4 ms·

It appears that the device is only cool to the touch and does not generate any cool air, so it's not an air conditioner per se, more like an electric ice pack.

by cynix 7y ago

It appears that the device is only cool to the touch and does not generate any cool air, so it's not an air conditioner per se, more like an electric ice pack. The heat will presumably escape via the air vents at the back.

KozmoNau7 7y ago
And of course it puts out additional heat into the room, making it slightly more miserable for everyone else. There is some kind of metaphor in that.
- braythwayt 7y ago
  Let’s walk together through a typical city neighbourhood street today. As we converse, let’s raise our voices to drown out the hum of air conditioners jutting out from windows or affixed to cement pads beside buildings. Some old stores have doors that once had a transom window overhead. In older times, the transom windows were opened on a warm day, and hot air in the room would rise, and then be blows out of the building through the transom window. Today, we close them windows up, creating a box that superheats in the sun. So we stick air conditioners in the old transom windows, and they blow hot air into the street like jet engines. As we walk past these, we must duck. The hot air will eventually rise, but as it erupts from the air conditioner, turbulence brings the heat down to our level, making a hot day even hotter for those walking past. Air conditioning has always been the proposition that “I’m cooling myself at somebody else’s expense.”
  - mrep 7y ago
    > Air conditioning has always been the proposition that “I’m cooling myself at somebody else’s expense. That's not much of an issue though: "For a 2014 paper, Francisco Salamanca and colleagues at Arizona State University modeled the effects of air conditioning on surface air temps in Phoenix. They found a nighttime increase of about 2°F (and nothing much during the day)" [0]. [0]: https://www.popsci.com/ask-us-anything-does-using-ac-make-it-hotter-outside/ https://www.popsci.com/ask-us-anything-does-using-ac-make-it...
    - braythwayt 7y ago
      And yet, as I walk down the street in an older neighborhood with air conditioners in the transoms, I am hit by blasts of superheated air. I likewise also hear the noise (although in my lifetime air conditioners have gotten quieter, I suspect as a side-effect of air conditioners becoming more efficient). I guess I'm trying to say that the expression "at someone else's expense" not just a question of the surface temperature.

by cynix 7y ago

KozmoNau7 7y ago

And of course it puts out additional heat into the room, making it slightly more miserable for everyone else. There is some kind of metaphor in that.

braythwayt 7y ago
Let’s walk together through a typical city neighbourhood street today. As we converse, let’s raise our voices to drown out the hum of air conditioners jutting out from windows or affixed to cement pads beside buildings. Some old stores have doors that once had a transom window overhead. In older times, the transom windows were opened on a warm day, and hot air in the room would rise, and then be blows out of the building through the transom window. Today, we close them windows up, creating a box that superheats in the sun. So we stick air conditioners in the old transom windows, and they blow hot air into the street like jet engines. As we walk past these, we must duck. The hot air will eventually rise, but as it erupts from the air conditioner, turbulence brings the heat down to our level, making a hot day even hotter for those walking past. Air conditioning has always been the proposition that “I’m cooling myself at somebody else’s expense.”
- mrep 7y ago
  > Air conditioning has always been the proposition that “I’m cooling myself at somebody else’s expense. That's not much of an issue though: "For a 2014 paper, Francisco Salamanca and colleagues at Arizona State University modeled the effects of air conditioning on surface air temps in Phoenix. They found a nighttime increase of about 2°F (and nothing much during the day)" [0]. [0]: https://www.popsci.com/ask-us-anything-does-using-ac-make-it-hotter-outside/ https://www.popsci.com/ask-us-anything-does-using-ac-make-it...
  - braythwayt 7y ago
    And yet, as I walk down the street in an older neighborhood with air conditioners in the transoms, I am hit by blasts of superheated air. I likewise also hear the noise (although in my lifetime air conditioners have gotten quieter, I suspect as a side-effect of air conditioners becoming more efficient). I guess I'm trying to say that the expression "at someone else's expense" not just a question of the surface temperature.