YouTuber Cooled His Room with a Toilet and an Arduino

Some people tolerate summer, others look forward to it, and still others suffer through it from start to finish. YouTuber Ty Palowski clearly belongs to the third group. Faced with a heat wave in his apartment and a landlord who refuses to replace the air conditioning unit, he came up with an unconventional solution: an improvised liquid cooling system that draws cold water from the line feeding his toilet, with an Arduino coordinating the fans.

Any mention of liquid cooling automatically makes us think of computers here, but the truth is we can apply it to many other things.

A Relentless Summer

Ty Palowski describes a familiar situation: His apartment is relentless in summer, and every room becomes a sauna. The air conditioning unit is too small, and as if that weren't enough, it uses R22, a refrigerant that will be banned in the United States starting next year for production and import. The unit runs at 100 percent all day (because it never reaches the set temperature), drives up electricity costs, and his request to replace it was met with silence.

The Improvised Solution

His solution, definitely temporary and not recommended, was to connect a line to the inlet of his toilet tank, run it to a radiator with two fans, and back to the toilet. When the liquid reaches room temperature, all he has to do is press the toilet button to renew the liquid. The fan control depends on an Arduino, a relay, and a bit of code.

Does It Work?

And the answer is yes, it works. Palowski placed his improvised cooling system under the desk, and the air circulating through the radiator drops to a very pleasant 22 degrees. Now, his prototype is solid, but the configuration he chose is not the best. With this design, the heat only has the liquid in the hose as an 'escape'. Some comments suggest using the toilet tank directly as a reservoir, incorporating a small pump into the circuit. The available mass is greater, and the toilet doesn't care if the water is hot or cold. Do you think it's a good idea? Leave a comment!