An external transparent porous pipe (made of transparent insect-prevention screen mesh) has plants growing in it with hot air from the home going through this net, cooling the air and sent back into the home.

The plants are selected to have the following attributes:

1. Plants that suck humidity out of the air. Usually desert plants that feed on salty water.

2. Plants that have dense and dark leaves, taking in most of the light energy before it reaches the ground.

A second set of plants cover the net from above, cooling it further.
-- pashute, Jul 20 2012

Trees and global cooling http://carnegiescie...ools_global_climate
[pashute, Jul 20 2012]

If it works it'd be a nice back end to an evaporation cooler.
-- FlyingToaster, Jul 20 2012


Drawing air from outside past plants for cooling is baked. But I'm not aware of any way that plants can both dehumidify and cool air. In both light and dark, plants produce heat. This can only be offset by transpiration, which increases humidity.
-- spidermother, Jul 21 2012


if you put a drop of eucalyptus into a runny fan it vaporizes it and your room will smell awesome for a while.
-- bob, Jul 21 2012


On the hottest days (and in Israel we have quite a lot of them) if you get out of your car and walk into the bush - usually pine trees, in an an area where little or no sunlight reaches, you'll need a sweater because its cold there, all year round.

I measured this time and again, around 17C.
-- pashute, May 26 2015


[spidermother], two things:

Could you give a link to "drawing air past plants for cooling"?

And about "both dehumidify and cool air": I suppose it happens by evaporation from the plants then condensation on the external parts (as what happens with the salty Tamarisk tree), creating a dry and cool environment.
-- pashute, Jun 09 2015


What you are proposing is impossible from a thermodynamic perspective. Without a way for disorder to escape the system you are essentially proposing that these plants can use light to cause a net decrease in entropy.
-- WcW, Jun 09 2015


^ Perhaps water evaporates from the ground (swamp cooling) and is absorbed by the trees.
-- FlyingToaster, Jun 10 2015



random, halfbakery