Living in a tropical country, we, Singaporeans often complain about the rising temperature courtesy global warming and hackneyed burning of forests by our neighbours. The heat is unbearable and life without air-conditioned interiors is unimaginable. Every house has two or three aircons installed to escape the hot weather.
(While writing this article, I am seated far from the window to avoid direct sunlight else it will burn my computer off)
However, we are not the worst affected comparing how other places on the earth fare. Let’s go to Rajbari in Bangladesh and inspect the conditions there. During the months of March –April, the average temperature soars above 45 degrees C. There are about 28,000 people living in tin huts. Being a flood prone region, tin is used to construct huts in rural Bangladesh instead of mud. Unlike the mud, tin heats up when sun rays fall directly on it and it wouldn’t take much of your imagination to realize how horrendous it is to live in such shelters especially during scorching summers.
In a period where we all banter about inventions and disruptions but often limited to sharing or pooling cars, bikes, lorries, rooms, services and what not, meet a genuine innovator, Mr Ashis Paul from Bangladesh who was inspired by the basic physics knowledge his daughter shared with him: gas cools when it expands.
He began his journey to build an eco-cooler since. Finally, he nailed a brilliant idea that is very very very simple. (A true hallmark of any innovation is the simplicity behind the concept).
Okay, you can’t wait to see how the eco-cooler works right? Here’s how it is made:
- Make holes on a cardboard in a grid pattern that will fit a bottleneck.
- Cut away the bottom half of a plastic bottle and mount the other part on the cardboard inserting the bottleneck into the hole. Fill all holes similarly.
- Place the cardboard over the window with the bottlenecks facing the inside of the house.
How does it become an air conditioner, you might ask. Well, when the air enters the wider part of the bottle and goes out through the bottleneck, it becomes cooler. Can’t believe? You can test it for yourself. Blow air on your hand with your mouth wide open. The air is hot. Now, try the same with your lips pursed. Hasn’t the air become cooler? That’s all there is to the Eco-cooler!
Let’s admit it’s not going to bring the temperature down as much as a normal air conditioner does but real life experience says Eco-cooler has reduced 30 degrees C to 25 degrees C, now that difference in 5 degrees C is some substantial reduction.
You can watch the video demonstration here if you are keen to build one on your own.
Eco-cooler is genuinely an eco-friendly product. It recycles plastic bottles that are available aplenty in rural Bangladesh. Moreover, it doesn’t use electricity.
Mr. Paul’s company, The Grey Group, an advertising firm has now teamed up with Grameen Intel Social Business Ltd to spread the idea and teach people how to make Eco-cooler across rural Bangladesh.
We have developed a strained relationship with Mother Nature over the years. It has now become pertinent to innovate and invent to negate the consequences of our past actions against nature and let the world a better place to live for generations to come. Eco-cooler is one but a great example of it.
References: www.dailymail.co.uk, www.observers.france24.com