You don't need us to tell you it's hot. You can feel it!
But there are ways you can better deal with the heat. We're testing out some DIY air conditioners you can try at home.
Experiment 1: Fan and pan of water
What you need: fan, cooking pan, water
How it works: Fill the pan with cold water. Set it in front of fan. Run the fan.
2 Test Results: This works! Before I started running the fan, the room temperature was clocking in at about 69 degrees. After running the fan over the pan of water for about 2 hours, the temperature dropped down to 65 degrees.
Takeaways: This was ridiculously easy to set up and it's something you can do before you go to bed if you want to kee your space cool overnight.
Experiment 2: Styrofoam cooler
What you need: small fan, Styrofoam cooler, elbow pipes, water bottles, freezer, box cutter or knife, marker
How it works: Take the marker and trace around an outline for the fan and pipes on top of the Styrofoam cooler. Cut out spaces for the vents and fan. Fill cooler with bottles of cold or frozen water. Put vents in their holes so air can get out. Place fan face down into fan hole. Plug in and let the air flow!
2 Test Results: This works, too! Before turning the fan on, the room temperature was 72 degrees. After the fan blew into the box for about 2 hours, the temperature dropped to about 70 degrees.
Takeaways: The tools to put this together are likely things you already have at home (marker, box cutter) or items you can get for about a few bucks at a hardware store (Styrofoam cooler = $3, elbow pipes = <$2 each).="" this="" is="" easy="" to="" move="" around="" and="" plug="" in="" once="" it's="" set="" up.="" putting="" it="" together="" took="" about="" 10="" minutes.="">
Experiment 3: Fan and water bottles
What you need: Fan, water bottles, freezer, string
How it works: Take frozen water bottles and tie them to the back of the fan. Let the air blow.
2 Test Results: This also works! At the start, the room temperature was about 71 degrees. After letting the fan blow, it dropped to about 69 degrees.
Takeaways: This is simple to put together, but also the messiest. The frozen water bottles started to drip water after some time. You can avoid this by putting a towel underneath the fan or regularly swapping out the bottles, but that could become more of a hassle.