DIY Air Conditioner - Cool Your House with 5 Items

It's summer. It's hot. And your house doesn't have Air Conditioning. The fan just isn't cutting it anymore and you just want to cool down. It's time to make your own air conditioner and CHEAP!

Via

Materials List:

• 5 gallon Bucket
• Styrofoam bucket liner (You can purchase this from a store like Home Depot)
• PVC pipe - 3 pieces of 1.5" pipe 
• Small Fan
• Ice

How To:

1. Cut three circular holes in the 5 gallon bucket the size of the PVC pipe. We recommend using 2 1/4" hole saw.
2. Insert the liner into the bucket.
3. Use a 2 1/8" hole saw to cut holes in the liner where you previously cut holes in the bucket
4. Insert the PVC pipe into the holes
5. Cut a hole in both the lid of the buck and the liner slightly smaller than the fan.
6. Place ice in the bucket, place fan on top, and enjoy the cool air!

For the ice we recommend  freezing two 1 gallon jugs of water. Each jug should last 5-6 hours. Once one jug melts, re-freeze, and replace the "Air Conditioner" with the alternate.

If you would like a visual, check out this video: Homemade Air Conditioner

We have also pinned a few other ideas on how to make your own Air Conditioner, check out IDT Energy on Pinterest!

Throwback Thursday: Electricity Insulators

Have you ever seen these little glass beauties? Perhaps sitting atop a pole? Or perhaps at a garage sale grouped with a number of other random things? Or did you see our post on Facebook?

In 1844 the first telegraph line was installed between Baltimore and Washington. Glass was used to contain the charge made of  copper, carbon, or zinc electrodes. When attaching lines directly to the wooden poles the moisture in the wood and air gave poor results.  Hence the glass insulator pictured above. Similar insulators were used to transmit both telegraph and electricity, however the bigger the insulator, the more voltage it could handle.

Of course, there were many iterations throughout the years, but a type of glass insulator like this was used all the way until the 1970s.  (At some points of history they even used ceramic, a wood/glass combination, and  insulators made from animal parts.)

Energy history is neat-o.  But since these little delights are no longer helping to support our electricity infrastructure, what can we do with them? Well some of them are quite valuable - check out this one, it's worth close to $500!! Or look at the IDT Energy Pinterest to see some awesome ideas that other energy nuts (or just regular crafty people) have come up with.

As a supplier of electricity, IDT Energy doesn't have anything to do with the lines and meters to your house (your utility still takes care of that).  But as energy nerds, we sure to find the history fascinating!