For My Friends Without Air Conditioning...Try This Simple Method To Make Your Own

OneEyedDiva

OneEyedDiva

SF VIP
Location
New Jersey
This reminds me of the concept for those little so called air conditioners that allegedly cool a room (they don't) and sell for about $50. I bought one, mostly out of curiosity to use in our studio room, which didn't have AC at the time. I found that helped when set close to me. It cooled a little better than the fan, I suspect because cold water was in the tank, but will not cool an entire room as advertised. This method, which uses frozen bottles of salted water in front or back of a fan, should help. I've never tried this, so can't vouch for its efficacy. If you've tried it already or do try it, please let us know if it works.
https://www.tomsguide.com/how-to/how-to-make-a-diy-air-conditioner
 

Interesting idea, and it would probably work, a little anyway.
OneEyedDiva said:
This reminds me of the concept for those little so called air conditioners that allegedly cool a room (they don't) and sell for about $50. I bought one, mostly out of curiosity to use in our studio room, which didn't have AC at the time. I found that helped when set close to me. It cooled a little better than the fan, I suspect because cold water was in the tank, but will not cool an entire room as advertised.
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I think you are talking about an evaporative cooler, a swamp cooler. They only work in a dry climate, not New Jersey. I prefer the feel of the air from one to regular AC, but they are more trouble to make work. I have one here and it worked pretty well most days, but made a lot of noise and took a lot of maintenance. Leaked too much.
 

Growing up without air conditioning, my mother would use deflection or distraction on me if I dared complain about the heat. She would simply scream at me, “It’s summer…it’s SUPPOSED to be hot!” Rather than further raise the temperature by spiking my mother’s ire, I soon learned to suffer in silence, or my mother would really give me something to complain about! 😸
 
Alligatorob said:
Interesting idea, and it would probably work, a little anyway.

I think you are talking about an evaporative cooler, a swamp cooler. They only work in a dry climate, not New Jersey. I prefer the feel of the air from one to regular AC, but they are more trouble to make work. I have one here and it worked pretty well most days, but made a lot of noise and took a lot of maintenance. Leaked too much.
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Well apparently it did work in N.J. because it cooled me off. :LOL: Wouldn't you agree that it doesn't cool even a small room though? Mine doesn't make that much noise and I liked that part. Earlier this month my son bought a 5,000 BTU A.C. for our studio room, the room I used it in last year so I don't even need it anymore. The only time mine leaked Rob was once when I overfilled it because the fill line was hard to see. After that I knew just how much water to add each time. I've noticed from the ones on Amazon, they've come down in price since I purchased mine, which looks similar to this one:

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OneEyedDiva said:
Well apparently it did work in N.J. because it cooled me off. :LOL: Wouldn't you agree that it doesn't cool even a small room though?
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Evaporative or swamp coolers rely on the cooling effect of water evaporation. So long as the humidity is less than 100% you will get some cooling, probably the case in New Jersey. However in the arid west where the humidity is very low you get a lot more cooling power. Could probably cool a small room here more effectively than in NJ.

Evaporative coolers take less energy than conventional coolers, they provide humidified air, and they do not require an outside hot air discharge. They do however require a water supply, and the larger ones often leak. Leaking can be a problem as a lot of these are roof mounted. Swamp coolers used to be the standard for AC here. Here is a link to a typical large one, used to cool a whole house. https://www.homedepot.com/p/Hessair...2-400-sq-ft-Motor-Not-Included-A68D/206829811 . The smaller self contain ones, like you seem to have, are gaining some popularity, a cheap and easier way to temporarily cool a small area.

The standard refrigerative type of AC works no matter the humidity. They have always been the most common in the humid eastern part of the county, and are becoming the standard here. They use more energy, require and outside hot air discharge, and dehumidify air. The primary advantages are that they work regardless of humidity and are more adaptable to central heating and air systems.

I like the humidified air from a swamp cooler, miss mine sometimes...
 
Alligatorob said:
The standard refrigerative type of AC works no matter the humidity. They have always been the most common in the humid eastern part of the county, and are becoming the standard here. They use more energy, require and outside hot air discharge, and dehumidify air. The primary advantages are that they work regardless of humidity and are more adaptable to central heating and air systems.
Click to expand...

Around here (Gulf Coast) central A/C works best when the humidity is 'manageable' ... I had to purchase a large dehumidifier for my apartment last year, because the humidity levels were just too high for the A/C to keep up on hot summer nights
... that did the trick!

It gets the humidity levels in the Normal range, so that everything works better.
And that even included my kitchen refrigerator that started to act up, with freezing coils - fan in freezer froze up.

The heat dome we've been under has been something else.
The temps over 100, and humidity levels out of control are strange.
 
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