Ask Slashdot: Keeping Personal Tech Cool In Extreme Heat?

An anonymous reader writes "I live in the Middle East. Summer temperatures occasionally reach 60C/140F, well over the operating specs for most consumer tech. Quite a number of work and residential compounds are secured, prohibiting everything from computers to cameras to phones to USB sticks to car remote controls. When I know that I'm visiting one of those compounds, I end up leaving all the tech I can at home or in the office, and only bringing a cell phone, and leaving it in my car. However, "only a cell phone" has quickly morphed into "only two cell phones, a car MP3 player and remote, and .... ooh, shiny... a new tablet... and an electric razor just in case I have to touch up before a party in a compound." I'm wondering what kind of technologies we have for keeping all this tech cool for four hours in the car. Overnight events might last longer, but won't be as hot."

Comments

Jet Airplane

[the_Bionic_lemming]

Get on a jet and get to where it's cooler!

Re:Jet Airplane

[TheLink]

Try put the stuff in the boot. There's no "green house" effect in the boot. It will get hotter than ambient, but it won't get as hot as in the passenger compartment: http://school.maths.uwa.edu.au/~fowkes/SunFowkes/hotcarsels091209.pdf

If you want to test it out to be safe, put a candle (melts at about 60-70 C, beeswax melts at a lower point) at an angle in a container in the boot and in the compartment. If it melts or bends after the whole day that means it's probably too hot.

Re:Jet Airplane

[TheLink]

Only if you have a thermometer that records the maximum temperature, AND still works properly at those temperatures. Easier and cheaper to use a candle.

If you open the trunk or passenger compartment to read the temperature it will affect the test.

You could of course assume the temperature is max by a particular point and then take the reading then. Up to you.

Re:Jet Airplane

[RabidReindeer]

I worked down in the Tampa Bay area for a while. I'd leave a frozen dinner on the dash when I went in to work and by lunchtime it was fully thawed and hot. In January. I had a thermometer stuck in a shady area. Its top reading was 140 F, but there were times when it was jammed up so hard against the peg I was afraid it was permanently stuck there.

For small electronics and meltables (CDs, for instance), I've often jammed them under the seat, since it's shaded, and the lowest place in the car, although sitting on hot asphalt can reduce the benefits somewhat. But there's not much space there. The trunk/boot is roomier, but while it doesn't "greenhouse", hot sun on dark paint will radiate through the metal and into the interior. I recommend getting a "pizza carrier" or other insulated bag/container and stuffing the gear into that then putting the whole thing into the trunk. If you're really paranoid, add a "blue ice" pack or 3, but don't make it really cold or you could have issues with condensation and/or thermal expansion/contraction.

Cracking the windows can help in reducing greenhouse heating of the body of the vehicle, although in Florida, you risk finding the car full of water in Summer. The solar fans are probably not powerful enough. Then again, the days I need one the most, are the days it's most likely to rain, and you have to keep the windows cracked to mount the fan and provide air intake.

Not 60 C or 140 F

[Anonymous Coward]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_weather_records#Highest_temperature_ever_recorded

Re:Not 60 C or 140 F

[Aranykai]

Official temperatures are always measured in shade. A car parked in direct sunlight, even with windows open could easily hit 10F above officially recorded temperatures.

Re:Not 60 C or 140 F

[PrimaryConsult]

It is amazing how many people don't understand this. A car parked in sunlight all day, and they refuse to open the window for the first few minutes after getting in because "the A/C is on". It cools off a hell of a lot faster if you drive for a minute with the windows down so that you're starting with the cooler outside air as the baseline!

Re:Not 60 C or 140 F

[TheLink]

It does depend on where the thermostat is. If it's in the airconditioner itself and not in the room, the airconditioner could switch from cooling at max once the temperatures around it becomes cooler even if the rest of the room isn't cool enough yet.

Re:Not 60 C or 140 F

[MaskedSlacker]

I'm moving to one of those countries then because I am sick and tired of all these dicks and assholes fucking each other.

Re:Not 60 C or 140 F

[WuphonsReach]

Warranty / Liability.

No problem.

[Black Parrot]

Personal tech is inherently cool, and makes you cool too. Don't worry about it.

1990's Mercedes S500

[stox]

with the optional refrigerator in the rear, accessible through a panel in the rear seat. This was a factory option in the W140's.

Texas & iPhone 4S

[kenh]

I was in Texas at the end of July, and the average temperature was about 105 degrees F. I left my cellphone in the car to charge while I was out and about, came back an hour later and found my phone displaying the Termperature warning (which apparently kicks in at 113 degrees F)...

