Okie A/C Project

I've been meaning to do this for a while.  It would be nice to have a little A/C in the van while camping...and while driving, for that matter.  I've seen some "red neck" A/C systems on the internet made out of a cooler and a fan and wanted to give it a shot.

Sunday was a lazy goof off day, so I took an old cooler, some PVC pipe, a DC fan, and some duct tape out to Tony's.  I figured I would putter on that while he worked on the Mustang. 

Instead, there was nothing to do on the Mustang- the no amount of buffing can save it -and Tony got involved with my project.  So, of course, the design was revised.  And eventually, I fell to a support role while he built...and over built.  Exhaust tubing instead of PVC.  Welds instead of duct tape.  Metal frame for the fan - and while we're at it, let's disassemble the fan and take out the oscillation we won't need...

I've seen some basic setups where people put ice in a cooler and blow air in one side of the top and out the other side of the top.  That just looks like an ice melting machine to me. I thought it would be more efficient to run tubing through the ice rather than just blowing air air over ice.

That red is just a little paint to keep the welds from rusting, NOT blood in the water.

Anyway - neat idea, but it creates the problem of melting ice turning to water and running out the holes.  We attempted to solve this problem with snug fittings and silicone sealer.  So far, it is holding water well.

 

Here it is blowing cold air in to my office.

 

You can rotate my little PVC bend to direct the air flow.  I'm pretty happy with the results for a first attempt.  We used stainless, and Tony was thinking aluminum would be easier to work with.  I think it would also help transfer the heat better. 

I am not thrilled with the efficiency.  It feels like a lot of the air that is being moved by the fan is not going in the holes.  It might be better to have two fans, one blowing in each hole, or just one hole.

I learned a bunch.  I am trying to understand how the air flow works.  The fan essentially chops air to move it and it forces air in some interesting directions.  Also, it seems to work better if I move the fan out on the shaft and closer to the holes.  I did some late night Googling - I had not realized that air is also a "fluid."  It follows the same rules of physics - pressure, resistance, path of least resistance and so on.  It made me feel like a little kid again, only I didn't have to have my Dad drive me to the library.  For now, it works.  And I'll keep tinkering.