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Among the costs of war: $20 Billion in Air Conditioning
- rdl 15y agoThe "air conditioners in uninsulated tents" thing was always kind of jarring to me. Part of it is due to accounting -- operational expenses like fuel are treated as operations expenses, but building buildings is a capital improvement and has a different budgeting process.
- bdunbar 15y agoThe tents I've seen with A/C units (this was early 90s) were made of a different fabric than the standard tents we berthed in. I believe this was a sort of insulated tent to retain the cooled air. Another reason for the A/C units was to filter dusty air to keep that grit away from computers.
- iwwr 15y agoCan air conditioners be driven directly by gasoline engines rather than generators->electrical AC? Perhaps just replacing the electro-compressor with an in-place gas version.
- rdl 15y agoYes, but it's not really a good idea in this kind of environment. Generally they'd run 200-500KW diesel generators in a unit generator farm, then run power cabling (3 phase) out to PDUs in clusters of tents, with single-phase runs to standard military ECUs (air conditioners) attached to each tent. They also need electricity INSIDE the tents, for computers, lighting, etc. Generators are noisy, need to be serviced and fueled, and the small ones (~10KW) that you'd want to run on an HVAC are less efficient (especially for diesel), loud, etc. You also don't want fuel tankage near tents which might be hit by incoming mortars...especially mogas (gasoline) tankage...JP8/Jet-A/diesel is a fair bit less bad. Over time, they moved to a "prime power" system for the larger bases, with a big farm of 2MW gensets run by a contractor, and an on-base power distribution system, sort of like towns in Alaska, islands, etc. Using an engine to directly run HVAC is done on reefers (insulated/refrigerated shipping containers), but even those are moving more and more to electrical hookups (so when they're in a big storage area, they can all be connected to cheaper power). Some of this power was for things like a 20 x 20 grid of 16-man tents, each with HVAC. I still think the primary consumer of liquid fuels was aviation -- fighters taking off on afterburner, big cargo aircraft transporting tens of tons per load, helicopters, etc.
- buro9 15y agoSince air-conditioners operate in the hottest parts of the world, why aren't they solar powered? Do they just require far more power than can be got from current solar tech? edit: It seems that it's possible: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/01/solar_powered_t.php http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/01/solar_powered_t.php http://wingnutgear.com/product_details.cfm?product_id=155&image_id=116 http://wingnutgear.com/product_details.cfm?product_id=155...
- Klinky 15y agoYou'd be lucky to have that 25 watt solar panel power a fan much less an AC unit. Most in-window a/c units take about 600 - 1200 watts. They also run on A/C power, not DC which is what you get from solar panels. Getting enough amperage from a solar panel is going to be difficult. You would probably need about 4 of these: http://www.ecodirect.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=Canadian-Solar-CS5P-250M&site=google_base http://www.ecodirect.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=Cana... Then maybe you could start talking about powering something like a 5,000 BTU air conditioner.
- Derbasti 15y agoUnless of course you were to put some isolation in those tents (or regular buildings, for the matter). The ingenious building style in hot countries revolves around few windows, light colors and thick walls. With that, there is not much need for air conditioning. But then again, the US has a track record of building inefficient houses, so this should not surprise anyone.
- hootmon 15y agoAh yes, NPR, where the Jewish offspring of war profiteers go to pose as serious journalists, but only after daddy donates enough of his war profits to secure them the post. Fascism is alive and doing rather well thank you.
- creativeone 15y agoIf anyone finds real solar powered A/C systems, please posts it here or email me, I'd like to import them into Israel.
- creativeone 15y agoIf anyone wants to partner to invent one, I'd also be interested in raising the money and doing marketing.
- MortenK 15y agohttp://lmgtfy.com/?q=solar+powered+A%2FC+systems http://lmgtfy.com/?q=solar+powered+A%2FC+systems :-)
- chopsueyar 15y agoThat is pretty dick.
