RE: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] Great explanation of AC systems for dummies

["Ross, Matthew" <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

> I've thought of using water tubes to cool clothing before but I guess 
> you could cross that with a lil a/c unit. Hrm, I don't think 
> you'd want 
> to have the actual coolant running around the shirt but you could 
> transfer the coolness from the coolant tubes in the belt into 
> the water 
> tubes of the shirt. 

Exactly. Not sure if I'd use water though, might make the shirt a bit heavy. There is probably a more suitable and lightweight thermal conductor out there.

> Might be better than trying to use lil 
> fans to blow 
> cool air through the shirt.

The problem I see is that the fans have to have surface area. At best you might get a series of 3/4" tube fans around the belt, but then you'd be sucking the hot air away from the heat sink up into the shirt, or sucking the air from the inside, which means the fans dig into the wearer.

> Hrm the heatsink around the belt would only release the heat to the 
> outside so it shouldn't go directly back in if the clothing was 
> insolated enough.

Heat rises and hot air expands. Even if you're skinny, it expands right back onto you above the belt. Maybe a radiator on a hood. Put the AC unit in the collar, put its power source and whatever else in sort of a 'fanny pack'. The compressor in the back of a refrigerator is about the size of a car battery and has been so for years. We should be able to reduce this signifigantly with stronger materials, but it won't fit into a belt buckle, he's right about that.

> You might have to be careful with your arms 
> I guess. I 
> hadn't thought about people who lapped over their belt. I'm not sure 
> it'd be a problem. You don't need to make the system move as 
> much heat 
> as say a household a/c unit so the surface could be kept fairly cool. 
> Sweating cools your body but you don't burn yourself if you touch the 
> outside of a sweating person.

Sweating also is distributed, it doesn't concentrate its heat loss in just that one area.

_______________________________________________
discussion mailing list
EMAIL:PROTECTED
http://mlug.missouri.edu/mailman/listinfo/discussion