Questions tagged [cooling]
Cooling a space for human comfort, cooling food so it doesn't go bad soon (refrigerator) or cooling electrical devices to prevent overheating (computer servers). See also [air-conditioning]
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Being sustainable in a rental in the tropics
In a couple of weeks I'll moving to Far North Queensland in Australia, 16.9 degrees south, hot and humid. I'll be renting, and am wondering how to reduce my footprint when air con will be a necessity.
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Why not use condensate from a split-unit air conditioner to improve cooling efficiency?
This is bugging me to the point that it almost enrages me.
A split-unit air conditioner would typically cause condensate to form in the indoor unit. This water can be simply drained with gravity ...
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Flying vs heating and cooling
In some regions, summer is cool and there's little use of air conditioning. In other regions, winter is mild and there's little use of heating.
Suppose a household adopted the practice of flying ...
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What kind of refrigerant should I look for in a residential air conditioner?
I live in the traditionally temperate Pacific Northwest, but after the heat waves of summer 2021 I'm thinking about giving up and finally buying an air conditioner. But I've heard that air ...
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Can window films be fully removed from a window?
I live in the Pacific Northwest which has seen some serious heat waves this summer, so now I'm looking for more ways to keep cool. Aside from air-conditioning, I'm interested in passive techniques to ...
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Radiative Cooling for Residential
I've seen a lot of references to films which radiate heat from an underlying surface out into space. For example:
http://radi-cool.com/
https://arpa-e.energy.gov/technologies/projects/passive-...
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Can I use the furnace fan to cool my house in the summer?
We replaced our furnace last year, and the new one has a fan which can be run independently of the heating function. The fan recirculates air throughout the house. Is there a way to use this to keep ...
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Effective strategies to use snow for refrigeration in the winter?
Before the invention and commercialization of refrigeration, many homes had an ice box, designed to store a large block of ice to keep perishables cold (from the National Museum of American History):
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Efficiently freezing an ice pack once per 48 hours
Question: What are some good electricity-efficient ways to cool an ice pack down to ~5 degrees C once every 48 hours?
Background: I am in a warm climate and connected to the grid in a US city. I don't ...
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Effects of refrigerating vegetables that I'm supposed to freeze
I recently experimented with storing "frozen edamame" in my refrigerator for 7 days (about 45 degrees F/7 deg C), instead of the freezer. There were seemingly no ill effects. So that made me ...
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Where in the US water system does most chilling occur?
A few studies I've seen investigating the energy intensity of water use in the US specifically enumerate the energy use of chilling*.
Where in the system does most of that happen?
How common/for what ...
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Help me safely mod my freezer
I want to connect my freezer to an external thermostat like this to maintain a higher temperature than it otherwise could. Are there any thermostats or other control devices that would keep the ...
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Why do the best energy star freezers have higher capacity and lower rated power consumption than the best refrigerators?
The title says it all; I'm looking for any qualitative information that can help me.
Freezers: https://www.energystar.gov/productfinder/product/certified-residential-freezers/details/2255167
...
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Can I insulate my refrigerator to improve efficiency?
Any "reasonable" methods would be appreciated. I have heard that this can be done but I'm dubious that it would do much. Maybe if I put polyethylene on the right bits?
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Help me estimate my annual refrigerator power consumption from this data sheet?
I am shopping for refrigerators and looking at this model. Feel free to let me know if that's stupid.
But my main question is this: I'm trying to come up with a moderately conservative power ...
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How does the EPA estimate annual power consumption for refrigerators?
I'm trying to get a simplified idea of how the EPA estimates annual power consumption for refrigerators, e.g. here. There are a number of reasons why I want to know this, but there are three big ones:
...
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Can I use a "normal" thermometer in a refrigerator?
My refrigerator has a rheostat that I want to turn up to save energy. I'm trying to figure out whether I need to get a dedicated refrigerator thermometer.
I have a digital and a mercury-based ...
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What will happen if I leave my freezer off most of the time?
I only use my freezer to freeze ice packs, which I only use about an hour every two days. Because of this, I plan to turn my freezer off (or to the hottest setting) most of the time, and then reduce ...
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How to get a small volume of freezer capacity with high efficiency and low cost?
I have a big refrigerator/freezer and barely use any of the space. I also don't necessarily need to keep things cold all the time, as I mostly use it to freeze ice packs and extend the freshness of ...
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Should I close vents to unused rooms?
It’s 40°C at dusk during a summer heat wave. My electric utility is threatening blackouts and begging people to conserve.
I have a couple unused rooms in a detached suburban house that don’t need air ...
