Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/08/23/these-air-conditioners-humidi.html
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Yep, lets burn a whole lot of fossil fuels to transfer heat and pollution caused by global warming from our own enclosed environment to the outside. Its the tragedy of the commons all over again, and accelerated externalizing costs for private benefit. Do your bit to wreck the planet!
These are not real air conditioners, they don’t transfer heat anywhere, just cool air by evaporation.
One of the products may even help with reducing pollution in the long term, because there’s no adequate safety waring (altough I’m sure this wasn’t intended):
And here’s the indirect pollution-decreasing mechanism (from Wikipedia):
Breathing ozone for periods longer than eight hours at a time for weeks, months or years defines chronic exposure. Numerous studies suggest a serious impact on the health of various populations from this exposure.
One study finds significant positive associations between chronic ozone and all-cause, circulatory, and respiratory mortality with 2%, 3%, and 12% increases in risk per 10 ppb[78] and report an association (95% CI) of annual ozone and all-cause mortality with a hazard ratio of 1.02 (1.01–1.04), and with cardiovascular mortality of 1.03 (1.01–1.05). Adding to an additional study, which suggests similar associations with all-cause mortality and even larger effects for cardiovascular mortality.[79]
Chronic ozone has detrimental effects on children, especially those with asthma. The risk for hospitalization in children with asthma increases with chronic exposure to ozone; younger children and those with low-income status are even at greater risk.[80]
Adults suffering from respiratory diseases (asthma,[81] COPD,[82] lung cancer[83]) are at a higher risk of mortality and morbidity and critically ill patients have an increased risk of developing acute respiratory distress syndrome with chronic ozone exposure as well.[84]
Note that harmful concentration described here is just 10 parts per billion. The advertised device generates 6 mg/h ozone, which is 1000 less than typical commercial ozone generators based on corona discharge lamps, it’s still enough to exceed 10 ppb in a typical room in a few minutes.
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Right? If anything modern air conditioners can be remarkably efficient.
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These things are stupid. Do not buy them.
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They look so damn appealing but they’re mass produced garbage. If you want a swamp cooler just DIY it.
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If you live in the desert, these things may be useful. If it’s 92F and muggy (as it is right now where I am), they’re just going to make it even more humid. OTOH, they don’t consume much power. A swamp cooler is just a fan blowing on a pad that’s kept wet.
And yeah, ozone is a very reactive chemical. You don’t want it rotting your lungs out.
I swear, all the Sharper Image ads are going to drive me away. Boingboing, just beg us for money occasionally,
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For example they could offer ad-free browsing with a monthly fee, like www.phoronix.com and www.furaffinity.net does or if advertisement provider doesn’t agree, do Patreon-like model. I’d gladly pay about 5 usd subscription fee (I already pay that about to support FurAffinity, and twice that for Blender Foundation), even though I block ads already. The BB store posts would be fine if they got rid of dangerous products.
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