Tuesday, July 17, 2001 | 8:59 a.m.
It's 115 degrees outside.
Your car's air conditioner breaks down.
All of the bugs have not yet been worked out of the air-conditioning system in your new office building.
Your home air conditioner is a victim of a rolling blackout that the power company said would never happen in Southern Nevada.
And even if the air conditioner at home worked, you're afraid to turn it on because of the monstrous electric bill lurking at the end of the month.
How do you find relief?
We live in the age of ingenuity, and some ingenious people have come up with a lot of interesting gadgets to keep us cool when we are without air conditioning, and with electricity-friendly cooling systems that won't make us hot under the collar when we get our monthly power bill.
Hot cooling devices on the market place this summer include hand-held misting systems, small fans worn around the waist, coolers worn around the neck and portable air conditioners that may be rolled from room to room.
Cooling down the electric bills at home, and in many offices, are age-old swamp coolers and new-age solar-powered attic fans, the demand for which is going through the roof, according to a spokesman for the company that makes them.
Misty Mate Inc., based in Gilbert, Ariz., blazed the trail in personal cooling devices when, in 1989, it began mass producing plastic bottles that held 10-24 ounces of water. A pump creates pressure inside the bottle and, when turned on, sprays a fine mist into the air.
The simple system is still in use.
"Steve Utter developed it in 1987 for employees of his landscaping company in Phoenix," Jeff Solomon, one of the company's owners, said . "I bought my first one in '93 and I liked it so much I bought 50 percent of the company."
The mister, which sells for about $18, is popular with golfers, tennis players, sports spectators and construction workers, among others.
"The way it works," Solomon said, "is you fill it with water, pump it and an ultra-fine mist sprays out and immediately evaporates, creating a cooling effect. It's the same feeling you get when you get out of a pool -- it's called a wicking sensation.
"The process reduces the air temperature around you through evaporation."
Solomon said he sprays the inside of his car for 20 seconds before getting into it in order to cool it down.
Last year the company introduced its Arctic Blast, a small, battery-powered cooling system worn around the waist. The system uses a fan to blow a mist over the upper torso as you walk, run or bike.
"This is the closest thing to a personal air conditioner ever invented," Solomon said.
The fan has variable speeds and can blow air at 20 mph, the equivalent of a gentle breeze.
Misty Mate also produces a Twist and Mist, a coiled plastic tube, one end of which is fastened to a hose. The Twist and Mist creates mists wherever the hose will go -- the same kind of spray found at outdoor restaurants and other commercial establishments.
"A lot of people use them on dog runs or on patios," Solomon said. "The mist will reduce the temperature by about 30 degrees."
The misters are sold at a variety of stores, including Walgreen, Wal-Mart, Oshman and Big 5 sporting-good stores.
That's sharp
Sharper Image is always a cool place to window shop. As the Joker (played by Jack Nicholson) said in the 1989 movie "Batman": "Where do they get those wonderful toys?"
Las Vegas has two stores, one at Aladdin's Desert Passage and the other at Fashion Show mall on Las Vegas Boulevard South.
If you want to stay cool and look chic, the company makes several products, one of them called a "7-In-1 Survival Kit."
The kit, which sells for $69.95, is about the size of a case of beer and includes a flashing spotlight, a siren, a cassette player, a radio, an alarm, a light and a large fan to keep you cool while you wait to be rescued.
Bill Gilmore, assistant manager of the Sharper Image at Fashion Show mall, said one of the most popular products at the store during the summer are the Personal Cooling Systems.
The system ($49.95) looks like an oversized flea collar. It is worn around the neck and emits a fine spray.
"They are similar to a swamp cooler," Gilmore said. "It runs on double-A batteries. You put an ounce of water into the port, a small fan cools the spray and your body heat evaporates it.
"The Personal Cooling Systems are very popular on the East Coast, were I just came from. It isn't just for people during hot weather. A lot of people stay hot all the time. No matter what season, they put the air conditioner on. These people like the product."
Sharper Image also has developed a Personal Warm Plus Cool System. It can heat or cool the back of the neck for $49.95.
A Spire Fan can cool down a room that doesn't have an air conditioning system, Gilmore said.
