Most students in unairconditioned dorms just deal with the heat, but one sophomore decided to take the temperature into his own hands.
Nick Keeling, sophomore in Fine & Applied Arts, created his own homemade air conditioning unit earlier this school year. Originally, he researched buying a unit; however, most were too expensive.
“You can get a really cheap one, but that will violate a lot of dorm rules, so it’s your choice,” he said. “I decided I’m going to build my own.”
Keeling remembered the heat he experienced in Allen Hall as a freshman, so he built his own air conditioner at the beginning of the fall semester. Though he thinks it’s unlikely he’ll have to bring it out again before the school year ends, he’s happy he created a way to avoid the heat while still abiding by school rules.
Keeling is not alone. Other Allen Hall residents too are frustrated with the lack of units.
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“It’s really bad, especially if you don’t do laundry,” Charlie Swarts, freshman in Engineering and Allen resident, said. “If you don’t do laundry then the sweat piles up on your sheets, and you can’t sleep at night and it’s really disgusting.”
Keeling searched online and discovered he could make an air conditioning unit using only a box fan, 10 feet of copper wiring, a water pump, two buckets of water, zip ties and hose clamps.
“I wanted it to be less than 50 bucks,” he said, because he only needed it for four weeks.
Keeling started by wrapping the copper wiring around the box fan in a spiral form. He then zip-tied the design down to the fan. He fastened two three-foot water pumps to each end of the copper wiring. One water pump entered a bucket of ice water and the other pump fell into a second empty bucket.
“It keeps on pumping water through the spiral, so when you turn the fan on it blasts cold air through it,” Keeling said. “If air blows on a cool surface, cold air will come off the surface.”
Keeling placed the unit next to an open window so he could pump air into the room. He was able to lower the temperature in the room by 10 degrees fahrenheit for four hours at a time.
Keeling made sure that the self-made air conditioning unit closely followed Allen Hall’s safety codes. He has even received praise from Allen Hall Resident Advisors.
“It’s basically the same water works as a fish tank or a little fish bowl, so that’s not against dorm rules,” he said. “Box fans aren’t against dorm rules.”
However, he thought it was safer not to leave the unit in his room alone.
“Don’t leave this thing by itself,” he said. “It’s water and electronics together. Things can happen if you’re not in the room with it.”
Because of lower temperatures, Keeling only needed the unit for five hot days; some might think it’s better just to tough it out.
Vedant Puri, freshman in Engineering and Allen Hall resident, thinks it’s not worth the trouble.
“I’m from India,” Puri said. “I’m fine with the heat, it’s not too bad. Personally, I’d prefer having air conditioning, but it’s not impossible to live with (the heat).”
