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Ventilation Upgrade

My new seating location at work is awesome. I have a great view of many of my coworkers. This, by itself, would not normally be big news, except that we make heavy use of Nerf® guns. I'm at the end of a line of desks facing down the line, so I have tactical advantage in Nerf® wars. The only drawback to my position is its location relative to the giant windows for the patio. These windows are not particularly well insulated. In Tempe, AZ, summer temperatures reach the high 100-teens. The windows radiate the wonderful desert sun's heat right into my personal space. I get hot even when the air conditioning in the office is set as low as 72°F.

Luckily, there is a vent above the desk.

Vent before upgrade

The problem with this vent is that it is directly above my desk AND when it is pointed as low as possible, it shoots nice, cool air into the kitchen area and completely away from my desk. So, what was needed was some kinda swanky deflection thingy.

Meet, "The A/C Deflection Thing:"

Upgraded A/C vent

In this context, "A/C" means, "Andy Cooling," of course.

I took a wire coat hanger and untwisted it. I took some white cotton fabric I had laying around and sewed it so that it could be slipped over the coat hanger. The coat hanger is bent so that it hooks around the opening of the vent. The coat hanger wire is plenty sturdy enough to fight the air flow from the vent, yet flexible enough to allow me to reshape the fabric deflector.

It works perfectly. I now sit in a breeze of cool air. Yay!