Summers would be much cooler without the heat. In Florida, summer means spending most of the day inside to avoid the high temperatures and sweat-inducing humidity. Heck, if it weren’t for air conditioning, Florida would probably still be a bland, unspoiled, practically uninhabitable piece of land sticking out of the United States.
So it makes sense that a Floridian couple recently launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for what could be the next evolution in air conditioning – the Airwirl.
Taking the form of a beefed-up 7-Eleven Big Gulp, the Airwirl is essentially a personal cooling (or heating) device that’s small enough to fit in a cup holder and big enough to pack a sliver of cool (or hot) air into your face, providing a necessary (albeit temporary) relief when temperatures reach certain extremes.
“Unlike battery-powered fans, misters or steaming towels, Airwirl actually changes the temperature of the surrounding air into refreshing, ice-cold air when it’s hot or cozy, warm air when it’s cold,” Steve Herweck, co-creator of Airwirl, told Digital Trends.
The device has a cup and a lid, and it works using thermal convection. Fill the cup with ice or active heaters depending on your needs. Inside the hood is a motorized turbine fan system and an elongated column of air that draws air from the chamber and sends it through a nozzle in the hood. The connecting hose allows for more flexible control. An insulated foam insert helps keep the contents of the cup at a stable temperature.
“Using a turbine fan built into a motorized lid, ambient air is drawn into a vacuum-insulated, double-walled container,” said co-creator Michael McCarthy. “When ambient air with ice cubes inside is passed through this system, the thermal energy causes the air temperature to change as it leaves the unit.”
The Airwirl is available via a $129 pledge via a Kickstarter campaign, and 280 backers have pledged nearly $42,000 at the time this article was published. Airwirl’s creators said they’ve heard interest from Disney World, postal workers and bus drivers whose vehicles don’t have functioning air conditioning.
As with any Kickstarter campaign, we suggest you read our how-to article on how to avoid getting burned by scams and failures before throwing your money away.
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Source: newstars.edu.vn