San Diego (CA) – A small silicon chip could eliminate a good chunk of our air conditioning bills, according to the folks at Microstaq.  At the recently completed DEMOfall 08 corference in San Diego, the company introduced its “Ventilum” chip which replaces the valves in home and car air conditioning systems.  Company reps say 15% of world energy consumption is used by air conditioners and that their chip could cut that use by 25%.

The Ventilum chip as small as your pinkie and contains several holes for refrigerant to flow through.  Microstaq’s Vice President of Marketing, Steven Booth, told us that a small electrical charge is applied to the silicon to make the valves open and close.  This meters the coolant flow and supposedly is much more efficient than traditional valves which are much larger and contain several moving parts.  The Ventilum chip, in contrast, has two moving parts.

Fewer moving parts and the smaller size equates to energy efficiency and according to Booth, the chip requires approximately .7 amps at 12 volts.

For the average home owner, a 25% reduction in air conditioning costs would be significant.  Assuming a $100 A/C monthly bill, this chip could save $300 over the course of a year – that is if MicroStaq’s claims are correct.  Businesses that spend hundreds of thousands in cooling per month would obviously reap tremendous savings.

While huge energy savings does certainly sound, err… cool, it’s even better seeing micromachines, specificially Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), devices being used in air conditioning systems.  Just like the DLP chip brought clunky projectors and televisions down to size, hopefully this chip will usher in a new age of smaller and more efficient A/C units.

Booth said the company will be releasing a retrofit kit for home air conditioning systems that will require technicians to cut off the ends of two tubes and weld in their replacement gadget.  No price has been announced.

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