The guys at the Ace Hardware in Keaau call it the “Portagee Air Conditioner,” and it’s just one of the ways Hawaii Island residents are trying to beat the heat this summer.
Last year, Ace employee Anson Koyama logged onto YouTube and learned how to fashion a makeshift air cooler using a bucket filled with ice and powered by a small, portable fan.
He drilled three small holes on the side of a bucket near the top, and a large hole in the bucket’s lid. He stuck three pieces of PVC pipe in the holes, then affixed the fan to the lid so it would blow air down into the bucket, where plenty of ice was waiting to cool the air before sending it out the pipes.
With an investment of 10 minutes and $10 — excluding the cost of the fan and the ice — he’d made a way to bring a cool breeze indoors. The store then put it on display to show folks how they might make their own. But soon after, Ace began getting offers to buy the contraption, and they’ve made two or three more since.
Based on a bit of a backhanded compliment, the name refers to Hawaii’s Portuguese community’s perceived ability and/or affinity for problem solving on-the-cheap, using whatever materials may be at hand.
The device itself is not the most effective, nor the most efficient, cooling system available, but it’ll do in a pinch. And a pinch is exactly where many Big Isle residents find themselves these days, with temperatures and humidity levels soaring as one storm after another cuts off the tradewinds that usually keep Hawaii’s climate cooler.
The heat just kept on coming on Tuesday, when Hilo set a daily temperature record of 92 degrees, besting the previous daily record set in 2014 by 4 degrees. And that doesn’t even take into account the oppressive humidity that’s been hanging in the air without the steady push of the tradewinds to drive it away.
The heat index, which represents how temperatures feel on the skin by comparing the temperature of the air and the relative humidity, sat at between 105 and 106 degrees from about 11 a.m. until just before 3 p.m. on Tuesday, according to National Weather Service readings taken at Hilo International Airport.
In weather like that, there are few options available, apart from making a beeline for the beach or hunkering down in front of a fan or an air conditioner.
Unfortunately, East Hawaii hardware stores and big-box retailers contacted by the Hawaii Tribune-Herald on Wednesday morning said they had virtually no fans or AC units left.
A Walmart employee who didn’t give her name said the store had been cleaned out of fans and air conditioning units. A Target employee said the store had about 10 tower-style fans left and no air conditioners.
Jan Murray, a returns specialist at Home Depot, said that fans have been flying off the shelves the last two weeks, and now there was nothing left, save for the few fans that might periodically be returned by customers.
“It looks sparse back there,” she said. “We’re gonna get some little box fans at some time, but I’m not sure when that might be.”
The only air conditioning units available on display at Home Depot on Wednesday morning were the large window units costing upwards of about $650.
“We have a few of the very large ones that don’t fit in a lot of people’s houses,” Murray said. “All the other ones are gone.”
Bruce Lee, an employee at Ace in Keaau, said that his store had also been cleaned out, but he anticipated another shipment of fans this morning, including a large number that were already claimed.
“We’ve got about 50 on order for Keaau Middle School, so those won’t be for sale,” he said.
So, for the time being, many people looking to cool down might have to resort to low-tech solutions like the “Portagee Air Conditioner,” provided they have their own fan and a healthy supply of ice.
Lee said his store will have a special promotion this weekend in which the large, 5-gallon buckets used to make the devices will be on sale for $5, with all proceeds going to the Kapiolani Children’s Hospital. Meanwhile, customers will receive 20 percent off anything they can fit inside the buckets.
Email Colin M. Stewart at cstewart@hawaiitribune-herald.com.