h a l f b a k e r yNaturally, seismology provides the answer.
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Cars in warm climes like South Texas where we need to keep our air conditioner running all but two days of the year generate a huge amount of water that's been exhaled by the occupants. Usually it drips on the ground and you can frequently see puddles under a car once parked. (When I first arrived
in Texas I thought all the cars here had oil leaks ;-) )
It should be relatively easy to redirect this water to top up the windshield washer reservoir. Despite having been produced by human breath it's pretty clean.
Almost the same name ...
Auto_20Fill_20Windscreen_20Wash
although a different solution [jonthegeologist, Jan 11 2006]
Exhaust filtering tech perfected
http://science.slas.../05/025259&from=rss
The Army has perfected the tech needed for this device, except that they waste the water by giving it to thirsty soldiers to drink :-) [gtoal, Nov 02 2006]
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Annotation:
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Good idea. I always thought the AC puddles were from ice melting off of the AC condenser. |
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Ice on the condenser? Not a recent thought, I assume. |
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Because of the past tense and because condensation that drips out under the car (not necessarily due to icing) comes from the evaporator. |
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The condenser gives off heat so any water on there would evaporate. But on the evaporator, water condenses. |
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In some cases the resulting washer fluid would smack of gin and tonic. |
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If the air isn't too humid you could arrange to occasionally re-evaporate the water on the windscreen and roof for the additional cooling effect. In practice this would just mean that when the reservoir was nearly full the spray and wipers would cycle once automatically. |
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Good idea [gtoal]. Only problem I can see is that this solution would be confined to areas with year-round fine weather. Other places will need anti freezing agents added to the water. |
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Now that's a good idea [miasere]. Collecting rainwater to fill the washer reservoir. I always forget to fill it. You'd just have to top up the antifreeze now and then. |
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[hazel]'s been there, done that. See [jonthegeologist]'s link. |
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[half]'s right. [hazel] wrote an idea with a very similar aim and name a few years back although I accept that the mechanism for retreiving water is different. |
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That said, running aircon units are costly to the pocket and to the environment and as such, [hazel]'s idea is far more elegant and cheaper. |
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Of course, if you happen to live somewhere where it *never* rains and is *always* hot, then the aircon dripoff is an acceptable solution. |
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Oh. Well, then, the evaporator. |
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It was past tense because I was preparing myself to be shown otherwise. |
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You might occasionally get ice on the condenser where you live. |
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([jon], I was referring to [miasere]'s and [squeak]'s comments) |
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As it turns out, ice on the condenser is
a serious problem in some conditions. I
worked in a video studio in the mid '90s
(decade, not temperature) with a
marginally-capable air conditioning
system, It would occasionally begin to
freeze up when it was hot and humid. |
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Although it sounds like no problem, it
would, in fact, require shutting down
the AC for several hours, which would
mean shutting off all the studio lights,
which would mean not getting any work
done that da, which would mean
$1000s of expense for lost work. |
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So bristolz is not so far off base. I'm not
sure if a car AC system would have this
problem: ours was designed to handle
all the heat generated by dozens and
dozens of multi-kilowatt lighting
instruments. |
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Not to mention hot-headed producers. |
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