I don't know about you, but I don't have a lot of money. This means that keeping cool in the summer time is quite a bit of work. It seems as though all the cooling devices (besides a fan, which only pushes air around and is of little help when it is 90+) are too expensive. They cost a lot to buy and then have quite a fee to keep them running.
I think a water cooled recliner may be the answer. 20 gallons of cold Tap water is dirt cheap and the Heat Capicty of water is great! (4200Jkg-1°C-1) That means it takes a lot of energy to change the temperatue of water. In other words, if the water is 60 degrees F, and you are 98+ degress F, the water will absorb a lot of your heat energy, making you much, much cooler.
The water could be connected by a hose and would only need to be cycled rarely. The seat would need to be a good conductor of heat. But that doesn't mean metal. There are quite a few heat conductors that are quite soft. The rest of the chair could be insulated cheaply with styrofoam.
One last thing... Heat transfers through conducting solids much better than through gases. So not only will you be able to balance out the heat in the air, you can actually keep yourself quite cool!
I'm interested in everyone's opinion.-- kumpf, Aug 14 2002 I'm not sure that sitting on a water-cooled chair will keep you all that cool. It may cool the part of you that's in contact with it, but not the rest. I could be wrong.-- angel, Aug 15 2002 It would certainly help. I rather like the idea of water-filled furniture, despite the obvious hazards.-- st3f, Aug 15 2002 Sounds worth a try. Croissant.-- 8th of 7, Aug 15 2002 I agree. Water-cooled furniture is surely only a trip to the patent office away. But what if it could be hooked up to the water mains of a house? Inflow, or -- for frathouses and Germans -- outflow? Cool, in all 4 senses.-- General Washington, Aug 15 2002 The problem is that you're not the only source of heat (which seems to form the basis of your idea). After a few hours the water will be room temperature and you won't get the same level of relief.-- phoenix, Aug 15 2002 There could easily be two hoses connected to the chair. One could be a water supply hose and the other a drain hose. A little counter intuative, but the drain hose would be located near the top and the supply hose near the bottom of the chair. (the top will be slightly warmer than the bottom, just like hot air rises) If it needs some extra cooling power, simply add a few extra gallons of cold tap water and let the overflow leave via the drain hose.
Just an idea...-- kumpf, Aug 15 2002 //and let the overflow leave via the drain hose.//
This could in turn be used to fill up the cistern of the toilet where you really don't care if the water's warm or not.-- st3f, Aug 15 2002 or, if you hot water heater isn't 100% full, increase efficiency by putting the preheated water into it via the outflow from the chair.-- aberson, Aug 15 2002 Croissant. Sounds both comfortable and backside-cooling, though I agree that it probably wouldn't cool the rest of you (or the room) noticably.-- trifling matter, Aug 15 2002 Oh bloody hell! Either I've wet myself again, or the damn chair has sprung another leak!-- Mr Burns, Aug 15 2002 Waterbed technology in an easy-chair. I like it. You'll need something to cover up the clammy plastic, though.-- RayfordSteele, Aug 15 2002 add a nice liquid cooled blanket that you can pull over yourself to get the whole body chill.-- rbl, Aug 15 2002 Any other comments? I'm so hot I'm about to build one right now!-- kumpf, Aug 15 2002 What's "real-life" about this?-- waugsqueke, Aug 16 2002 I think the price is what makes it "real-life". A recliner could be made for $30 and provide cooling all summer long. I am thinking of cheap parts, nothing too fancy, so it would be practcal for people that can't afford AC.-- kumpf, Aug 16 2002 I think there is probably a great deal of heat transfer capacity in one of these things. The waterbed is a similar device. You can get hypothermia sleeping on one of those things if it is not heated, ... no?
The 20 gallon capacity seems about right. There are about 20 gallons of water in your average ~160lb adult. So if you spent some quality time in the chair, you could pretty much split the difference between your temp and the water temp.-- tech_head, Aug 16 2002 There is a building cooling/heating technique that works on this principle. The building has a water reservoir in the ground where it is always 55F. Water is pumped up thru a pipe system into the building, which cools in summer and heats in winter. Then back to the reservoir to equilibrate.
Possibly the septic tank could double for the reservoir in a pinch. The contents would probably be equally cool. If the chair were transparent you could also keep an eye on how things were going in your house.-- bungston, Oct 01 2002 I thought of this 3 years ago..and I still want one. perhaps it really would be worth making :)-- kumpf, May 02 2005 Nice. It doesn't sound very cheap though. It would be really heavy and would need fairly strong materials to support it if you want it to be off the ground.
Alternatively, you could store all your underwear and hats in the freezer. Or how about frozen adult diapers?-- bneal27, May 02 2005 I was thinking about this idea again. I propose that these chairs be made of glass, bubbly and streaky. They would be installed as public sculpture outside of a museum in a warm climate. Wastewater from the museum would course through them on the way to the sewer. There would be troughs cut into the surrounding cement to guide condensation away to a pond containing a fountain.
On hot days people could lounge on the cool chairs or dance through the fountain.-- bungston, Sep 11 2007 I do think there'd be a high likelihood of condensation.
[bungston] One would be forced to see human waste flowing through the chair one is sitting in.-- bnip, Sep 12 2007 random, halfbakery