I was just about to make one of these with an old icebox that my bf use to use which looks exactly like the one in the video to cool my computer. My idea was to use smaller pvc pipes though coming out of the side and down to the bottom and then over to a square frame of small pvc pipes. On the inside of the square frame I was thinking of drilling holes for the air to come out of and place weather stripping on each side of the frame so when it lays on the counter it's sealed at the bottom and when I place my puter on it it is sealed between the puter and the pvc only allowing the air to go through the bottom vents on my puter and cooling it. For ice packs I was going to use small 12 ounce soda bottles filled with salt water for easy changing and have spares in the freezer =)
Of the thousands of videos on this same topic not one has addressed the issue of surface area , everyone just dumps ice into the cooler and has a fan that blows over the top of the ice, if the inside of the cooler is 14" by 22" that's roughly the amount of cold surface area you have to work with. Mine is over 10yrs old and works on the idea that the more surface area the cooler the air created, having the inlet at one end and exhaust at the opposite I stack 12oz frozen water bottles on their sides in the cooler , all facing the same direction as the air flow, all the way to the top so as the air moves through the cooler it's forced between all the bottles like heat through a steam boiler increasing the surface area by as much as 300 percent , much more efficient and no water to drain off, just keep an extra supply of water bottles in the freezer and by the time the first ones melt the next batch is frozen.
Jon Rothenbusch more surface area means more exposure to warm air. You want greater depth and less surface area. Idea is that water on a plate warms faster than water in a bowl.
just made one, only thing is i used a small fan from Walmart instead of case fan, blows very cold but slow. may upgrade to case fan later but thanks for the idea
Yesterday i made it to 90% , but my fan is not the fan you are using . So when i tried that out , the air was not blowing out of cooler it was very low speed i guess , can you tell me which fan you are using so i can use the same and see if its works . Otherwise my all money will get wasted . Help me in this regard
Unless you have access to a large/free supply of ice, then this is a net sum loss. It took energy to make that ice or freeze the cooler packs. Works great for a portable spot cooler for a short amount of time. If you had a space that was cooled by a 2 ton AC you would need 166 pounds of ice per hour to do the same amount of refrigeration work. Might be a good tent cooler for summer camping.
Awesome idea. I want to make one for when I'm in my scorching hott garage. Are there case fans that are powered with regular house outlets? Im not concerned with efficiency I just want it powered easily in my garage.
they sell caps for pvc pipe. you could put a small piece of pipe in the vent and then cap the pipe. (another way to cap it would be to just use a piece of aluminum foil and rubber band.
Just wondering , you give the temp coming out of the cooler with the ice and fan running but what is the outside temp of the room measured separate from the aircon.
The cooler packs will last longer a little higher temperature because of plastic is an insulator but the ice packs are solid you're probably looking at it about 8 hours maybe
I love your videos. Which of these diy air conditioners do you recommend using to cool off my garage in the summer while I do work in there? Not interested in solar so I will plug it in and don't have alot of room in freezer for ice cubes. I'm thinking of making the 5 gallon bucket one.
Harry Balls well I agree as I made the larger version of this and it does nothing to cool off my hot garage. The issue is the air that is brings in is too hot and can't be sufficiently cooled before it comes back out so the difference isn't great enough to do anything.
Honestly the box fan with the transmission coolers is probably best suited for this application because of the sheer volume of air it moves and the fact that it doesn't increase the humidity in the air.
hi. it would depend on how much you run the unit and how much ice you make but it would be very low. no more than a few cents a month to run the fan. and maybe a couple of dollars a month to make the ice.
i saw another video on how this guy used two magnets to spin fan blades without power at all. and to stop it, you only needed to put a third magnet on it to draw one away from the other
Yo'ure using it sitting at a computer, just get a 5V fan that plugs into USB, plug it into the computer, and no futzing with inverters or solar panels.
What about using an induction cook top with a heat defuser to make a heater? Take an old induction cook top and a heat defuser and a exhaust fan off an old portable air conditioning unit and make a portable high air volume heater. Folks throw away portable air conditioning units all the time because no one wants to fix them. Why not reuse the parts to make purdy great high volume air heating units?
hi there. just buy one of those 12v cigarette lighter plugs. they sell them with the 2 wires. then just hook the wires to the 2 fan wires. twist them on and you're set. 😎
