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Friday, May 27, 2016

Will DIY Air Conditioners Really Keep You Cool This Summer?

Don’t feel like plunking down upwards of a few hundred bucks for a window unit air conditioner? No, of course you don’t; that was a silly question. At the same time, you probably don’t want to spend the next few months baking in the summer heat. You could McGyver one using ice and some stuff that’s sitting in your garage gathering dust, but will it make your life any more tolerable?

It’s a good thing our pals at Consumer Reports have a room where they can put some of these DIY air conditioners to the test. So they tested out two low-cost homemade units to see if they could be used to affordably replicate the effect you’d expect from a decent window air conditioner.

For the first test, CR fashioned a unit out of a plastic bucket and PVC pipe (and some ice and a cruddy little office desk fan):
They drilled some holes in the side of the bucket…

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3 comments:

Steve said...

What a stupid experiment. Math could trash this theory in 3 minutes.

Oh, I forgot, we're on common core now, so we're not allowed to figure this out in our heads anymore!

Anonymous said...

Air conditioners work by also removing humidity from the area. Doubt seriously this does much.

Anonymous said...

I believe these are called swamp coolers. Been around for years in places with little to no humidity. They work there. Won't work here though in our humid summers.