Tag Archives: cooling unit

This bamboo cooling device combats climate change as a sustainable alternative to modern AC units!

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French multidisciplinary firm AREP developed an alternative, energy-efficient cooling device out of bamboo as a sustainable, low-tech, and affordable means for cold air.

The ongoing threat of climate change has spurred many designers to action. Facing the imminency of prolonged storms, flooding, and recurrent heatwaves, coastal cities, and dry areas are especially vulnerable to the effects of our changing climate.

Vietnam is particularly affected by heatwaves, the city’s most chronic and cyclic of climate events. With excessive heat increasing the need for cold air, air conditioning units are constantly taking great amounts of energy to cool the city down and leaking coolant gas in the process, directly fueling the climate crisis.

Following cues from the Seoul Architecture and Urbanism Biennale 2021 “building the resilient city,” French multi-disciplinary firm AREP designed an alternative, energy-efficient cooling device for a sustainable, low-tech, and affordable solution to combatting the climate crisis. Forming a hyperboloid shape for structural stability, the cooling device stands as a bamboo tower that naturally cools air through the adiabatic principle by using, “the natural freshness of water.”

Explaining the cooling process, architects behind the bamboo tower describe, “To evaporate, water needs energy, which is ‘absorbed’ from the heat of the ambient air, thus generating the cooling effect.” More simply, the firm reasons that the process can be compared to moving closer to an open-air pool on a summer day–the closer you get, the cooler the air feels.

Inspired by the city’s local craftsmanship, the hyperboloid bamboo structure is stationed in Hanoi, Vietnam, where craft villages specialize in bamboo, silk, and pottery, among other trades. Relying on sustainable building and operation methods, AREP designed a cooling device that can be built responsibly from abundant, local resources.

Depending on the adiabatic principle for function, the bamboo tower features a grid of main poles that transfer water through gravity. Then, “at its center is installed a blower taking the hot air from above and pushing it down at human height. As it crosses the water twice, the air is naturally cooled by the adiabatic principle.”

Upon developing their own BIM parametric digital model for prototype phasing, AREP envisions the alternative cooling device in dryer climates, like near the Mediterranean basin or in the gulf, for public squares, sunny pedestrian streets, and larger buildings like train stations.

Designer: AREP

The post This bamboo cooling device combats climate change as a sustainable alternative to modern AC units! first appeared on Yanko Design.

This modular terracotta clay pot keeps food cool without any electricity for refrigeration!

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The Terracooler is a modern interpretation of the traditional Zeer pot or pot-in-pot refrigerator, an evaporative cooling refrigeration device that has been used for centuries and is still used today in countries across the globe, such as India and Nigeria.

Zeer pots, or pot-in-pot refrigerators, carry a rich, enduring history. Dating back to as early as 3000BC, Zeer pots have been used in the kitchen as evaporative cooling refrigeration devices across the globe for centuries. Comprised of two clay pots, the porous outer pot is lined with wet sand and surrounds a glazed inner clay pot where food items can be stored for refrigeration.

Requiring no electricity whatsoever, Zeer pots only need a source of water and some dry air to keep produce and other food items cool. Reinterpreting the Zeer pot for modern use, London-based designer Ellie Perry created the Terracooler, a tri-tiered pot-in-pot refrigerator that fits right at home on the kitchen counter.

Like many designers today, Perry felt compelled to design her Terracooler after learning that 10% of household energy is taken up by domestic refrigerators. However, in the UK, where Perry is based, 14 million tons of food waste is accumulated each year. The Terracooler was designed by Perry to make sense of that perplexing ratio.

Inspired by the modern use of Zeer pots in countries like India and Nigeria, Perry devised sketches and models before taking to CNC milling to produce a wooden model of her Terracooler. Using the wooden model as a plaster mold, Perry slipped cast from the mold to create a version made from terracotta clay.

Using the traditional build of pot-in-pot refrigerators, Terracooler is formed from three tapered, double-sided slip cast pieces with built-in handles. The handles stem from both sides of each individual pot and also work as spouts for water to pour through and provide evaporative cooling. With a vertical, modular design, Terracooler fits snugly on any kitchen counter and can be disassembled for access to the food items inside each pot.

Designer: Ellie Perry

 

Chill: personal cooling unit makes summer bearable

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personal cooling unit

If you’ve been cursed with spending most of the work day in a room without an AC unit, here’s a little something that might improve your situation.

Say goodbye to sweaty palms, no matter how hot summer is. This is a fun little project someone came up with at Instructables, which will provide users with a thermoelectric cooling unit that attaches to their wrist. And, believe it or not, this can rapidly cool your entire body. The unit is meant to be used to cool down after working out, or just because: who doesn’t enjoy being cool in the summer, anyways? As long as you can find some electricity, or are willing to carry a battery around,,,

See the video below these lines to learn more about it, or follow the link to Instructables to see the whole thing.

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