(Pictures) Portable Air Conditioner - Ice Cube
- Thread starter phillipny
- Start date
Let's see...cheap cooler $30. 12 volt fan, $30. Flexible plastic downspout, $10. Plastic vent, $15. Portable battery, yeah $75. That's a total of $160 and they're selling that for $400 with a 1.5 hour run time. Nope, no sale here!
Oops! My bad. The battery is extra!
Oops! My bad. The battery is extra!
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one post wonder
Love the photo of the very contented-looking dog. Reminds me of our 1st dog, a great Springer named "Happy".
I suspect a whole sub-culture has tinkered with the "ice cube air conditioner" concept. One person posted a pic of his quick & cool project on the net that was a plastic bin for the ice and 2 large low-power computer fans wired together set in the lid for in and out flow and they were powered optionally by either USB or a small solar panel. He just scrounged all the parts at home (or office?), so it all comes down to cost of the frozen water.
I bet Thuddie's is MUCH more interesting....
I suspect a whole sub-culture has tinkered with the "ice cube air conditioner" concept. One person posted a pic of his quick & cool project on the net that was a plastic bin for the ice and 2 large low-power computer fans wired together set in the lid for in and out flow and they were powered optionally by either USB or a small solar panel. He just scrounged all the parts at home (or office?), so it all comes down to cost of the frozen water.
I bet Thuddie's is MUCH more interesting....
I worked as a design engineer for a law enforcement company back in the 1980's SERCHIE Labs. They came out with a stainless wet ice cube AC unit for surveillance vans. The older dry ice units worked great until 2 FBI agents passed away from the unit leaking inside an almost air tight vehicle. The best ice units would barely cool the rear of a full sized Ford E350 van with 2 agents inside in 95 degree heat for more than 6 hours. We needed about 150lbs of ice layered with rock salt to extend the time to about 8 hours. These vans were heavily insulated and were light tight in addition to having small arms Kevlar protection panels behind the rear cabin and black steel bulkhead.
So when I see these toy AC units using coolers I laugh because they can't do jack squat for cooling a boat, there is simply not enough surface area to run the recirculated Air over the ice or to have anywhere near the ice capacity for staying power.
Bill
So when I see these toy AC units using coolers I laugh because they can't do jack squat for cooling a boat, there is simply not enough surface area to run the recirculated Air over the ice or to have anywhere near the ice capacity for staying power.
Bill
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The big problem with these units as I see it....a true AC unit does 2 things and both are needed to really feel comfort...1 - lower temperature of course and 2 - lower humidity. Seems these units will actually raise humidity, not lower it. High humidity is just as bad as high temps.
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Forget the red box; I want the DOG.
You are correct on the units I worked with the ice was sealed from the plenum air flow. There were numerous tubes that ran through the ice chamber and the air from a 12VDC high cfm blower forced recirculated floor level cabin air through the cold air plenum to the roof level vents to cool the vehicle. Even then the tubes would have condensation. This would cause some sweating but not as much as directly blowing warm air through a cooler full of ice.
Bill
No problemo Mike install an Ice maker to feed the cooler! Actually I find this attempt at marketing funny knowing what it takes to actually use frozen water to cool a very small controlled environment.
This reminded me of a Sunday morning Info-mmercial!
Bill