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I don't have AC but my apartment lease covers unlimited water usage and the water is very cold. How can I best use this to cool my home?

I’ve searched around and mostly seen people create custom radiator builds attached to their water supply, but that’s beyond my skill level and I’m not sure if linking it directly to the water supply via piping would violate the lease or not. Are there any solutions a bit more DIY that I could take advantage of?

LostWanderer ,

A swamp cooler would potentially be a solution; those could be used in conjunction with your ready access to water in order to keep your home cool! Sadly, this is not great for areas of the world which already have high levels of humidity in the air. I don’t know if it would work well for you based on not knowing your climate. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evaporative_cooler

fuckwit_mcbumcrumble ,

Swamp coolers only really work if humidity is low. If it’s already humid then any drop in temperature is negated by the increased humidity.

Honestly I get the most “cooling” by putting a dehumidifier in front of my fan. Dry air will feel a lot cooler than super humid air.

meekah ,
@meekah@lemmy.world avatar

Dry air will allow more sweat to evaporate, providing the cooling effect right on your skin instead of in the air you blast at yourself. It’s basically the better swamp cooler.

Nikls94 ,

My in-laws swear on their swamp cooler, meanwhile I am gasping for air because of the sudden change in humidity.

Seriously, we got their old apartment and everything just feels wet. The wardrobe has a weird smell, but it’s built into the wall and part of it, and I just spent the first year to get it all dry. It’s still not completely dry. All thanks to this swamp cooler 🐂💩

I get it cool by opening the windows at night and keeping the air circulating with fans everywhere.

Glowstick ,

Is there a reason why you can’t get an air conditioner? There’s tons of valid reasons why it wouldn’t be an option, I’m just wondering what your situation is. Because nothing is ever gonna work anywhere close to as good as an air conditioner. If you can afford even the smallest air conditioner then it’ll beat every single diy method in most situations

penquin ,

Why not buy a portable AC?

MeanEYE ,
@MeanEYE@lemmy.world avatar

Grossly inefficient.

Today ,

But feel great when you’re in front of it.

penquin ,

Better than getting toasted in the heat? Lmao

ironsoap ,

As a kid I used tubes, a box fan, a cooler, and bucket with a siphon to cool me down.

You could easily set that up with just the water from a sink and some hardware store parts.

Search for ‘diy fan cooling tub copper coils’ as a start.

As an example: Homemade AC - The “Copper Coil” Air Cooler! - (Simple "Box Fan …

Copper coils have the best thermal efficiency, but plastic tubing would also work.

db2 ,

Get an actual radiator instead of making coils and attach a box fan to it. It’s something I was always going to do but never got around to.

Also give consideration to saving at least some of the water to use as “gray water”. If you’re not familiar with that, it means water you can use for many things but not for eating or drinking.

Lost_My_Mind ,

Pretty sure this guy is an engeneer.

null ,

Get an actual radiator instead of making coils and attach a box fan to it.

Or, get an AC unit at that point.

db2 ,

This is at least 3 times cheaper than any window AC worth having: a.co/d/03Jkt3tN

ironsoap ,

Feasible if you found one at a junk yard, but copper tubing is $20-30 and some fittings makes a tubing idea sub-$100 probably. An AC is about $300, a new radiator without fittings starts at $70 and are built for cars not box fans so it might be more challenging to get to work.

With that being said, environmental, energy, and other contextual concerns might out weigh the cost. A mini-split heat pump is probably the most sane thing to actually install, but that’s a big ask.

db2 ,

You don’t need copper tubing, any tubing that’ll hold water will work. There aren’t going to be high temperatures or pressures. The supply won’t be able to go full blast with poly and hose clamps but it wouldn’t need to. I had a whole plan for this in my head then moved somewhere I didn’t need it and never made it happen.

As for a mini spit, that’s the easiest option if the central is shot, if the layout isn’t complicated. But the place isn’t owned by OP so it’s probably a non starter. They don’t even want to fix what’s there it sounds like.

Bye ,

Use the water pressure to power a turbine generator, then use the electricity from that generator to run a window AC unit

BeatTakeshi ,
@BeatTakeshi@lemmy.world avatar

What a waste of water that would be. Pressure comes just once

BackOnMyBS ,
@BackOnMyBS@lemmy.autism.place avatar

Pressure comes just once

unlike your mom. ha! gottem

MintyFresh ,

Nice

Brkdncr ,

Just run your shower with cold water. Open a window on the otherwise of the house and get a fan to blow air from the bathroom to the open window.

As the water turns from liquid to gas it absorbs heat. As long as it doesn’t get too humid it should feel cool.

Lost_My_Mind ,

Dehumidifier.

downpunxx ,

little realized fact that dehumidifiers produce heat

Lost_My_Mind ,

:O

Notyou ,

If you say so. The air just feels a lot more cool and crisp in my apartment when I have my dehumidifier on. Of course I live in a swamp so without it if feels like I swimming through stank ass when I walk somewhere.

