Comments on: DIY: Beat the Heatwave by Making Your Own Air Conditioner

By: Giant DIY LED Lit Balloons that Measure Air Quality | Inhabitat - Green Design Will Save the World

Fri, 06 Aug 2010 17:58:03 +0000

[...] isn’t for the faint of heart, earlier this squelching summer they taught us how to make a DIY air conditioner so they’re not messing around. Now, they’re going to teach you all about the air [...]

By: jsco

jsco — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 17:54:54 +0000

@garrendraco

you don\’t get anything for free. put warm things (water) into the freezer, and the compressor runs that much more to chill them down. either way, you\’re ultimately using a compressor to lower the temperature of an air mass, and the ice cube method gains you nothing. (unless you live in a smart billing area, where running at off-peak times and \”storing\” the energy in thermal mass, which is a genuine advantage. the article does not metion this.)

criticism is not elitism.

By: garrendraco

garrendraco — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 06:50:52 +0000

Note that if you have a refrigerator/freezer in your home at all, it’s going to be running regardless; otherwise you risk spoiling food. The idea takes the power you have to use to keep your food from spoiling and gives it double duty. Which is better: Fridge/freezer/fan or fridge/freezer/AC?

Glad to see that people like to focus on the negative and crush any positive aspect at all with elitist comments. Kudos to someone for trying!

By: the bystander

the bystander — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 17:46:13 +0000

I like how the article read, “Some cold respite from the heat without the electricity bill — and green guilt”… so not really for the environment eh?

Also the point that the ice was made during off peak hours doesn’t eliminate the fact that hefty amount of energy is still being used.

I thought the whole point of being environmentally conscious is to reduce energy use overall and not just transfer the use to other people during other times to assuage your own “guilt”.

By: harbindroid

harbindroid — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 16:01:54 +0000

Actually, if the ice is made at night, while energy demand is low, then it has a huge advantage over a traditional ac unit. The diffuser could be a bit better though. I read about some large commercial installations being based off of that very concept

By: jsco

jsco — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 21:31:28 +0000

ugh, seriously? the cooling comes from the ice. this is neither cheap nor energy saving. that ice was made in a freezer, using the same tech that a/c units use, and the price of the energy is more than built into the price of the ice. this is just a rube goldberg contraption that inserts some extra steps (go-to-store, buy-ice, go-home, put-ice-in-cooler) in between the normal steps of chill-with-compressor and blow-fan-over-chilled-radiator that an a/c unit would use.

google “swamp cooler” and “evaporative cooling” for true alternatives to compressor-based climate control.

By: Em

Em — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 21:18:23 +0000

I’m confused by the utility of this project, since the ice is made by an electricity-powered freezer.

By: Larakin

Larakin — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 20:45:55 +0000

soo…. how much energy was used in creating the ice? or do we not count that.