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The "Cool Brick" Can Cool Off an Entire Room Using Nothing But Water
ErnieKey writes Emerging Objects, a company which experiments with 3D printing technology, has created what they call the "Cool Brick." Using basic concepts of evaporation, it holds water like a sponge, takes in hot dry air and converts it into cool moist air. 3D-printed with a specially engineered lattice using ceramics, it can be formed into entire walls which could be placed in different rooms of a house or building, thus replacing the need for air conditioning in hot, dry climates such as deserts.
evaporative humidifiers work great until they start breeding molds and algae. The water channels need to be cleaned and the screens replaced. The screen in this case being a wall in the house.
I am not an engineer (nor a zombie for that matter) so excuse me if I am wrong, but aren't you essentially describing how an AC unit works?
No. An AC unit takes advantage of gas pressure laws. It compresses a gas, then allows it to expand. As the gas expands, its temperature drops. By wrapping all this up with a set of radiator coils and fan(s), you can pump heat from inside to outside. Along the way, the cooled air will drop any water vapor that exceeds the carrying capacity for that temperature.
So an AC requires a pump (which can be mechanical or a heat source) and air recirculators, and the net result is air that is both cooler and drier.
A swamp cooler is almost completely passive. It needs a mechanism to inject the water, and (preferably) something to help the water-laden air move, but instead of lowering room humidity, it raises it.
It's not bullshit. Many commercial buildings in hot dry climate use evaporative chilers. You can also get devices that do it indoors. The issue with doing it indoors, is that once the air becomes saturated with moisture it stops working. Plus the room gets wet and cold, which is not a good environment, it leads to mold and mildew. Indoor evaporative coolers are best used in places that you only want to cook on rare occasions, that are very dry, and are located far from a window.