• 2 min read
Japan unveils a human-sized cooling booth for heat waves
SDRS and Trusco Nakayama introduced the Do Hiemon Box, a personal cooling booth aimed at workers in extreme heat. It costs $9,230.
Image: iXBT
Japan’s SDRS and Trusco Nakayama have introduced an unusual device for extreme heat: the Do Hiemon Box, a personal cooling booth designed to cool people down quickly rather than store food.
The unit looks like a large refrigerator or vending machine. Inside, it maintains a temperature of about 15°C. Once a user sits on the built-in seat, air at roughly 5°C is directed at the head, neck, shoulders, and back. According to the developers, users can feel a noticeable cooling effect in five minutes, while a 10-minute session can help lower body temperature and ease symptoms of overheating.
The Do Hiemon Box offers three cooling modes and shuts off automatically after 20 minutes to avoid overcooling. It does not require special installation, has wheels for easier movement, and uses about half the electricity of a standard portable air conditioner.
The companies say the booth is meant for construction sites, factories, warehouses, mass events, schools, shopping centers, and other places where people spend long periods in high temperatures.
The launch comes after a run of record-hot years in Japan, where heatstroke cases have increased and air temperatures are more frequently exceeding 40°C. That has pushed companies to look for new ways to protect workers from heat stress. The price is $9,230.
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Dan is our resident futurist, covering electric mobility, space exploration, and the smart home. He's interested in atoms just as much as bits. Whether it's a new battery chemistry, a reusable rocket, or a protocol that finally makes IoT devices talk to each other, Dan breaks down the engineering that pushes humanity forward.
via iXBT
