make your own air conditioner out of cheap materials
Such a pet peeve of mine when I see basic evaporative cooling called air conditioning. A/C is pretty specific in how it works using refrigerant, condensers, etc. to move heat from one place to another. They also dehumidify the air in the process. A/C and heat pumps are the same thing, just running in opposite directions. They use a lot of electricity to accomplish this movement and are effective in a wide range of temperatures.
Evaporative cooling simply moves air past/through a colder medium to lower the ambient temperature. Most commonly the only electricity used here is a simple fan, and maybe a water pump. This adds humidity to the air so it’s effectiveness drops off dramatically and the ambient humidity gets higher.
The only thing they have in common is making the air cooler, in completely different ways with dramatically different effectiveness and efficiency.
Air conditioning units actually condition the air.
I grew up in a house that had an air conditioning unit and an evaporative cooler (we called it a swamp cooler). Swamp coolers are awesome when you live in dry place. Only when the humidity gets too high you need to switch over to the AC. Swamp coolers are cheaper to run so cue arguments on trying to get my parents to switch to the AC when it starts getting humid. 😆
Such a pet peeve of mine when I see basic evaporative cooling called air conditioning. A/C is pretty specific in how it works using refrigerant, condensers, etc. to move heat from one place to another. They also dehumidify the air in the process. A/C and heat pumps are the same thing, just running in opposite directions. They use a lot of electricity to accomplish this movement and are effective in a wide range of temperatures.
Evaporative cooling simply moves air past/through a colder medium to lower the ambient temperature. Most commonly the only electricity used here is a simple fan, and maybe a water pump. This adds humidity to the air so it’s effectiveness drops off dramatically and the ambient humidity gets higher.
The only thing they have in common is making the air cooler, in completely different ways with dramatically different effectiveness and efficiency.
Air conditioning units actually condition the air.
I grew up in a house that had an air conditioning unit and an evaporative cooler (we called it a swamp cooler). Swamp coolers are awesome when you live in dry place. Only when the humidity gets too high you need to switch over to the AC. Swamp coolers are cheaper to run so cue arguments on trying to get my parents to switch to the AC when it starts getting humid. 😆
I’ve seen amazon listings call a fan an ac