While some aspects are accurate, he misses completely on others. This gizmo is simply a teeny tiny swamp cooler, nothing more. And yes, evaporating moisture off of dampened media into dry air does cause a marginal amount of cooling, it is in no way comparable to how a regular refrigerant based air conditioner works (in fact, it is completely the opposite of!). A swamp cooler ADDS humidity to the air. A refrigerant-based system REMOVES humidity from the air. But, a refrigerant-based system goes beyond just that. It can even cool already dry air, with simple thermal mechanics of heat being drawn to cold. A swamp cooler can't do this, and is extremely limited to the moisture capacity of the air around it. Maybe (a very small maybe) one could boost performance by super-chilling water in the reservoir in a brine solution, but may cause negative issues, such as loading up the evaporator media with salt, or simply not evaporating at an efficient rate at such low temperatures.
I also highly question 250 watts from a USB port, but when making pie in the sky claims...
Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend
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