- MortenK 15y agoThe point was: Get over the inertia and do something about the idea (finding and importing solar powered a/c's). "Pretty dick"? I guess it might be perceived like that. Wasn't intended though, hence the :-)
- chopsueyar 15y agoI posted a link a bit ago about a solar-powered icemaker using no moving parts. It is based on the use of ammonia gas in a sealed environment. http://www.scribd.com/doc/6599651/How-to-Build-a-Solar-Icemaker http://www.scribd.com/doc/6599651/How-to-Build-a-Solar-Icema... I am a bit of an HVAC engineering enthusiast/hobbyist. Perhaps something like that could be used as a mini-chiller with a heat exchanger. You can use a solar panel/battery for the fans, circulating pump, and condensate removal pumps. These devices would require minimal current. Perhaps servo controlled tarps to cycle the ammonia refrigeration cycle and an Arduino to glue all the logical pieces together? Also, you can make it zoned, with solenoid valves and seperate thermostats, to keep each room at a specific temperature. Not useful for the US military, but maybe remote homes in hot areas.
- yannis 15y agoYou can reduce the cost by a factor of 10, if you make the tents "underground".
- josefresco 15y agoI'm sure we have plenty of those kinds of "tents" installed on the battlefield.
- kahawe 15y agoI am honestly wondering what the average temperature in a Bedouin or Mongolian (sorry, for lack of better term) tent is and how one could apply this to troop tents in the desert in general and ultimately save on A/C and fuel because many generations of men have proven to successfully survive in the desert long before fuel and a/c has been invented.
- icegreentea 15y agoThe "Mongolian" tent is called a yurt. And the Mongolian steppe's isn't even close to the same climate as Iraq. Might be a match for northern Afghanistan.
- kahawe 15y agoI was looking for a pendant to the "Bedouin" there. What about the Gobi desert?
- icegreentea 15y agoThe Gobi is ridiculously varied (as is Mongolian really, it was wrong of me to generalize that much). That said, the Gobi is a relatively cold desert. High elevation plus relatively high latitude. My geography is kinda sketchy, so a quick google tells me that while the hottest part of the year can reach +30C (I guess approaching Iraq levels), temperatures in the north (the Mongolian part) are generally lower, and infact, you would probably be far more worried about how cold it gets than how hot (the famous Mongolian winters???). Unfortunately, I can't really answer for the Bedouin.
- kahawe 15y agohm I just looked at the wikipedia page quoting extreme temperatures up to 50°C but the challenge in the desert definitely is the huge fluctuation - considering it can go down as far as −40°C for Gobi. Overall, this sounds like another point for thick, heavy tents (or in terms of the urban jungle: thick brick walls here in Europe keep wonderfully cool in summer and warm in winter.) But I can also see how the a/c is probably one thing they do for keeping morale up... so this might not only be a thermic/physical problem.
- JabavuAdams 15y agoWonder how this compares to the cost of irrigation and planting shade trees in long-duration bases. Shade and mortar protection. Probably cheaper to just dig in underground.
- encoderer 15y agoYes. As a taxpayer in one of the higher tax brackets (like most here are i presume) I sincerely hope they plan infrastructure on established bases the way you describe. The US Military has a habit of staying where it goes. Many people have opinions on that, I do not, but I am a realist so I think its fair to assume that if you've got a large, established base in a warzone (like the Green Zone in Baghdad), treat it like you'll be using it for 100 years. Because if history is any indication, you will be.
- eru 15y agoAnd even if not, you can probably try selling it to the locals when you are going.
- sorbus 15y agoThat doesn't work well, at least in this case. From the article, "We're turning over to the Iraqis — mostly either for a small penny or for free — the infrastructure that we built in Iraq. But we won't see back any money from that infrastructure."
- anamax 15y ago> And even if not, you can probably try selling it to the locals when you are going. Why would they pay anything? You're leaving so it will be free then and you won't leave sooner if they pay.
- eru 15y agoYou could destroy it instead.
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- nextparadigms 15y agoThis is why much more transparency is necessary. So we can question expenses such as these. Who knows how many hundreds of billions more are wasted for similar things?
- hammock 15y agoIf we figure - generously - that an American consumes $100/mo of A/C at work + another $100 at home for six months, that is $1,200 for the year per capita For the 150,000 soldiers in Iran and Afghanistan, the $20B comes to $130,000 per capita, or over 100x more Just a fun comparison, not saying one way or the other here.
