{"id":964,"date":"2015-08-21T18:03:19","date_gmt":"2015-08-21T23:03:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecaffeinatedgeek.com\/?p=964"},"modified":"2018-02-12T19:11:54","modified_gmt":"2018-02-13T01:11:54","slug":"cooling-is-cool-or-a-cool-way-to-cool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecaffeinatedgeek.com\/?p=964","title":{"rendered":"Cooling is cool, or, a cool way to cool"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ever the intrepid geek, my curiosity got the best of me when I saw \u201cMistbox<\/a>\u201d on a crowdsourcing website. This is one of those \u201cwhy didn\u2019t I think of this before?\u201d items. But, actually I have. I had a fan fail on the outside compressor unit of the A\/C on an extremely hot Texas summer weekend. Trying to get an A\/C guy there on a Saturday would cost dearly. I knew that some commercial A\/C\u2019s use (water) evaporative cooling. So I crafted an old plywood sheet I had laying around with one of those cheap fans on top of the A\/C unit and set a sprinkler on low to spray\u00a0the condenser coils \u2026 and it worked surprisingly well until the repair “guy” came on Monday. \u00a0Effectively, the Mistbox is an extremely refined version of my water cooling scheme. Cleverly, they computerized the evaporative cooling and adapted it for a typical home system. Essentially it\u2019s comprised of the solar-powered computer, water filter, plastic tubing and a few plastic spray bars. I literally had it installed in 10 minutes after I had the computer programmed with my wireless network password. It\u2019s that easy \u2026 I could do it again in less five minutes now. When the A\/C turns on, the computer knows (via vibration, magnetic field, sound, temperature and ambient light) and begins spraying a very, very fine mist into the condenser coils \u2026 if you put your hand over the blowing fan you can\u2019t even detect even the smallest amount of moisture. The water usage is negligible. So no fear of flooding the yard or wasting water. I couldn\u2019t measure\u00a0the amount it uses daily\u00a0under the volcanic Texas summer heat, but it\u2019s probably less than I give my tomato plants each day. They claim about 7.2 gallons per hour … but after using it, I don’t see how it could be that much.<\/p>\n

\"Mistbox\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s why it is important.<\/p>\n

Using two different thermal guns, I measured the exhaust heat of the condenser fan and A\/C vents inside the house. There was a consistent five-degree difference between the pre and post Mistbox install. That means the A\/C isn\u2019t running as much because it\u2019s more efficient \u2026 that means the house cools sooner and saves bucks on electricity. If you have an intelligent thermostat like a NEST, the savings can really add up. And literally there\u2019s almost zero service, save the annual filter change.<\/p>\n

Before you ask, yes \u2026 there\u2019s an app \u2026 only iOS phone \u2026 for the moment. Android app is on its way.<\/p>\n

Simply put, it\u2019s one of the most useful, common-sense inventions to come along in years. It appeals to treehuggers, geeks, tightwads and anyone with a desire to stay cool. Due to the bizarre governmental tax laws, the solar cell on the computer qualifies for a tax credit \u2026 it\u2019s a win-win scenario for anyone who has ten minutes to spare.<\/p>\n

Such a cool idea \u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ever the intrepid geek, my curiosity got the best of me when I saw \u201cMistbox\u201d on a crowdsourcing website. This is one of those \u201cwhy didn\u2019t I think of this before?\u201d items. But, actually I have. I had a fan fail on the outside compressor unit of the A\/C on an extremely hot Texas summer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecaffeinatedgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecaffeinatedgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecaffeinatedgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecaffeinatedgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecaffeinatedgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=964"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/thecaffeinatedgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/964\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1326,"href":"https:\/\/thecaffeinatedgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/964\/revisions\/1326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecaffeinatedgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecaffeinatedgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecaffeinatedgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}