Good Idea For Jungle Citizens: An Ice Fan

I realized last week that almost half the money we spend on electricity here in the jungle goes to pay for the air conditioner, of which we run only one unit, and only at night in our bedroom.

Now here's a right spiffy idea that you can buy here in The Philippines: A fan that blows air over ice. (Steve is going to be buying one and I'll let you know how it works.)

My personal thought: Ice in The Philippines is sold in long tube-like plastic bags... about 3 inches in diameter, and 16 inches long. Save yourself the 40 dollars for the specialized unit, and just fashion a way to hang a couple of those baggies in front of your regular room fan.

I did the math, and for a 75-watt fan, at 15 pisos per kilowatt hour, plus a cost of 2 pisos per tube of ice, for 8 hours per day, you are looking at about 400 pisos for a month's operation... versus about 2700 pisos for the same amount of air conditioning.