The human fridge: is this really the best way to cool down in a ‘cruelly hot’ climate?
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- Do Hiemon launched a 2.1m (7ft) stainless-steel "personal cooling booth" in Japan, a fridge designed for humans to climb into and exit fully chilled in 10 minutes.
- The booth's interior is cooled to 15C, with a 5C jet of air directed at the user's head, neck, shoulders, and back.
- Manufacturers claim the booth eases heat exhaustion symptoms faster than conventional air conditioning or a fan.
- The unit sells for about £6,900 (1.5m yen) but runs at roughly 7p an hour — around a third of the cost of running a toaster.
- Japan logged its first above-40C "cruelly hot" day of the year this week, with heatwaves also breaking records across Europe this summer.
- Suggested use cases include warehouses and factories with heat-exposed workers, or public spots functioning like vending machines for people feeling unwell.
Why it matters: For Japanese employers and municipalities staring down repeated above-40C days, a £6,900 booth that operates at 7p an hour offers a workplace cooling option cheaper to run than a toaster — a concrete (if surreal) alternative to standard air conditioning for heat-stressed workers. The product lands at a moment when Japan and Europe are both logging record heat, giving warehouse and factory operators a tool pitched specifically at heat exhaustion rather than general comfort.
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