Among the costs of war: $20 Billion in Air Conditioning
npr.org
npr.org
Part of it is due to accounting -- operational expenses like fuel are treated as operations expenses, but building buildings is a capital improvement and has a different budgeting process.
However, a lot of tents were locally contracted pavilion-type tents, which then got air conditioned as well.
Et cetra.
I am an optimist but if our nation sees significant decline ahead, I think it's in no small part due to the drag of our BS political cluster^^^^ in Washington DC.
As a great American once said, "Our problems are man-made, therefore they may be solved by man." The trouble to me is that we've got nobody minding the store. People support policies -- on both sides of the aisle -- that are obviously and objectively against their self interest because they buy into political advertising and dogma the same way they buy into I'm a Mac, I'm a PC.
I'm an optimist, but i see precious few problems being solved by those we the people hire to do our statecraft.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-missing-...
Do they just require far more power than can be got from current solar tech?
edit: It seems that it's possible: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/01/solar_powered_t.php http://wingnutgear.com/product_details.cfm?product_id=155...
You would probably need about 4 of these: http://www.ecodirect.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=Cana...
Then maybe you could start talking about powering something like a 5,000 BTU air conditioner.
The ingenious building style in hot countries revolves around few windows, light colors and thick walls. With that, there is not much need for air conditioning.
But then again, the US has a track record of building inefficient houses, so this should not surprise anyone.
Rammed Earth construction (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rammed_earth) is an ancient practice made easy with modern equipment. The tents the American forces use are better suited to a European climate, not the intense heat of the desert. They're also going to resist mortars a lot better than some flimsy canvas tent.
The military could invest in compact, easily constructed tents or it could rely on the possibility that mud is available in the area & that they have the time, the personnel & the heavy equipment free to build them. Huts that you can't deconstruct and take with you.
Also we're not just talking about military purposes. You could put up an industrial grade tent in an hour for disaster relief. How long would a mud hut take to build in a disaster area? How about at a festival or fairgrounds?
It looks like in some areas the army is re-purposing tents for semi-permanent housing. Tents are already on hand. Their specs are known. I am not aware of an army approved mud hut. Perhaps the army should look into it, but there are many varying factors that can go wrong in constructing a mud hut vs a standard issue tent.
Also I don't think a quickly build mud hut is going to fair a whole lot better than a tent to a mortar round. Additionally the tents are being sprayed with insulating foam on the outside which makes them almost airtight. Though I'd question if there is the ability to re-purpose the tent after it's been sprayed.
Last time I've checked solar panels were just a way to transport energy (kind of like a battery). I.e. you have to invest $X into panel manufacturing to receive $Y worth of electricity in some remote location with no power. Several years ago $X was equal $Y.
Granted, technology is improving and panels cost less and less, now $X << $Y. But even today solar based solutions are not economical without goverment incentives.
EDIT: typo
...made out of a special mortar called sārooj, composed of sand, clay, egg whites, lime, goat hair, and ash in specific proportions, and which was resistant to heat transfer. This mixture was thought to be completely water impenetrable.
Organic styrofoam!
Probably cheaper to just dig in underground.
The US Military has a habit of staying where it goes. Many people have opinions on that, I do not, but I am a realist so I think its fair to assume that if you've got a large, established base in a warzone (like the Green Zone in Baghdad), treat it like you'll be using it for 100 years. Because if history is any indication, you will be.
Why would they pay anything? You're leaving so it will be free then and you won't leave sooner if they pay.
If that's for 2 wars in 2 countries, what's government's total air conditioning bill? Our soldiers deserve it, but there's gotta be a better way.
It is based on the use of ammonia gas in a sealed environment.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/6599651/How-to-Build-a-Solar-Icema...
I am a bit of an HVAC engineering enthusiast/hobbyist.
Perhaps something like that could be used as a mini-chiller with a heat exchanger.
You can use a solar panel/battery for the fans, circulating pump, and condensate removal pumps. These devices would require minimal current.
Perhaps servo controlled tarps to cycle the ammonia refrigeration cycle and an Arduino to glue all the logical pieces together?
Also, you can make it zoned, with solenoid valves and seperate thermostats, to keep each room at a specific temperature.
Not useful for the US military, but maybe remote homes in hot areas.
That should reduce the amount of energy required to cool the tents.
Generally they'd run 200-500KW diesel generators in a unit generator farm, then run power cabling (3 phase) out to PDUs in clusters of tents, with single-phase runs to standard military ECUs (air conditioners) attached to each tent. They also need electricity INSIDE the tents, for computers, lighting, etc.
Generators are noisy, need to be serviced and fueled, and the small ones (~10KW) that you'd want to run on an HVAC are less efficient (especially for diesel), loud, etc. You also don't want fuel tankage near tents which might be hit by incoming mortars...especially mogas (gasoline) tankage...JP8/Jet-A/diesel is a fair bit less bad.
Over time, they moved to a "prime power" system for the larger bases, with a big farm of 2MW gensets run by a contractor, and an on-base power distribution system, sort of like towns in Alaska, islands, etc.
Using an engine to directly run HVAC is done on reefers (insulated/refrigerated shipping containers), but even those are moving more and more to electrical hookups (so when they're in a big storage area, they can all be connected to cheaper power).
Some of this power was for things like a 20 x 20 grid of 16-man tents, each with HVAC.
I still think the primary consumer of liquid fuels was aviation -- fighters taking off on afterburner, big cargo aircraft transporting tens of tons per load, helicopters, etc.
For the 150,000 soldiers in Iran and Afghanistan, the $20B comes to $130,000 per capita, or over 100x more
Just a fun comparison, not saying one way or the other here.
Seems a bit high.
I just had an intuitive problem with the original post's assertion that office-space cooling in permanent structures could be anywhere near as expensive to run as cooling non-permanent structures in a 120 degree desert warzone, serviced by Halliburton contractors.
Think about how hot that is for a moment. Now imagine having to do heavy physical activity in it, moving large equipment, carrying 80 pounds of gear, hiking everywhere, etc... Your odds of developing heat stroke are extremely high.
Having a cool place to relax and recover in is absolutely necessary. Otherwise, plenty of soldiers would be suffering and/or dying. The overall shape of the military stationed there would decline, and would lose that advantage over their enemy.
They also build their permanent structures in a way that maximizes airflow and cools the building. There was a NYT article a few years ago about an 800 year old, un-air conditioned mosque in Baghdad where the temperature was in the low 70's year round.
Pre air-conditioning, western buildings had features like this as well.
Speaking of the south, many many buildings in Greece and Italy have a simple mirror and a steel tank on their roofs to supply hot water. No electricity or sophistication needed.
Even in the cold north, simple radiators provide enough heat to keep a house warm. Thick walls and small windows are enough to contain air temperatures in both cold Finland and hot Greece.
I think this is called "heat recovery ventilation" in English.
I cannot speak for current operations - in the 90s we did not use A/C for the tents we lived in, but for the tents the computers were in. They also functioned as dust filters.
What about the Gobi desert?
Unfortunately, I can't really answer for the Bedouin.
Overall, this sounds like another point for thick, heavy tents (or in terms of the urban jungle: thick brick walls here in Europe keep wonderfully cool in summer and warm in winter.)
But I can also see how the a/c is probably one thing they do for keeping morale up... so this might not only be a thermic/physical problem.