to be on. Here’s a short description from the manufacturer, Kool Ideas:
Climate Friendly
Proudly Bendigo
Executive Summary
Kool Ideas has developed a United Nations award winning product in Bendigo which is a climate friendly, battery operated refrigerated, reverse cycle air-conditioning unit. The product is protected by International Patents. The main advantages is the product, are that at a very reasonable cost it provides both heating and cooling, portability (weighs just 16kgs) which is powered by a 12 volt automotive battery supply. The versatility allows for solar operation as well. 170 units have been sold over the past 18months with no marketing.
The market opportunities for the Kool Ideas product are diverse and in mammoth proportions, including transport, defence, caravan, farming, mining, automotive, domestic, and other leisure, however Kool Ideas, with its limited resources and capacity is concentrating on the transport industry, in particular trucking.
Trucking industry was chosen for a number of reasons. Firstly, the industry itself identified that it needs to 1) reduce costs, 2) decrease its carbon footprint, and 3) Occupational Health and Safety.
Consider that the driver has compulsory rest/ sleep time, obviously that cannot occur when radiant heat brings the truck cabin temperature to in excess of 50? Celsius. To reduce cabin temperature the Driver, uses old technology, leaves the motor idling so that the air conditioner can cool the cabin. An independent report[1] commissioned by Kool Ideas states that “ ….a typical long haul truck could idle up to 2,400 hours per year, which would use between 1,900 and 2,700 gallons of fuel” This equates to in excess of 10,000 litres and in today’s terms $12,500 for every truck. In addition the report states that the idling process contributes 2,500 tonnes of CO? per truck per annum. The carbon tax consequence will reduce the truck operators’ bottom line by $37,500 ($15 p/t).
Apply those figures on a national basis Australia is looking at 235million litres of Diesel and 620,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide which, when combined will cost the transport industry and ultimately the consumer $320 million annually.
Kool Ideas has the product which addresses this substantial and costly issue..
1. Preliminary Environmental Assessment prepared by Harry van Moorst, Western Region Environment Centre Inc 12 July 2007
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Truck owners should consider the advantages of applying Kool Ideas Technolgy and at the same time helping to reduce Carbon Dioxide levels
Advantages for the Truck operator
1. Reduce diesel consumption & maintenance costs (10,000 liters or $12,500) annually)
2. Reduce CO? emissions (2500 tonnes of Carbon Dioxide) annually
3. Reduce the amount of carbon tax ($37,500 ) {Tax at $15 per tonne}
4. Smaller/ lighter (16kgs)/quieter
5. No height issues
6. Easier and quicker to install and service – 75% faster
7. Improved OH&S – (Better sleeping – quieter)
Advantages for Australia
1. Australian made
2. Improved Balance of Payments
a. Less Diesel fuel imports (235m liters $70m ($0.30 ltr)) &
b. Exports (1 million units $2 billion (cost of $2,000)
3. Improved air quality 620,000 Tonnes of CO? eliminated
4. Job Creation – locally made (Create about 40 jobs per 1,000 units)
5. Reduce business costs
6. Help met Kyoto Protocol requirements
Air ambulances ill-equipped
Email Printer friendly version Normal font Large font Kate Benson Medical Reporter
February 5, 2009
THE state’s air ambulance service has been forced to spend thousands of dollars buying portable hydration packs, ice vests, refrigerators and bottled water for its paramedics because the Government’s new rescue helicopters do not have air-conditioning.
Staff and patients in the helicopters have endured temperatures of more than 50 degrees. In one instance a doctor suffered heat stress and lost consciousness during a flight.
The move comes days after a helicopter without a winch was sent to collect a man suffering dehydration on a mountain at Orange. It was unable to retrieve him and a second helicopter from Sydney had to be dispatched, arriving an hour later. The man later died in hospital. The helicopters have been widely criticised for not being able to carry more than one patient, failing in extreme temperatures and being incapable of flying long distances.
The helicopters are so sensitive to heat they must be stored in hangars between every job, delaying the time it takes to respond to an emergency. Paramedics have had to use car sun-shields on the windows when they are parked on hospital helipads and have asked for the helicopters to be fitted with air-conditioning and curtains.
In Saturday’s tragedy at Orange, a 26-year-old man became dehydrated after bushwalking on Mount Canobolas. The ambulance service had chosen not to equip Orange air paramedics with a winch because they did not perform enough winch rescues to make it cost-effective. Doctors did not blame the delay in winching the patient out for his death, and said the man was seriously ill when he was found.
But the MP for Calare, John Cobb, said patients deserved better. “This man may have died anyway, but sending a helicopter without a winch took away any chance he had,” Mr Cobb said yesterday. “We do have mountains out here.”
The Opposition’s health spokeswoman, Jillian Skinner, agreed, saying patients were at risk. “It defies belief that a rescue helicopter based at Orange is not equipped with a winch – it’s as if the state Labor Government thinks all the land west of the Great Divide is flat.”
The head of intensive care at Orange Base Hospital, John Lambert, said the man was close to death when found and had only waited 10 minutes for the helicopter from Sydney.
“He had undoubtedly the worst case of heatstroke I have seen and everything that could be done to help him was done, but we have 38 hospitals out here which are too small to handle major trauma and we need a helicopter capable of travelling long distances quickly and that is funded to operate at night.” Dr Lambert will meet ambulance management in Sydney tomorrow to discuss the issue.