I try some crazy experiments from time to time. One of them happens every summer. We don’t have an air conditioner in our house. We actually never felt the need for an AC until about a few years ago here in Bangalore. The temperature is very pleasant most of the year except for a couple of months in summer. In particular, March and April tend to be hot. So I have been trying out some experiments to bring down the temperature. I did one such experiment this year as well.


The idea was to use an old standing fan as an air cooler by placing a wet cloth behind the fan and let it blow the cool air into the room. To make it even better, I used cold water mixed with ice cubes. I tied the a cloth around the fan using some ropes. See picture (below) for reference.

Fan with cloth tied around


Then I used a small water pump, to pump water from a container with cold water to the top of the cloth that is tied behind the fan. That water spreads across the cloth. Then the fan blows the cold air while drying up the cloth. The pump keeps the cloth wet.

Water pump that pumps cold water


Once the cloth is fully wet and cannot hold any more water, the excess water drains down into the container that is at the bottom of the fan. You have to remember that the fan has electric components at the bottom. So dunking the fan into a container full of water is recipe for disaster. To prevent the resulting electric fireworks, I placed a block below the fan so none of the water is touching any electric components.


Fan standing on top of a block


How did it perform? Well, after running the fan for a few hours, the room cooled quickly by about a couple of degrees C and then it flattened out. So really there wasn’t a lot of change. Was it worth it? Nope. It is certainly a failed experiment, but was interesting to learn a few things. For the next time I think I will need a bigger fan and a bigger cloth (more surface area).

Room temperature as measured by my temperature sensor


That is all from me today. I found some free time today, so decided to publish a quick post :).