If you work in an office, chances are you or the person sitting next to you has grumbled about it being too hot or cold. No one likes rugging up on a summer’s day to contend with the air-conditioning. Or having to shed one too many layers in winter to compensate for stifling heat indoors.
Who doesn’t love having an ultra-thin smartphone you can slip into your pocket? But during hot summer days with little room to breathe, that collection of plastic, metal, and silicon can get a pretty heated—especially when charging. That’s why Chevrolet is introducing a smartphone air conditioner as a thing we need.
Things are about to heat up... in our comments section. This week we’re looking for the best window A/C unit so you’ll have plenty of time to prepare, compare, and install. Which air conditioner deserves to take up your window space? Tell us in the comments.
Our reliance on air conditioning, however magical an innovation, has become a serious environmental burden. Which is why researchers in Barcelona designed a material they say can naturally cool rooms by about 5 degrees Celsius, using a moisture-absorbing polymer that "sweats" much like our own body.
With another sweltering summer over you might have already forgotten the glory of your AC unit, the 100-year-old modern convenience which truly changed the way we live. But the U.S. might have felt the cool breeze of relief a half-century sooner, if an entire industry built on keeping things frozen hadn't stopped…
If you're looking for an act of futility, try keeping a couple of young kids comfortable in the back of a car during a long road trip. There's an infinite number of sources of discomfort they'll eventually find, but with this long plush tube that redirects an air conditioning vent directly to the back seat, being hot…
If you've visited Helsinki, you've probably spent time in its leafy Esplanade Park at the center of the city. Now Helsinki has turned the ground below the park into a subterranean lake which can keep buildings and other civic operations cool as part of a growing network that replaces traditional air conditioning…
When air conditioning first appeared—a technology initially developed for use in textile factories—it was feared by many as unhealthy. So how did it make it into virtually every home in the country?
There's not an ice-cold beverage in the world that can refresh and cool you as effectively as an air-conditioned room can, but the IcyBreeze cooler offers up both options, just in case. Fill it with ice and it keeps drinks cold all day long, but add a little water and extend the hose on top and suddenly it becomes a…
No one can really say why this guy is almost naked squatting on an air-conditioning unit eight floors above the ground. Some say he was by a cuckold. The building's security guards say he is a technician repairing the air conditioner. I say it's both things at once.
This is Aros, a Wi-Fi connected air conditioner aimed at energy-conscious consumers that Quirky and GE are launching today. It's by far the biggest and most complicated product that Quirky has ever built, and it aims to help solve truly endemic problem: The window a/c unit, which has remained pretty much unchanged…
Air conditioners aren't exactly known for being particularly environmentally friendly, but during a scorching summer we're all happy to turn a blind eye. Not Thibault Faverie, though. Perhaps racked by guilt, he's created the Cold Pot, a simple terracotta device that can cool a room using just evaporating water.
As the summer creeps closer and closer and you start preparing for the warmer weather, would you seriously consider wearing a hat with a tiny built-in air conditioner if it actually kept you comfortable? The Cool Smile might look similar to the fan-equipped cap you wore as a kid, but instead of spinning blades it uses…
It's hot as hell outside, these days, and it's pretty much unfuckingbearable to endure. Which may be why it took me an embarrassingly long amount of time—a few minutes, in this case, is a few minutes too many—to come back down to Earth and realize that pants with their own built-in A/C are not as brilliant as my…
Complaining about the heat is about as tiresome as sitting in an un-airconditioned room and sweating into the puddle of tears you're sobbing because your body is shutting down from heat stroke. So let's not do that. Instead, let's ask: What is the technological masterstroke of air conditioning worth to you?
It is hot hot hot right now. So hot, in fact, while I was hanging out on the roof this afternoon, my iPad overheated and flashed the "Temperature!" warning screen.
It will certainly help keep you cool at work, but if you were hoping to fool your co-workers into thinking you've got the latest and greatest Apple hardware, think again. Not even a toddler would mistake this iPhone 'shaped' compact air conditioner for the real deal.
As of Friday, it's officially fall. The box in your window that brought much-needed coolness during the summer is now preventing you from breathing that lovely autumn air (and will soon freeze your face off). Let's take it out.
It's hot. Parts of your body are sticking to other parts of your body, and it's horrible. Lucky for you, you've got air conditioning. Unlucky for you, A/C is a real punisher on the power bill.
One imaginative user over at Instructables, SHIFT!, got the idea to build a personal AC unit in a travel coffee mug. It's similar in idea to another DIY AC unit made from a cooler, except much, much smaller.
