Les Jones

Science > Lessons in Economics and Thermodynamics

I really admire this guy's gumption. Facing a summer without air conditioning, he decides to roll his own. He takes ice (made in his refrigerator), dumps it into a garbage can of water, and routes the water through a copper pipe that winds around an electric fan and ultimately dumps warm water outside.

As lots of fine folks on Slashdot note, the cold air comes in part from his refrigerator. To make the inside of the refrigerator cold, the compressor makes the outside of the refrigerator (i.e., his apartment) hot. Like any refrigeration unit, an AC makes cold air on one side and hot air on the other, which is why AC units are either mounted outside or in a window.

Coincidentally, I was shopping AC units for our rental apartment the other night. A 6000 BTU AC for a 300 square foot room was less than a hundred bucks. A 10000 BTU unit that can cool 500 square feet was $195. Unlike his home-brew solution, real ACs remove moisture from the air, which makes them more effective in cooling sweaty mammals. In the not-very long run I'm guessing he'd save money with the more-efficient AC unit, which also has more resale value than a fan, a gargabe can and a bunch of copper tubing. It also doesn't require daily filling of a garbage can, and has a handy thermostat and remote control.