Air conditioning when camping is missing the whole point. Stay in a crappy hotel room if you're going to do that.
We've gone camping every year for decades. I now use a pop-up camper for most of my camping. A good pop-up. Can tow with just about any vehicle, but it has a toilet & holding tank, shower, and most importantly: air conditioning. Nothing beats having air conditioning when you're sleeping at night. For 18 hours of the day, I'm outside in the heat, enjoying myself. For those short 6 hours of sleep, I want to be extra comfortable.
heh i'm actually in process of building something similar. based off the 12v portable air conditioner off instructables for my 11 year old car who's ac needs to have the evaporator replaced, which requires the entire front dash come off so is not worth paying to have really fixed.
28qt igloo cooler - 16 bucks from walmart, it's footprint will fit into the passenger side feet area.
12v 3amp 600 gph bilge pump, strainer superglued to bottom of cooler
heat exchanger from advanced auto- 18 bucks
heater hose from advanced auto- 4 bucks (used 10 off 30 coupon)
2 12v 120mm case fans- 2.99 a piece from microcenter
2 120mm finger guards - 1.99 a piece from microcenter
car 12v cigarette port y adapter to 2 cigarette ports- cutting ends off, need something that will get me access to the max 10amp. cell phone adapters only pump some .5amp across
dc fans go on top of cooler lid, heat exchange under lid with circle holes for fans on top, rectangle for exchanger on bottom of the dual layer plastic lid.
pump sends water to exchanger, fans pull air through, either leaving lid partially open or cutting intake holes for air.
plan on using a gallon of water in office fridge with 6-10 of those small blue freezer packs as my cold source. it's that or i'm grabbing all the ice out of the icemaker in the afternoon.
the other option i was thinking off is the swamp cooler, instead of a heat exchanger and ice, run the bilge pump piping to push water to a home furnace humidifier and pull air across that. the former will dehumidify but only lasts as long as the water inside is cold, the latter will work for longer periods but loses effectiveness as it gets humid outside.
You are correct it would not really produce a net cold, anymore than regular ac does but unlike regular ac it isn't exhausting the heat anywhere. It seems it could work well when camping and run the fan and pump on some batteries.
It's really not that difficult to remove a dashboard and replace it. Probably take a day total for removal, fixing the AC part, and putting the dash back in.
heh i'm actually in process of building something similar. based off the 12v portable air conditioner off instructables for my 11 year old car who's ac needs to have the evaporator replaced, which requires the entire front dash come off so is not worth paying to have really fixed.
28qt igloo cooler - 16 bucks from walmart, it's footprint will fit into the passenger side feet area.
12v 3amp 600 gph bilge pump, strainer superglued to bottom of cooler
heat exchanger from advanced auto- 18 bucks
heater hose from advanced auto- 4 bucks (used 10 off 30 coupon)
2 12v 120mm case fans- 2.99 a piece from microcenter
2 120mm finger guards - 1.99 a piece from microcenter
car 12v cigarette port y adapter to 2 cigarette ports- cutting ends off, need something that will get me access to the max 10amp. cell phone adapters only pump some .5amp across
dc fans go on top of cooler lid, heat exchange under lid with circle holes for fans on top, rectangle for exchanger on bottom of the dual layer plastic lid.
pump sends water to exchanger, fans pull air through, either leaving lid partially open or cutting intake holes for air.
plan on using a gallon of water in office fridge with 6-10 of those small blue freezer packs as my cold source. it's that or i'm grabbing all the ice out of the icemaker in the afternoon.
the other option i was thinking off is the swamp cooler, instead of a heat exchanger and ice, run the bilge pump piping to push water to a home furnace humidifier and pull air across that. the former will dehumidify but only lasts as long as the water inside is cold, the latter will work for longer periods but loses effectiveness as it gets humid outside.
the box fan/copper tube/water one is better.
Great idea for something like a tent if you're camping, or perhaps for inside a car if you want to leave a pet in the car on a hot sunny day (without harming the pet) while freaking people out.
But, for your house, it's kind of stupid. It's the equivalent of cooling your kitchen by leaving the refrigerator door open. The net effect is that it actually will heat your kitchen. Given the cost of ice from the store, it'd be far more economical to just purchase one of those cheap 5000 btu air conditioners - saw one for $119 this weekend. Considered getting it for the dogs' room.
Just do a google search. The one ours came with has a storage tank - essentially, a portapotty. But with a little effort, I retrofitted it so that it can either be used that way, else if staying on a campsite with full hook-ups, the waste can be directly flushed.Shower and Toilet in pop up camper. Please do show us!
Physics seem to disagree with this design. Fans, pumps and moving water actually create heat. I would like to see statistics of having just a bucket of ice sitting there compared to running this.
glorified swamp cooler. I'm sure the temperature could drop a few degrees, but the general temperature will remain the same due to the humidity level
Think of it as more like a rustic hotel ;^)
There's value in the idea, but my problem with it is ac makes the heat more unbearable when you get in it. I think I'd rather be 100% hot because you get used to it. This is from someone who despises heat, and starts bitching when the temperature gets to 70F.
True, but a small sump pump is not drawing enough power to generate significant amounts of heat, same for a small 12V DC fan, yes it does generate heat, but insignificant amounts. Having a bucket of ice will do absolutely very little except melt and possibly increase the humidity in the room. The cool thing (pun intended) about circulating ice-water is has the ability to de-humidify some as well, not as well as a regular wall unit of course but some. Most of the other designs I saw on YT involve blowing air across the ice but that would defiantly add a lot of humidity as the ice melts, with the coil design the melted ice stays in the chest and does not get a chance to add to the humidity's level. I'm planning on building one of these, after the 2004 season local officials finally figured one of the most important items people need is ice, I've since bought a genny but I'd rather not use my gasoline to power my window-shaker as it's tough to find open gas stations, no power and they can't pump or operate the till. Think I'll take a ride to the local Pick-a-part, prolly find a tranny cooler there for $5 or so, possibly some other components too (aluminum tubing from an AC), might even get lucky and find an old cooler in a trunk..
I guess I don't get the science behind it, A/C transfers heat and moisture from an enclosed area (heat leaves the house and moisture is sent to the drain). Unless somehow the heat is getting trapped in the cooler where is the heat going?
It's going into the ice chest, the fan pulls in room air, pushes it through the coils which cools the air as it passes by, the now warmer water is returned to the ice chest, the "heat" of the room air is essentially melting the ice in the chest thus cooling the room. Of course when the ice finally melts it cannot cool any longer, but this is a temporary, portable means of cooling a small area down, don't expect it to cool more than a small bedroom. You could always use a 120 volt fan instead of a 12V one but then you lose the portability factor.
No, a swamp cooler works in a low-humidity environment only, it uses evaporation to achieve cooler air, useless in the Southeast where high humidity is the normal ambient. He has another video showing the output of the unit 25-30 degrees below room temp, that's pretty damm good.
Doesn't dry ice react with water? It makes fog. I don't know what the ramifications of keeping it in a semi-sealed box would be.
I guess I don't get the science behind it, A/C transfers heat and moisture from an enclosed area (heat leaves the house and moisture is sent to the drain). Unless somehow the heat is getting trapped in the cooler where is the heat going?
I'd just pay a bunch of midgets to fan me across their mom's back covered in ice if I didn't have a means to live in electricity.