Originally published at: Drop temps by 59 degrees in 10 minutes with the EvaChill Personal Air Conditioner | Boing Boing
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Fancy tiny swamp cooler… yeah nope.
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So I’m a little rusty on some of the nuances regarding fundamental laws of thermodynamics, but where exactly does the heat go in this scenario?
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My disdain for swamp coolers, and those who pawn off swamp coolers as “air conditioners”, knows no bounds.
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Once you fill the water tank, the cartridge inside this ultra-portable, leak-proof air conditioner/humidifier/purifier starts absorbing the water.
Good. I hate to wait.
Made from basalt, a rock-solid material created from volcanic lava,
Basalt is in fact an igneous rock…
the cartridge has a huge surface for water evaporation, which spreads to the cooling pads where air jets disperse that evaporated water into the air, lowering the air temperature in an area of up to 45 square feet.
45 square feet by, one foot? 6 feet? Oh it says “up to” 45 square feet. After that the fabric of space-time disintegrates
In fact, the EvaChill can drop the air temperature in your space by up to 59 degrees in as little as 10 minutes.
Posting this here so I can do the maths on this screed of nonsense. It should be fairly straightforward to prove this to be false based on the heat capacity of water. So, I’m going to assume it drops the temperature from 90f to 31f in 10 minutes? And based on the size I’ll estimate about half a liter of water capacity of the tank. Check back later for the answer
The EvaChill filter is made from inorganic fibers, which means there’s never any mold or bacteria buildup
No mold, spores or fungus have ever grown on an inorganic surface.
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For a real air conditioner without a place to exhaust the heat from the condenser coils, it would be thermodynamically impossible. But this is just a swamp cooler:
The phase-change from water evaporating requires absorbing latent heat. But it will only be effective if the room’s air is dry enough to allow a significant amount of water to evaporate. Definitely doesn’t work well in humid conditions.
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i once had one of these swamp coolers at my office that was purchased solely to laugh at the copy on the box. “Works by the Theory of Evaporation!”
bb is getting absurd with this crap that they’re shilling.
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Even if your air is dry enough for a swamp cooler to work, remember that they strongly increase humidity near them. In other words, if you have anything that’s very sensitive to moisture – such as nearly everything in a modern office – stay far away; that humidity will play hob with electronics, artwork, and all sorts of other common things found in an office.
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The last time this fradulent ad was posted, somebody did the math and determined that the text confused absolute temperature with delta temperature. It’s supposed to drop the temp by 15 degrees C, but a measured temp (a completely different thing) of 15 degrees C equals 59 degrees F.
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I’m reporting this item to the California Bureau of Consumer Affairs. It’s clearly false advertising and shame on Boing Boing for supporting a vendor that sells fraudulent merchandise like this.
AND they have a “all sales final” policy I had to sic a lawyer and my credit card company to get my money back. STAY AWAY from any gaget BoingBoing sells. Courses are OK, but anything else isn’t worth it.
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Do tell! What did you receive when you bought one? What was wrong with it? The people deserve to know the truth.
They can take off the edge a bit in a very dry heat, but that’s more psychological than anything, I think.
You can probably create a similar effect by switching the readout of your thermometer from °F to °C.
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In fact, the EvaChill can drop the air temperature in your space by up to 59 degrees in as little as 10 minutes.
So, a room in the comfy, relaxing lower 20’s (F), or are we talking about starting with a room in the 120’s? Whichever, I want one, it will make my new seance business. Does it come with foot controls?
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It can change the temp by 15K, or -433 degrees! Who needs liquid nitrogen anyway?
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Can I suggest abandoning Stack Social or who ever is behind these promotions. The products are sketchy and the descriptions are misleading.
Also inorganic fiber won’t stop mold and bacteria living in this thing. The dust in your average house contains plenty of organic matter to sustain them.
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Please note that they never promised that it would drop the temperature in that 45 sqft room by 59 degrees. That number is probably for a 1’ cubed box - in which case it might even be true! Also, the 45 square feet number is obviously bull, as it’ll drop the temperature in any room regardless of size as long as the water is below ambient to begin with - but whether the difference will be noticeable, or even measurable, is another question entirely.
I bet it would work even better if we filled it with liquid nitrogen rather than water!
Still, these should be great for people who have moved from tropical climates - they can relive that damp, moldy smell and overall feeling of things being just slightly rotten.
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So this drops the temperature by increasing humidity? And if it’s already humid it doesn’t drop the temperature just gets more humid? If it gets to 95/95 sweating stops working and you just die, no?
Not directly. It drops the temperature by “using” that thermal energy from the air to evaporate water. As water evaporates at pretty much any temperatures and will absorb quite a lot of energy while doing so this can indeed drop temperatures quite noticeably. The downside is of course increasing humidity as well as being a perfect growth medium for mold and algae.
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Even under ideal conditions with a professional roof mounted swamp cooler (so the water evaporates outside), the nature of swamp coolers limits the temperature reduction they can cause. Generally rule of thumb in my experience is to expect 10-15 degrees max of cooling.
The chart about a third of the way down shows that under some extreme conditions you might max out in the 30s degree F. But nowhere can you get 60 degrees.
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Lowering the temperature in a room by 27° F in ten minutes is almost as hard to believe as by 59° F
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