Keeping a cool head is difficult at the best of times, least of all when it’s summer and merely thinking of touching bare skin to the pavement already gets you a second-degree burn. Unfortunately, it’s not possible to spend all summer in an air-conditioned room, but what if you took said room with you? Introducing [Hyperspace Pirate]’s air-conditioned vest.
Following on from last time’s adventures with a battery-powered air-conditioner that merely blew cold air onto one’s overheating body, this time the same compressor is used for a more compact build.
Since obviously using your body as part of the evaporator would be uncomfortable, instead a heat exchanger was used that transfers the delicious frosty cold to water-filled tubing, zip-tied inside a very fashionable vest.
The basic unit runs on a couple of LiPo packs, but a solar-powered circuit was also built and tested using two small-ish panels. Of course, the requisite backpack-sized setup for that configuration is somewhat bulky, but at least the panels can also provide shade in addition to power for the compressor, hitting two fiery birds with one frosty stone.
Compared to one of those solar-powered caps with a built-in fan, this unit with some refinement could actually be an improvement, as well as keeping you a lot chillier. We’re looking forward to [Hyperspace]’s trial runs in the upcoming Floridian summer, as well as future chilling adventures.
Somewhat related: has anyone ever rigged up a refrigerator so that its compressor was in a different part of the building, running refrigerant lines to it like a minisplit? That way you don’t have to have this thing buzzing in your kitchen every so often as it leaves crenelated shapes on your power usage graphs. If you put the heat rejection coil in the basement, it might even reduce the humidity down there. (North of 42 degrees in North America, heat is welcome in the basement all year round.)
While split HVAC is efficient for large spaces, for a small, heavily insulated appliance like a fridge, the energy required to pump refrigerant long distances is not really worth it. Additionally a split system would require specialized technicians to install refrigerant lines, increasing upfront costs significantly compared to plug-and-play units. Such an installation may also require permitting and inspection further adding to hassle and expense. Refrigerators consume very little power (less than 5% of an AC unit), so the high cost, complex professional installation, and maintenance for a separate exterior unit do not justify the minor energy savings and minor reduction in noise.
I am an HVAC cowboy and would handle the details myself. I have minisplit installation equipment, though refrigerater systems probably use different coolants. I am not proposing this for casual soccer moms.
Totally different refrigerants.
Refrigerator low-side (suction) pressure for R134a systems typically operates between 1–10 PSIG, with many units running in the 1–5 PSIG range for combined refrigerator/freezer models. During operation, pressure may rise to around 18 PSIG near the end of a cycle.
R-600a systems operates a significantly lower pressures than R-134a, with typical running pressures of 45–60 PSI on the high side and a low side (suction) in a vacuum of approximately -5 to -18 inches Hg or roughly 0–2 PSI depending on ambient conditions and charge.
a split mini running R-410A low-side is typically 115–140 PSI, and high-side is 370–450+ PSI Running R-32 high-side pressures between 275–460 psig and low-side pressures between 70–160 psig
So youre definitely NOT going to be mix matching components together.
Armchair noob here, could you maybe keep the normal refrigerator in the basement and just pump cooled propylene glycol or alcohol (through a heat exchanger maybe?) in an insulated tube from the refrigerator up to a remote insulated box. This way the compressor doesn’t need to work any harder, you just need a normal liquid pump which are cheap.
Youre not going to get desirable resuls just pumping it into an existing fridges system. You would need to strip out the existing systems and replace them with a liquid to air exhanger designed to work with PG.
If price is no object $5k+ new, There are commercial reach in refrigerators with remote compressors, They are less efficient, and lack residential safety certifications so they may void warranties or home insurance policies. You may need a buddy that works in AC/refrigeration to get it installed, because many/most professionals wont do residential installs of commercial equipment due to potential liability issues.
FWIW, I never notice my refrigerator running. The money might be better spent repairing/replacing the current unit.
Don’t know how old your fridge is but mine is so silent, you could sleep next to in. You might wake up when the ice maker drops it’s new batch of ice cubes. As for power draw, it uses around 1,2 kw/r per day and it’s a big side by side unit. I guess, having a inverter controlled motor might help with the efficiency
I did that 25 years ago to cool my student room. Worked great, together with some cheap fans.
Eventually I was fiddling with it and I got an electric shock. I was suddenly outside and screaming.
I threw it away and taped alumiumfoil to the windows on the outside. That kept 90% of the warmth outside without needing electricity or an indoor installation for which I did not have any space.
I have a friend who had a cooler bike vest the cool him down, it was battery powered though. worked great
Over the west he needs a mylar blanket to insulate and limit the cold loss to the exterior.
Good one.
using your body as part of the condenser would definitely be uncomfortable, at least in summertime. The evaporator would be far more useful. (like it says in the video)
The thing seems inspired by the “earth suits” in Stephenson’s Termination Shock
Stephensons 2021 Termination Shock’s earth suits were inspired by ~80 years of NASA tech Water-cooled vests first appeared as specialized technology in the mid-1960s, primarily developed for NASA Apollo missions to prevent astronauts from overheating in space.
Shafer Enterprises (COOLSHIRT) developed liquid-cooled vests for surgeons in 1987, Compcooler has been selling their liquid cooling vests, hoods, etc for at least 15 years.
Stephensosn’s 4 year old book brief existence is insignificant. Id be surprised if [HP] has heard of it let alone read it.
type correction ~80 should have been ~60 years.
fng spellcheck, TYPO correction TYPE should have been TYPO
This is the Earthsuit technology described in Neal Stephenson’s Termination Shock. Since there’s already a name for it, I suggest the term Earthsuit is used.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Termination_Shock_(novel)
https://www.sffchronicles.com/threads/589125/
the term EARTHSUIT
Registration Number: 6853434
Status: Registered (filed Feb 1, 2021, and registered on Sep 20, 2022)
Owner: Whole Life Nutrition, LLC, based in Concord, MA
Category: Clothing products
So I suggest avoiding the term earthsuit in developing personal climate control vests.
Ew, it’s cli-fi… Do people actually read this stuff
yes. i read all of his books. some i like better than others, but i can realy recommend snowcrash, termination shock and diamond age. but the term cli-fi is making me puke. yuck.
It’s an apt description for a horrible modern genre. I also liked Snowcrash and a few of his other books.
I really liked that time 13 years ago when he dreamt up a moronic video game/controller concept and scammed 9000 people out of half a million dollars and then used his fame as an author to sweep it under the rug as NOT A SCAM but rather a failed passion project. CLANG!
cli-fi? srsly? What skewed your mind in that direction? Do you even understand the plot?
So what would you consider appropriate reading material?
FWIW, I have three editions of AoE, despite the personality of the first author. I’m not sure if we’re talking about the same book though: The ones by Horowitz & Hill are actually wonderfully easy-to-read reference material, not at all the speculative fiction you seem to be confusing it with.
And if by “Biden” you mean the former president of the USA, he is not relevant and I and my like-minded compatriots never could have supported him. 98% of the planet would be the same way.
What skewed my mind in that direction? It’s exactly what it is. How could you pretend not to get that? Extremely disingenuous to lie like this for no reason.. It even says it in the very first paragraph of the wiki page linked.
Also that guy above is an impersonator, I should just post under a randomized string of characters.
So, infrastructure for clothing? What am I missing?