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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=
preferably with a hot chick who will invite you over to spend the night at her (air-conditioned) apartment!
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
I've seen ads on TV for breath mints that apparently turn everything in their vicinity to ice. I'm not sure I understand the science behind this phenomenon, but maybe with a little experimentation you might be able to harness this strange power for your own needs.
Good luck!
or get an apartment with AC.
Naw, AC is too much of a troll. Can you imagine living with him? Of course the frost piss will cool things down somewhat.
Your credit card information wants to be free.
--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.
Keep the windows open at night. Let it get really cold throughout the house (except maybe the bedroom). Close the windows and blinds in the morning. Having tight seals on doors and windows helps here.
In the evening, use fans to bring in cooler air from outside. (This depends on where you live. In the San Francisco area, it gets down into the 50s and 60s in the evening.)
Put the fans in the windows. Block off as much of the window as you can except the area where the fan goes. Ideally, you can find box fans that fit precisely in the window.
Important: point the fans OUT. Open a window on the other side of the house where air will come in. Pointing fans out is more efficient at moving air than pointing them in. Although pointing them in feels better, it doesn't do as good a job at actually bringing in cool air from outside.
Don't use interior fans except when you are in the room.
At night, I cool down the non-bedroom areas. During the evening, those areas are most comfortable, so I stay there. But I'm also cooling down the bedroom so that by the time I go to bed, the bedroom is comfortable.
My apartment's AC isn't that good, so here's some of the things that I try to do:
1. Change your lightbulbs. Either switch to a lower wattage incandescent, or use the compact flourescent fixtures. The halogen torches stay off all summer.
2. Turn off computers, lights, monitors and TVs when they're not being used. Yes, it will ruin your uptime, but most computers from the past few years dissipate 30-90 watts of heat. CRTs and TVs also generate a lot of heat. I had a room that I kept 10 degrees F warmer in winter just by leaving the computers (P3-866 and Athlon 1800+) and their monitors on all night.
3. Use your bedroom for nothing but sleeping. Turn on as few lights as possible, keep the TV and computer out of there. And sex will heat up a room (done properly).
4. Control your apartment's airflow. Put a fan in the window of your bedroom, aimed in. In another room, put a fan in the window, aiming it out. Close all other windows, and you should get a nice amount of airflow -- either to cool down your bedroom, or take heat out of the rest of the apartment.
5. Put a fan at the foot of your bed, and crank it up.
#2, #4, and #5 have the greatest effect in my apartment. Just remember that everything that uses electricity is going to generate some heat, and decide what you want to do from there.
Instead of buying a single Kenmore 15,100 BTU Room Air Conditioner for $US380 (39.7 BTUs per dollar) why not buy three Kenmore 5,250 BTU Room Air Conditioners for US$99 each (53.0 BTUs per dollar)? Install each of the three units in different sections of the house or appartment. Some of the benifits of this solution are as follows:
-> More uniform distribtion of power leads to greater effiency
-> Slightly lower equipment cost
-> Multipule "zones" (at night, or whenever you sleep only one "zone" needs to be cooled)
-> Smaller units are usually quieter leading to a quieter "zone"
-> A few more BTUs total
Just a thought.
--adam
"Go back to bed America... your government is in control." --Bill Hicks
The cheapest solution (green too) that I can think of is to move underground. Have you ever been in a cave? Once you get about six feet underground the temperature never changes. It's always nicely cool. Some caves even come with filtered running mineral water. Bonus!
Once underground, your only real environmental problem is lighting, for which you should use fibre optics and solar collectors during the day and use LED lighting powered by batteries when the sun is not out. Oh, and charge the batteries using solar too.
If there are no caves on the market in your area, just bury your house. Remember, the dirt needs to be at least three feet thick, but you will reach a point of diminishing returns at around five or six feet so there's no need to waste your money and labor on extra dirt. Where you get the dirt is up to you, but please ask your neighbor before digging in their yard!
Note: author not responsible for damage to buried houses
Ouch! The truth hurts!