For people on the outskirts of Bangladeshi cities, withstanding summer means getting fried right down to the very core of your system. The season shows no mercy, and the rising mercury brings with it a whole host of problems, from general discomfort to serious health issues.
For these people, inventor Ashis Paul has been a breath of fresh air, in more ways than one. He came up with a brilliant and easy way to draw cool air into a house using plastic bottles, and his company has been installing them in developing areas across the country.
This DIY ‘AC’ is built by cutting plastic bottles in half, mounting them on a board and then placing the board over a window with the bottleneck facing towards the house.
When air enters the wider part of the bottle and comes out through the bottleneck, the change in pressure cools the air. For people living in tin huts that get extremely hot, this is a total game changer.
In fact, this contraption, which they’ve named the Eco-Cooler, can change the temperature by 5°C almost instantaneously! When speaking with The Observer, Jaiyyanul Huq, creative director with the Grey Group, the advertising company that spearheaded this social project said, “We are a flood-prone nation, so in rural Bangladesh, most people build their homes out of tin, instead of mud. About 70% of Bangladesh’s population lives in these homes.
But the problem with these tin huts is that they get unbearably hot in the summer, especially in northern and central Bangladesh. I’ve been in these huts. It’s like being in a sauna in the Sahara. Ashis has an inventor mentality and he’s always been fascinated by science. So, he started experimenting. He told us about his idea of making an air-conditioner out of plastic bottles. The simplicity of the Eco-Cooler is incredible.”
At the moment, almost 25,000 homes in Bangladesh are sittin’ easy and breezy with their Eco-Coolers. Thanks Ashis! You the real MVP!