The air conditioner in our van went out, and it would cost more to repair than the van is worth. We are headed to Washington state next weekend, so I went and found plans for an alternative air conditioner. This set up cost me $30 because I already had the fan, ice chest, and inverter.
I am including this on the blog because this type of A/C can be used in electric cars.
I hope to test this out before we take the actual trip, and I will let you know how well it works. Reports on-line for this type of A/C is up to 20 degrees F cooler.
Parts:
(Prices are rounded off to the dollar)
Ice Chest (Already owned)
Car Fan (Already owned)- $10
400w Inverter (Already owned)- $35
Fountain water pump- $15
10 feet Vinyl tubing 1/4in ID 3/8in OD- $4
10 feet copper tubing 1/4in OD- $8
2 hose clamps (1/4 in)- 85 cents each.
Method:
Put 2 gallons of water in the ice chest with lots of ice. The pump circulates the ice water through the copper tube which the fan blows past, there by circulating the cool air through the vehicle. This may also be used to cool a small to medium sized room in a house.
Edit:
This worked well for the kids in the back seat, but up front we were still quite warm. I would recommend a bigger fountain pump than what I used. It had trouble keeping a steady flow of water through the copper tube because it was topping out the height the pump was designed for, a larger pump would not have had this problem.