12v Thermo Electric Cooler

[Aranykai]

Never owned one myself, but they claim they cool 40F below ambient. Not sure what kind of drain this would put on your battery, but perhaps a marine battery could handle it.

Re:12v Thermo Electric Cooler

[zugmeister]

When I was much younger, I had a truck with a second deep cycle battery in the back. Wiring went from the hot side of the alternator to a battery isolator (think two big diodes) so when running both batteries charged, but they couldn't draw off each other. I could run the deep cycle battery completely dead and not affect the starter battery at all. Once I even trickle charged the starter battery from the deep cycle and effectively jump started myself by jumping the isolator terminals.

There's probably more practical ways of doing it for a once-off but if this was a regular occurrance a large secondary deep cycle (or trolling) battery hooked to a cooler set to a moderate temperature may fit the bill.

Seriously? Get a styrofoam cooler.

[Anonymous Coward]

You don't even need ice in it. Just the insulation will keep it far cooler than the rest of the car.

What's the next Ask Slashdot going to be, "How might I keep some refreshing beverages chilly at the beach?"

Just a cooler.

[pepty]

For an hour or two an insulated lunch bag (under the seat) would be fine. For all afternoon a cooler (big enough for a 12 pac- er, nevermind) with an ice pack wrapped in a towel would do the trick.

Re:Thermometer

[Anonymous Coward]

its inside a car numbnuts

Easy solution.

[jtownatpunk.net]

Small cooler with dry ice. Put it in the trunk. No worries about melt-water as it sublimates straight from solid to gas. Oh, and crack the windows FFS.

What do the locals do?

[joelsanda]

I can't believe people in the Middle-east don't already have tablets, MP3 players, and mobile phones. What are they doing? When in Rome ...

Re:What do the locals do?

[PolygamousRanchKid]

What are they doing?

Their women folk carry all the family's tech gadgets under their burqas. There is plenty of room under there, and nobody frisks a women in the Middle East. Well, at least no one who wants to keeps his hands.

And folks in the Middle East don't leave their women folk alone in cars outside the compounds either. That would cause a public outrage. So the women folk get to carry all the tech gadgets into the air conditioned compounds, and have geeky LAN parties by themselves, while the men folk are hobnobbing.

Re:probably not a worry

[hawguy]

There is a difference between "operating temperature" and "storage temperature".

iPhone max non-operating temperature: 113 deg F (45 deg C)
http://www.apple.com/iphone/specs.html

Motorola Droid RAZR max non-operating temperature: 113 deg F (45 deg C)
http://www.valuesphere.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=SmartCards&Product_Code=Moto_Droid_Razr

Apple MacBook Pro max non-operating temperature: 113 deg F (45 deg C)
http://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/specs/

A shovel.

[siddesu]

You can dig a big hole in the sand, park in there, then cover the car. I think you can keep the temperatures down a lot. With a bit of trial, error and luck, you can even learn to hide the whole setup from terrarists and unsolicited aerial vehicles.

Re:Heat and technology

[The Mighty Buzzard]

Or just buy a cooler and keep your tech in it. No ice necessary just to avoid sealed car baking.

If you need it cooler than ambient air temp, put a layer of bricks in the bottom first thing in the morning. They'll keep the temp a little cooler without having to worry about condensation.

Re:Just a cooler.

[khallow]

Shouldn't you come up with a better idea first before shooting down the current one? If the ice is in a ziploc bag and wrapped in a towel, then it's unlikely to leak. One can protect the electronics in a similar way.

Why the piss would you go to a residential compound which doesn't allow electronics devices?

I imagine that's what he's getting paid to do. One could ask similarly why my current employer doesn't have me flying cool spaceships.

Cool stuff

[Frankie70]

only two cell phones, a car MP3 player and remote, and .... ooh, shiny... a new tablet... and an electric razor just in case I have to touch up before a party in a compound.

I keep 2 iPhones, 1 iPod, 1 Pad and 1 iRazor in my car. Nothing happens to them coz Apple stuff are always cool.

Re:Have you tried that?

[adolf]

There are other forms of "ice pack" than those contained within ziploc bags. It's trivial to find them at most hardgood stores, wrapped in thick, rigid, impermeable, translucent plastic.

Combine with a towel, and very dry desert air, and I'm not thinking that the local humidity will be a problem. (What condensation?)

Re:probably not a worry

[Zorpheus]

For the Samsung Galaxy S2 and S3 the maximum operating temperature is already 50 deg C. Can't find the maximum storage temperature atm, but it is probably about 70 deg C then.