air conditioner

Some products are never graced with memorable ads.

Perhaps the products speak for themselves. Or perhaps their manufacturers are dowdy conservative folk, who just want to do something basic.

Then along come the macabre minds at air-conditioner manufacturer BGH. They got together with their ad agency in Argentina to create something that may leave you with, well, chills.

For here is a man who hates summer.

He stays at home. He is regarded as something of a psychopath. Perhaps he merely grew up in New York, where summer offers a full exposition of the perfect hell, leaving many with strange … Read more

There's a lot of snake oil and questionable products lining the shelves of the average auto parts store. From octane booster to VTEC fluid (ha!), it's hard to separate the genuinely useful products from the chaff. So when A/C Pro sent me a few canisters of its do-it-yourself air conditioning recharge system, I was a bit skeptical.

The idea is that most aging car air conditioning systems that don't blow as cold as they should suffer only from low levels of refrigerant. The way A/C Pro works is that you plug a can into your … Read more

BOSTON--Startup 7AC Technologies hopes saltwater and high-tech plastic will lead to a more efficient air conditioner.

The Woburn, Mass.-based company is in the process of raising a $1.3 million round, expected to close in two months, to build a commercial prototype of its air conditioner design, said CEO Peter Vandermeulen earlier this week at the Conference on Clean Energy here.

By using a liquid dessicant to remove humidity from air, 7AC Technologies claims it can cut cooling costs by 50 percent to 75 percent and heating costs by about 50 percent. The company has a prototype in its … Read more

Abandoning the mechanics common in today's air conditioners could slash energy use and summertime electricity bills, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Researchers at NREL recently detailed an air conditioning system that does away with the power-hungry condenser and compressor in traditional air conditioners. The goal is to further develop the technology and license it to commercial companies, something that NREL has already done in solar, wind, and other fields.

Called the DEVap (Desiccant-Enhanced eVaporative) air conditioner, the system uses a combination of techniques to deal with both dry heat and humidity.

The system uses an evaporative cooler, … Read more

Start-up Chromasun plans to install a solar-driven air conditioner--a technology with the potential to cut peak-time electricity use--at a commercial building in Abu Dhabi this year.

The company is showcasing the Chromasun solar collector, which concentrates sunlight 25 times, at the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi this week, CEO Peter Le Lievre said Thursday.

Chromasun's collectors use a Fresnel lens made from aluminum to concentrate light and then heat a liquid used in an absorption chiller, an air conditioning system used in some commercial buildings. It's the same basic concentrating-solar technology used by solar thermal company Ausra, … Read more

After debuting the final chapter in our 404 Superhero series (thanks Hayato!), we break into chats about the next-gen air-con, an Xbox autographed by Palin, cell phone crackdowns, and a Nintendo inflatable cushion that raises questions of hygiene...yikes!

Thanks again to Hayato Shimizu for making the image you see above, which features all three of The 404 hosts as their respective superheroes in the Four-Oh-Force! You can always depend on us to save you from a bad day! Well...except for Sundays, you're on your own there.

Lots of stories to get into today, like this Nissan car with a built-in revolutionary air-conditioner that blocks "unpleasant smells" from entering your car. Having driven with Jeff and Wilson before, I can say without hyperbole that I'm more worried about the smells coming from inside the car, but I'm sure that invention is in development as well.

We also talk about San Francisco cracking down on cell phones in the car and a Sarah Palin autographed Xbox 360 fetching 1.1 MILLION DOLLARS on eBay, but the weirdest story of the day comes from Nintendo, who is developing an inflatable cushion for the Wii used to simulate riding on the back of an animal or being in the driver's seat of a vehicle. There are a million and one jokes to be made here, and we get to about 4,297 of them in the second half of the show, so be sure to check that out. Nintendo has officially lost its marbles.

A big apology goes out to everyone who couldn't leave a voice mail last night--we've since cleared it all out, so please call us back at 1-866-404-CNET and leave another message!

Fledgling company Chromasun plans to put the sun's heat to work cooling commercial buildings.

Founder Peter Le Lievre established the company to apply concentrating solar power techniques used in utility-scale power plants on a small scale, he said on Wednesday.

The potential of applying this technology in dry, sunny areas, such as the southwest U.S. or southern Europe, to cut peak electricity usage is vast, says Le Lievre. If used widely, solar-powered cooling could cut peak electricity usage by about 15 percent, he said.

Le Lievre is scheduled to discuss the solar cooling device, now still in development, … Read more

Here in the tropics of Singapore where it's perpetually summer, air conditioners are big business all year long. We're happy campers as long as they just do their job, but Samsung is on a crusade to improve our health as well with two new bacteria-killing models.

Using Samsung's proprietary Micro Plasma Ion technology, the Vivace Shadow Mirror pictured here and Neo-Forte pack enough firepower to zap all manner of germs. According to company representatives, MPI is capable of effectively eliminating 78 percent of fungus and 58 percent of bacteria in a 30-minute time frame, within an enclosed … Read more

There are many reasons to do your laundry: grass stains, spilled wine, and the sloppiest of Joes. But if you find yourself doing loads mostly because you've been sitting around the house sweating up a stank, then here is the ultimate godsend for you.

The Toshiba TW-3000VE washing machine also packs in an air-conditioning unit.

According to the Gizmodiva write-up (translated from Japanese), the machine not only washes your socks, but also cools the air in your laundry room and keeps it clear of mold.

The machines won't separate your lights and darks automatically, but it will be … Read more