Comments by "MacAdvisor" (@MacAdvisor) on "Personal "air conditioners" aren't what they seem" video.

  1. My grandfather had an amazing house built in the 1920s in Red Bluff, California. It sat on the river that runs through town on a high bluff, but also at a bend in the river so it looked down one part of the river. Great spot. When it was first built, the lot extended out to the middle of the river and the builder ran a pipe down to just above the river bed. The pipe would suck up cold water from the bottom, run it up to the house's basement, and run it by an evaporative cooler. In very dry, very hot Red Bluff summers, it was a remarkably good way to cool the basement. I spent many a summer afternoon down there play cards, reading books, and listening to the radio. My Grandmother was a SF Giants fan and would sit transfixed by the radio, clearly imagining every part of the game being broadcast on the radio, yet in the cool of her basement. By the early 1960s, very large, 220v through-the-wall air conditioners were installed and the popularity of the basement began to fade. Eventually, the state bought river and its banks through condemnation the, the pipe fell into disuse, and the magically cool basement's allure faded. In the late 1970s, force central air was added and even the great wall units fell silent (except I would run the one in my room because I liked it really cold).
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