- jbooth 15y agoThat is a random ass number, you're saying my floor at work generates a 10k monthly electricity bill? Seems a bit high.
- willyt 15y agoUK new build "best practice building" say about 140 kWh per square meter per year total energy use (including HVAC). 8 square meters per person is packed in desks like a call centre. £0.1 per kWh. 140 * 8 * 0.1 ~ £100 per year per person = $160. Cheaper power costs in US. More extreme temperature differences. Less strict energy conservation codes. All could skew this figure considerably.
- jbooth 15y agoOk, but that's for everything. Seems the HVAC is one of those things that really benefits from economics of scale.
- willyt 15y agoYeah, the AC is about 40kWh/year. Its not doing much for about 3/4 of the year in the UK though. Economies of scale do make a big difference. In a large building with 1000's of peeps air supply fans (fan coil units), chillers and heat rejection would be separate pieces of kit. Heat rejection is generally done by rooftop cooling towers sometimes supplemented by ground sink borehole. Supply air is cooled at the fan coil units, which are supplied by with water cooled by the chillers. There are lots of variations for a system like this but as described above is a pretty typical office building set-up in the UK building industry at the moment.
- chopsueyar 15y agoWhy not a giant tarp suspended above all the tents in the group to absorb/reflect radiant heat and keep all the tents in the shade? That should reduce the amount of energy required to cool the tents.
- pstuart 15y agoWhy be efficient when you can get all the money you want anyway?
- chopsueyar 15y agoAlas, the supply is close by, but the refineries are so far away.
- RickHull 15y agoAncient desert interior climate control: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windcatcher http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windcatcher http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakhchal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakhchal
- chopsueyar 15y agoFrom the wikipedia Yakhchal article: ...made out of a special mortar called sārooj, composed of sand, clay, egg whites, lime, goat hair, and ash in specific proportions, and which was resistant to heat transfer. This mixture was thought to be completely water impenetrable. Organic styrofoam!
- mcritz 15y agoBy comparison, the NASA budget is $20 Billion. The cost to give every child in America a free school lunch is $20 Billion. The National Science Foundation (NSF) is requesting less than $8 Billion this year. The entire National Institute of Health (NIH) budget is $31 Billion. The Environment Protection Agency responsible for assuring breathable air & safe water against every corporate interest is asking for less than $9 Billion this year. The U.S. “Smart Grid” industry is worth $21 Billion. Et cetra.
- encoderer 15y agoThings like this really just blow my mind. Our world is getting more and more complex each year, and out voters are not being more and more sophisticated. And our electioneering systems are not doing anything to aid that either. I am an optimist but if our nation sees significant decline ahead, I think it's in no small part due to the drag of our BS political cluster^^^^ in Washington DC. As a great American once said, "Our problems are man-made, therefore they may be solved by man." The trouble to me is that we've got nobody minding the store. People support policies -- on both sides of the aisle -- that are obviously and objectively against their self interest because they buy into political advertising and dogma the same way they buy into I'm a Mac, I'm a PC. I'm an optimist, but i see precious few problems being solved by those we the people hire to do our statecraft.
- chopsueyar 15y agoWhat makes you optimistic?
- jbooth 15y agoAnd a single (unrelated to AC expenses) cash heist of reconstruction money was $6.6 billion. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-missing-billions-20110613,0,4414060.story http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-missing-...
- wedesoft 15y agoMaybe they should build windcatchers. That's what the locals use. There's one in the Dubai Museum [1] and its amazing how well it works. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wind_Tower_Dubai.jpg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wind_Tower_Dubai.jpg
- kshcho 15y agoAt first, I was going to say it's tiny relative to the overall DoD budget... but if true, it's actually pretty ridiculous: - 0.5% of the US federal budget overall (including entitlement programs) - 3-4% of the overall defense budget - More than 2x the budget of the FBI - ~40% of the Homeland Security budget ($47B) - Rather close to the budget allocation for the Marine Corp ($29B) (though there might technically be some overlap there) If that's for 2 wars in 2 countries, what's government's total air conditioning bill? Our soldiers deserve it, but there's gotta be a better way.
- wdr1 15y agoWell, on the upside, it's good the US learned from Napolean's lesson.