You’re sitting outside in the late summer heat, dripping buckets while you watch the kids frolic in the pool. Even if you’re getting a tan, it’s still miserable. Thankfully, now there’s the Bollard Cooler, engineered by Richardson-based IntelliCool. This whisper-quiet outdoor air conditioner can spew cool air across 250 square feet of your yard or patio. The 5-foot-tall, cast aluminum machine is operated by a water pump installed several feet away and uses electricity to send the water through the pipes and into a filter. Out comes cool, dry air.
At $3,999 for the unit and $999 for the water pump, the Bollard is not cheap. But you really can’t put a price on summertime bliss. (If you must, check out some of IntelliCool’s more affordable—but no less unique—fans and cooling systems.) Once your Bollard is installed, it only adds about $1 a day to your water and electricity bills. The cooler can even run all day long without violating water ban restrictions.
So how well can it really work? The Bollard can drop the temperature of surrounding air by as much as 32 degrees. One Dallasite has 15 that crown his tennis courts, yard, and swimming pool. And if you peek over the neighbors’ fence, they’re bound to have one soon. Keeping up with the Joneses just got a whole lot cooler. (972-267-3322, www.intellicool.com)
