Thibault Faverie, a French product and industrial designer currently based in Switzerland, designed a home cooling product that looks far more stylish than a window-mounted air conditioner.
The Cold Pot, as he describes it, is a terracotta pot which uses evaporation to cool the air around it. The terracotta’s porous surface absorbs water from the inside of the device, then sends it to the outer surface, where the water evaporates upon contact with the air. This change in state results in cooling.
The designer states the device is low maintenance and requires just about two liters of water to function. He includes images of the product’s design to give a better understanding of how the Cold Pot works.
Above image: The Cold Pot by Thibault Faverie uses water’s change in state from a liquid to a gas to cool your home. Photograph courtesy of the designer.
Assembly shots of the Cold Pot.
Design drawings illustrating how the Cold Pot works. All images courtesy of Thibault Faverie.
It would take too many cold pots to cool a room. If and when cooling was ever achieved this device would become less and less effective. Swamp coolers and cold pots need dry air to work properly, otherwise you would see them being used not only in arid climates but in humid climates as well. Also the (required) porosity of the terra cotta would greatly diminish as bacteria and mold increased snide the pot. This machine would have to be placed outside, would require frequent cleaning and would need to be scaled up dramatically to be effective. It is not an improvement on EVAPORATIVE COOLING SYSTEMS (swamp coolers) currently being marketed. It is an ancient technology with an electric fan added. Gut the insides, glaze the interior and it might make a good chamber pot but only if your aim is dead on target.
I would rename it the Annie Oakley piss pot and put a couple of lugs on it to aid in carrying it to the window for disposal of the contents. Come on guys, is anybody really evaluating these articles for any semblance of common sense? I do agree with Bill though. It’s quite a catchy name. I would suggest he buys a couple of hundred and throws his air-conditioner away.
As a new New Mexico resident, I would like to try this. Are they available in the USA?
It’s a swamp cooler! They’re old tech in arid climates such as AZ and NM.
With this in mind, I’m interested in names. Would one be more willing to use a “cold pot” over a “swamp cooler?”
– Bill