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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?

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

zephr_c ,

Take a cold bath?

peopleproblems ,

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

Thorny_Insight ,

Or buy ice

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.

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

s_s ,

Start a car detailing business. Use the water to wash the cars.

Use the money from new, low-overhead business to do anything you want.

rekabis ,
  1. Find a pair of vehicle radiators that are as close to a box fan in size as possible.
  2. Zip tie them to either side of the box fan. As the fan blows: it will draw air in through the “second radiator” and blow it out through the “first radiator”.
  3. Hook the out of the first radiator to the in of the second using flexible hoses. Cheap garden hoses might even fit.
  4. Hook other hoses to the in of the first radiator and the out of the second.
  5. Run water on through the first radiator, out of the second. This makes the most efficient heat transfer possible.
PM_Your_Nudes_Please ,

This is exactly what I was going to suggest. Use the water to cool the radiators, and use fans to push hot air through the cool radiators, cooling the air in the process.

This is basically what AC does on a much larger scale. It uses refrigerants, a compressor, and some basic physics to cool the radiators, but it’s still the same basic concept.

rc__buggy , (edited )

I don’t think a box fan could cool one entire 20x20in automotive radiator, let alone two.

fan -> plenum -> radiator would probably work best. The plenum only needs to be a few inches long, it’s just to direct the entire square of the fan over the entire square of the radiator. Cardboard and caulk would work.

It’s a low efficiency heat exchanger.

TunaLobster ,

what-if.xkcd.com/91/

TimewornTraveler ,

we’re literally on the precipice of water wars

MadBob ,

If the actual problem is that you yourself are too hot, cool yourself instead. A trick I’ve picked up working in kitchens, where it’s very fucking hot indeed, is to wet your nape and forearms regularly. You can wear a wet hat too. Doesn’t really take advantage of the unlimited water but it gets you there.

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