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Keeping Your Apartment Cool in the Summer Time?
uvince asks: "Sure, the air is on all day at work, but when you are at home and it warms up (as the west coast is now) what do you do when a fan just won't cut it? Do you install a swamp cooler, set out a standing air conditioner, or install some air conditioner that fits in the window. How can I keep my apartment, or at least my bedroom cool? Anyone have any creative, green ideas?"
If humidity is really low in your area (which, if you live on the coast, is probably NOT the case!) A simple evaporative cooler can run with a supply of water and very little (or possibly no) electricity.
The idea is that water has to absorb heat form it's surroundings when it evaporates, like sweat absorbs heat from the body. But if there's no other source of heat, it will absorb it from the air. The water doesn't even need to be all that cold, though cold water will obviously absorb more heat.
All you need is some way to expose the water to air. One suggestion would be to build an "evaporator" out of brown corregated carboard, use a small pump to trickle water over it and a small fan to draw air through it.
If you can build a tall "stack" and place the evaporator at the top, you can take advantage of natural convection to eliminate the fan. (Cold, denser air drops down stack, pulling in more air through the evaporator)
If you can get the materials just right, and/or have a pressurized source of water (house main), you can take advantage of capillary action/mains pressure to eliminate the pump.
Silent and green. Too bad it doesn't work in humid regions!
=Smidge=
--if your room windows get direct sun, by all means install awnings. Just keeping the sun from streaming in is good for a few degree reduction in temp. Shade *works*. the other examples are good too. sometimes there's no replacement for just normal technology,. If it was a home you could mod away at, there are some alternatives, but in an apartment, just a room, not a lot you can do, bite the bullet, slap in the window AC unit.
well, maybe there's one more thing you can do, if you have no qualms about it.....you can also get a metal detector, probe the walls, find the central HVAC ductwork from the people next door running their AC, tap into it, suck in cool airbandwith, PROFIT!!!!1!
heh heh
In the olden daze, people would sometimes use damp sheets at night, I've tried it myself, it works, The easiest way to dampen them without a big mess and a lot of hassle is to get a towel or three wet, wring them out, lay them on top of the sheet, once the amount of moisture you want (damp, not soaking) is transferred, you slip under the sheets, fall asleep. It actually works, gets cool. Another way is to sleep on an unheated water bed, they usually stay pretty cool and will wick away body heat, unless they themselves get to 98.6 obviously. Do the water bed and the damp sheet trick, at least you can fall asleep comfortable, it takes one or two nights to get used to the sheet, but then it feels real nice. That and fans and an awning is about it in the cheap and low energy range in an apartment.
I find that when I water my plants, I get a nice cooling effect. Ceiling fans + watered plants + moderate to low humidity (Texas) work like a champ. Plus it makes the plants happy.
>Isn't a no-name brand
:-)
;-)
Uhh... Kenmore doesn't actually make anything, eh?
They're like today's HP. Buy it from a cheap Taiwanese factory and slap a Kenmore sticker on it (okay, okay, not that bad, but a lot of it is actually made by Amana -- at least for fridges).
What does suck is that sometimes lower quality parts are subbed in. A good friend who once sold power tools told me that if I was to buy Black and Decker (which, in his opinion, sucked anyways) never to buy them at Sears, as the Sears versions often used lesser-rated parts.
But I might be totally wrong on all this. You should really check into it yourself.
BTW: I have $5 that says your Kenmore A/C is a Frigidaire OEM.
If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
I've always wondered how effective running cold water from the tap through a radiator would be. Point a fan at it and let the heat go down the drain!
pick one suitable for the size of the room it'll be installed in.
Quick rule of thumb: For residential spaces, 20-25 BTUs of cooling per square foot is generally sufficient to keep you comfortable.
=Smidge=