ZeroBreeze: The MayiandJay DMCA LOLs

[Nominal Animal]

Phase change coolants (vapor-compression refrigeration) are interesting.  The current ones I know about (other than water) are nasty and/or flammable, but chemists are hard at work trying to find new ones.

Swamp coolers use water exactly like that.  As sunlight and ambient air vaporizes the water from a fabric, that vaporization absorbs energy, lowering the temperature of the damp fabric.  The solid-liquid transition can store even more energy: just think of how ice keeps stuff cold so well.

(You don't need to heat the water to 100°C to get some of it to vaporize.  Vaporization starts at temperatures and pressures where water becomes liquid; at boiling point, vaporization becomes complete.)

I was going to waffle a bit about how there might be a refrigerant suitable for human use, but then I realized, we already do.
If you want to make a portable human cooler, put a fan, some blocks of ice, and netting to trap the humidity, into an enclosure; so that the fan pulls in dry air from outside, pushes it past the ice, and the loose netting traps excess moisture; the air blowing out is nice and cool.  Ta-dah!
It isn't going to win any awards for energy efficiency, but who cares?

[scatterandfocus]

Probably light quick drying reflective clothing and wearable cooling packs would be more effective over anything mechanical.

[Nominal Animal]

Wearable cooling packs condenses water to their surface from the ambient air, and become wet; that's why I suggested using them as baffles in front of a fan, with a loose netting afterwards to catch excess moisture.

I do use a big water bottle, filled a little over half way with ice and the rest water, wrapped in a couple of pillow cases or a towel, for a cooling "battery" for the very hottest nights in the summer, as I fall asleep easier then.  The fabric both isolates reducing the heat flow (thus it stays cool for the entire night), and keeps ambient air humidity from getting too fast to the cold bottle surface so the fabric casing doesn't get too damp.

Ah, so I guess, wrapping wearable ice packs with suitable fabrics would work, too.

[maginnovision]

You could get naked and let your sweat do its job too.

[Nominal Animal]

You could get naked and let your sweat do its job too.

I do, but without the cloth-wrapped ice bottle, the linen gets uncomfortably wet, waking me up to change them in the middle of the night.  The cloth-wrapped ice bottle helps, as it reduces the amount of sweat; it works best for me.

Note that I do use a ceiling fan as well. It reduces the amount of sweat needed to cool down, as the added airflow helps with evaporation.  I do avoid the highest speed (even though it is quiet enough to not bother my sleep), as it tends to give me ear canal issues (earache due to draft, or some such).

Having several options also allows for variety.

If sleeping is not an issue, but falling asleep is, once can also put the linen into the freezer.  I've done that too.

[NiHaoMike]

I was going to waffle a bit about how there might be a refrigerant suitable for human use, but then I realized, we already do.
If you want to make a portable human cooler, put a fan, some blocks of ice, and netting to trap the humidity, into an enclosure; so that the fan pulls in dry air from outside, pushes it past the ice, and the loose netting traps excess moisture; the air blowing out is nice and cool.  Ta-dah!
It isn't going to win any awards for energy efficiency, but who cares?

Actually, I have done a comparison between using ice for air conditioning and operating a conventional air conditioner from lithium batteries, it turns out the BTUs of cooling per pound of energy storage medium are similar. And water is orders of magnitude cheaper than batteries.

That said, batteries have a near infinite dynamic range for accepting power from variable sources like solar (maximum limited by charge current limit, but basically no minimum) while off the shelf A/C compressors running from VFDs would be lucky to get 3:1. Thus most likely I'll go for a hybrid approach for my (planned) PV thermal storage project, especially since I will need batteries anyways for other uses.

[rrinker]

 As a kid, I made ice air conditioning for my blanker forts all the time (yes, I was THAT kind of kid). Small DC motor with a propeller blade, and we had these turned aluminum cups, fill one with ice, set the air flow to blow over the metal cup full of ice, and bang, my little fort was nice and cool, even though we had no AC in the house.

[PlainName]

And water is orders of magnitude cheaper than batteries

But you have to freeze it somehow. Doesn't grow on trees, you know (well, not anywhere you might want aircon anyway).

[NiHaoMike]

But you have to freeze it somehow. Doesn't grow on trees, you know (well, not anywhere you might want aircon anyway).

It takes energy to charge batteries, too. In the beginning, I thought a battery operated super portable A/C would be a useful invention for those on the go like construction workers, but now that I did the calculations, it's pretty much just an expensive alternative to ice packs with few advantages.

Doing some research on solar powered VFDs, there doesn't seem to be much in the way of running an A/C compressor directly from solar, but there are many solar VFDs for running pool pumps. I doubt one of those will work on a compressor due to the torque curve being way different.

[PlainName]

Horses for courses - I reckon a battery is going to have a slightly longer shelf life than a block of ice. Of course, if you're wanting to use it right now it's different.

[Halcyon]

Having only just stumbled on this thread, I've watched all the videos. It's clear that this "Jay" bloke doesn't really have a correct understanding of how Copyright (or law in general) works, even in the USA. He contradicts himself between the video he made about what "really" happened and his responses to Thunderf00t. He spends most of his time showing that parts of his videos were being used (that fact isn't in dispute).

It's a classic case of "dig up stupid". I hope he learns a lesson or two and modifies his conduct in the future.

[EEVblog]

RED ALERT!

[SiliconWizard]

This one looks like a gadget from the 50's...

[AVGresponding]

Looks like the front of a Ford Edsel...

[EEVblog]

Looks like the front of a Ford Edsel...

It's a Kickstarter!
And (SPOILER) the comments aren't great.
MayiandJay will give it a thumbs up I'm sure!

[AVGresponding]

I'm sure it'll be just as successful as these were...

[ludzinc]

Links?  So others can enjoy the fun (my google-fu is falling me atm).

[EEVblog]

Links?  So others can enjoy the fun (my google-fu is falling me atm).

I didn't notice how old it was, it's from Sep 2018
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/548470077/coolingstyle-portable-multifunctional-air-conditio

and of course also in Indiegogo
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/coolingstyle-the-coolest-portable-air-conditioner#/