There seems to be a lower size limit for conventional, compressor-based refrigeration. The result is that portable cooling devices are always simple fans, or at best, evaporative cooling units. What prevents conventional refrigeration and air conditioning from working at sizes much smaller than a dorm refrigerator?
In: Technology
Are you talking about walking around with a personal A/C unit strapped to your back and keeping you cool while you move about your day? The main issue is the fact that you’d basically be conditioning the atmosphere around you and net no benefit. A/C units work because they take heat from one location and exhaust it in another (window unit sucks room air into the fins, transfers the heat the the refrigerant, the now cooled air is blown back into the room, and the hot refrigerant is then cooled by the outside air and the cycle repeats). If you don’t have a closed environment to pump the cooled air into and a separate environment to pump the heated air into you’re just spending energy for no net gain.
In order to have a mobile, air conditioning unit that you can take around with you, you’d basically have to wear a suit that traps the cooled air against your body to benefit you.
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