"A regular fan has five blades," he said. "This one has 100 blades. We have two varieties, one with a two-hour time and the other with a 7 1/2-hour timer.
"It has a function so that you have the sensation of a breeze blowing through a window, alternating soft and hard blows." The fan operates on 50 watts of electricity.
For the car, Sharper Image has an Air Flow Massage Cushion ($69.95). Operating off the cigarette lighter, a fan in the cushion (which has 176 holes) circulates cool air through the back and the seat of the cushion.
If the air conditioner in your car doesn't work and you don't want to spend $500 to fix it, you may want to strap a cooler around your neck, sit on an air cushion and spray yourself with a Misty Mate as you drive down the highway.
Swamp things
If your home air-conditioning system breaks down from overwork, or is too expensive to run, swamp coolers (technically called "evaporative coolers") may be your best bet.
The swamp cooler operates on the principle that when water evaporates, it cools the air around it.
"It can change the temperature between 20 and 30 degrees," said Larry Maciel, a spokesman for HTA Plumbing and Mechanical in Las Vegas. "If you can keep the air circulating continuously and consistently, you will have an efficient, inexpensive cooling system."
Maciel said a swamp-cooler system can be installed for about $2,500. A complete heating and air-conditioning system could cost $6,000-$10,000 or more.
"Even if the entire (swamp) unit crashed after four or five years, at most a whole new unit would cost about $600," Maciel said.
Maciel said his company, whose primary business is commercial plumbing, has been swamped with calls from people wanting evaporative coolers since recent increases in electricity rates.
"We probably put in 20 to 25 swamp coolers last year. This year we have either installed or serviced more than 100," Maciel said.
The biggest drawback to swamp coolers, Maciel said, is they are unsightly. People don't like to have them visible.
But as the cost of electricity goes up, the better looking the swamp coolers become.
"Most of them run off a 110-volt outlet, and you can't get any cheaper than that," Maciel said. "And there is very little maintenance involved."
He said swamp coolers can easily save 50 percent on an electric bill.
Solar coolers
The soaring cost of electricity is generating a lot of interest in alternative cooling systems.
Malinda Marshall, a spokeswoman for Solatube International of Vista, Calif., said demand for a solar-powered attic fan has been incredible.
"The product was first introduced to merchants in March and to the general public in April," Marshall said. "They have seen increased monthly sales of more than 500 percent in three months."
Solatube produces a line of solar-energy related products. Solar Star, the solar-powered rooftop ventilator, is the most recent item the company has placed on the market.
The ventilator retails for $399 and costs virtually nothing to run. It operates completely on solar energy. Its function is to cool down the attic, where tremendous heat may build up and thus drive up electric bills.
"Air flowing throughout the house generally accumulates in the attic," Marshall noted. "While many homes have small vents installed in the roof or attic, most are ineffective in generating enough air movement to get rid of the hot air."
A cool education
Gary Bailey, an architect with Duke Solar and Innovative Designs of Las Vegas, says his company in June entered into an agreement with the Clark County School District to create a solar-thermal power system for one of the district's schools as a test.
The system, which is being designed, will use solar and thermal power to run the school building's air conditioners. The old air conditioners will be replaced with units compatible with the new energy sources.
The new technology, Bailey said, uses heat to produce cold. During the daylight hours, solar energy will be used. During the night, natural gas will be used.
Sawyer Middle School, in southeast Las Vegas, has been selected for the experiment. If the test is successful, other schools will be converted to the new system.
Pat Herron, assistant superintendent for facilities for the school district, said the pilot project at Sawyer should save the district $145,000 on its electric bill.
He said spread throughout the district, the savings would be substantial, but didn't immediately have the figures available.
"In the 1995-96 school year, we had 196 schools and our electric bill was $11.5 million," Herron said. "In the school year 2001-02, we have 269 schools and our bill will be $35.9 million, so that's why we are focusing on electricity right now. Of our total utility bill, 75 percent is from electrical demand."
About 25 percent of that consumption, he said, is during daylight hours. By going off the electrical grid and using solar energy during peak demand hours, Herron said the school will save significant sums of money.
Bailey said the technology being applied to schools will be available for homes, eventually.
"We are working hard to make it available for home owners," he said. "The key, for me, is to make people aware that the technology is available."
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