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Excavating holes for cooling during summer nights
This idea is motivated by the readings of this Hungarian weather station:
It sits within a ponor/doline which is basically a hole in the ground that allows the collection of the dense cold air. It ...
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How can I stop using HFC refrigerants?
Are there any HFC-free air conditioners on the market? How about refrigerators? Given the massive warming potential of HFCs I would expect there to be more information on how to avoid HFCs and on what ...
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Will Koolatron cooler cool warm stuff?
We don't have any electricity, so we're thinking of purchasing this Koolatron cooler.
Most of the drinks I put in it (refreshment cans, water bottles, etc) will be warm/room-temperature.
Will it ...
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How much temperature reduction will I get from a green grass-covered roof?
I want to put a green roof on my top floor by using a plastic caret, adding a 4" layer of soil and planting grass. I want to cover the whole roof with this.
Will it help to reduce the heat gain from ...
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Most sustainable way to cool a dorm-room
My first year of college has finally ended, and I will be moving from a suite style room to a single room, both student dorming.
My room will have temperature control, however it will be restricted ...
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What techniques or solutions are available for reducing heat absorption by walls?
I live in tropical region. Have pretty hot summers (44 degree C).
The question is regarding houses built with brick and mortar (walls) and reinforced concrete flat roofs. In this forum I have come ...
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Choice between Expanded or Extruded Polystyrene Insulation Boards
Am living in Lahore, Pakistan, and these days in process of my house construction. Note, here locally we have concrete flat roofs. Summer time maximum temperature upto 50C, and in winters minimum ...
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Need critique of my idea for a passive heating and cooling system for a tent/waterbed
The Idea
A small thin waterbed mattress inside a tent cot that is filled with water that's heated by the sun during the day and cooled at night.
The Details
Get this tent cot and water mattress (...
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How do I keep my room on the first floor cool all day and night?
I live in a duplex bungalow. The room on the first floor is about 250 sqft but has only two windows of 12 sqft each. The roof is at 10 ft level. The roof is open to sunlight and is used to dry clothes ...
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Why refrigerant cooler is more popular than evaporative cooler?
When I look at how houses/offices are cooled in my area I see that refrigerant cooler is far more popular than evaporative cooler. I did not find any company which serves evaporative cooler services/...
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How do I get airflow through my building
I am trying to build a passively cooled building in equatorial Indonesia.
Here is a rendering of the ground floor:
There are existing structures on the left and right side of the building, however ...
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What is the rationale for a base temperature for degree-days of 12 degrees?
When evaluating the energy demand of a building, the weather conditions are supposed to be controlled for by calculating degree-days (sometimes also known as accumulated temperature difference).
In ...
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Why do similar buildings use different types of cooling methods and which one is more environment friendly?
Which type of air conditioning is more environment friendly - doing the cooling per apartment or central cooling (for high rise residential buildings)?
My understanding is that central cooling is ...
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Notifications for outside temperature negating need for air conditioning
How can I get automatic notifications that the outside temperature (in Sydney CBD) is below a certain threshold, and therefore the best option is to turn off the air conditioning and instead open the ...
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How can I more effectively cool my house by managing windows with outdoor temperature changes?
How can I more effectively cool cooling my house by managing windows with outdoor temperature changes?
My current strategy
I open all my windows when the temperature inside the house is warmer than ...
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How to keep a small room cool using wet curtains?
I hypothesize that keeping curtains wet continuously will help in cooling a room through rapid evaporation with an indoor ceiling fan set at full speed. So how to accomplish this, and will it really ...
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How can I take advantage of winter cold to cool servers
How can I take advantage of freezing winter cold to cool my servers without exposing them to humidity?
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Is building vertically instead of horizontally in climate with large seasonal temperature changes more sustainable?
My main line of thinking would be that you would build tall skinny housing that would allow the heat to gather in the upper levels in the winter and the cooler air would gather in the basement/lowest ...
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How effective is free cooling
I live in the tropics, and during the summer it is very hot here. Today the air temp was low-mid 30C with 80% Relative Humidity.
I live close to a stream, which I'd like to use for free-cooling. ...
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Want to build a portable solar refrigerator
I've got a 5v Peltier chip. What kind of and how many solar cells 4.5v 18mA do I need per 1 chip? I found these cells online on dealextreme, but there are also other different types. I'm lacking a ...
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Which refrigerant is used in today's refrigerators and how harmful is it?
I'm curious about which and how much of a refrigerant is commonly used in modern refrigerators (say, produced from 2000 onwards). How harmful is it for the environment? What is the ozone depletion ...
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What is an easy way to cool off during the summer without electricity?
What are some easy ways to stay cool during the day without using electricity?
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