I’m not doubting the science behind your statement. I just prefer feeling like I’m not being sous vide, so I’ll stick to a dry heat in my apartment.

Brkdncr ,

A dehumidifier would return heat to the room. Best you can do with swamp cooling is draw the humid air out.

peopleproblems ,

Bottle it, sell it for profit, use the profits to buy a better place to live?

Thorny_Insight ,

Or buy ice

Skezlarr ,

You could try and make a DIY swamp cooler? There’s lots of instructions online for how to make them, and basically the only consumable is water. The only caveat is that they work by drawing hot air in from an open window to evaporate water, so it’s not very effective in high humidity or low temperatures.

ipha ,

I’ve done this!

Turn the shower on just high enough to get a good mist going then put a box fan on high as close as possible pointing out of the bathroom.

Hikermick ,

Get a kiddie pool, fill it, soak your feet in it

somethingsnappy ,

One of the best feelings in my life was returning to camp, consolidating coolers, and plunging my feet into the water in the leftover water in one of the coolers.

intensely_human ,

One time I took some instant release adderall and some MDMA and played Burnout Revenge on my friend’s playstation.

ArcaneGadget ,

Almost no matter how you do it, it’s going to be a horrible waste of good drinking water to try to extract cooling from the temperature of the water. If you are in a dry climate, make a DIY swamp cooler. Otherwise shell out for a small AC unit.

Also; using your free lease-included water for stuff like that, is probably the quickest way to no longer have water included in your lease…

intensely_human ,

So if

  • Using water this way is a waste of water
  • Using water this way will end the policy that permits this use case

Does that mean the fastest way to end the waste is to go ahead with this plan?

ShepherdPie ,

Only if that was your sole use of said water otherwise you’re just going to pay more for all the water you’d normally use.

zephr_c ,

Take a cold bath?

Thorny_Insight ,

Wouldn’t be too difficult to jerryrig a system which does that but because it’s going to be a huge waste of water I feel morally obligated to not even give you any ideas. Invest in a split AC system instead. They make ones for windows as well.

Mubelotix ,
@Mubelotix@jlai.lu avatar

AC is worse for the climate than wasting water

Breezy ,

Is it though?

Zoot ,
@Zoot@reddthat.com avatar

Youre not necessarily wasting any water. Any water that goes down the drain just gets filtered and recirculated. Even if it wasn’t filtered and made it directly to the river, evaporation would still ensure it returns to the cycle.

Not as far as the efficiency of filtering water vs an AC… well. You’ll need someone significantly smarter than I to tell you that

intensely_human ,

The wasting of water refers to water that is available for use by people. Water that’s been treated and is ready to go.

bleistift2 , (edited )

By your definition “wasting water” is impossible, since it all stays on Earth and will get filtered eventually.

Zoot ,
@Zoot@reddthat.com avatar

That was what I was going for :p. Had hoped an engineer might come in and tell us the efficiency of either or both.

jol ,

Depending on where you live yeah

intensely_human ,

So no. If portions of region A are below region B, then region A is not above region B.

algorithmae ,

Ehhhhhhh

nexussapphire ,

I don’t know how big your apartment is but why not a window unit. It’s probably the most efficient way to cook your apartment down short of redesigning the building.

Pacattack57 ,

These are very expensive to run. They can add upwards of $200 to your electric bill.

nexussapphire ,

It’s either that or maintain a swamp cooler that won’t work on humid days and can cause respiratory infection if not cleaned properly. A renters options are very limited and a window unit is a pretty good compromise if you don’t want to loose a deposit.

If you want to sit in a sweltering room during a 100° day, no one is stopping you. I’ve heard it’s a pretty typical thing for Europeans anyway. I’m not judging, the guy wants to cool the room down.

ShepherdPie ,

OP would probably be better suited with a portable AC. Most apartments I know of ban window units because they can fall and hit people if not installed properly.

When getting a portable AC, get one with two hoses as they’re much more efficient since they aren’t blowing cooled air outside (and sucking hot air in from every gap in the exterior walls.

nexussapphire ,

Yeah, whatever is reasonable and within the terms of your lease is usually the best bet.

ShepherdPie ,

Depends on your electricity rates. Ours is around $0.12/KWh and doesn’t even cost 1/4 of that.

Pacattack57 ,

Depends on the area too. I live in Texas and can tell you from my personal experience that at .14/kw it increased my bill by about $200

ShepherdPie ,

Maybe you have a bad AC. I’ve been running ours nearly daily and our electricity bill has gone from $120 to $140

Fedizen ,

Ice machine + box fan

Put ice in a container with a large surface area, aim the fan at it. Empty the container when fully melted. Put ice in all your drinks

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