12V Air conditioner

[Rlowell]

Swamp coolers add moisture for the desert dwellers; A/C removes moisture
for the humid areas. If you use one for the other then you can have a real mess on your hands...

I will take some A/C here in Florida...thank you very much.
Rod

[Mark & Andrea Jones]

I always forget about that Ira...out here, it's so dry in the summer that even the lizards pack a Chapstick. With humidity, it'd be like having a cold vaporizer running...nice clammy damp sheets in a tear!!! Doug

Hmmmm. Correct me if I am wrong, but the way I see it from the website, the air does not blow across the ice - hence no added moisture. The ice is only there to keep the water cold that is pumped thru the heat exchanger. That may also be the reason why they use bag ice - because it melts easier and provides cool water sooner. But I can also see where a block of ice with some water could work too.

I imagine that there is some condensate because of the cooling action of the air thru the heat exchanger, but a simple drain could take care of that. With some judicious piping of the return air, you could also be reducing the amount of moisture in the TD.

Probably not worth $500+, but it looks like it wouldn't be hard to fix something up. I like the idea, but don't have the technical knowledge to do it. Ah, well.

AJ

[rowerwet]

http://www.instructables.com/id/Homemad ... nditioner/
an idea like this could work for a TD, substitute a car heater core and a couple computer fans, you will be removing tons of condensation from the air so make sure there is a good drain under the heater core ( I tried this idea in my car, going into my TD soon, it looked like it had a leak there was so much condensation) the ice stays in the cooler and should last for hours . put a switch on the pump or even fancier, a thermostat, to regulate the temp. and run the fans on another.

[Rlowell]

http://www.instructables.com/id/Homemade-air-conditioner/
an idea like this could work for a TD, substitute a car heater core and a couple computer fans, you will be removing tons of condensation from the air so make sure there is a good drain under the heater core ( I tried this idea in my car, going into my TD soon, it looked like it had a leak there was so much condensation) the ice stays in the cooler and should last for hours . put a switch on the pump or even fancier, a thermostat, to regulate the temp. and run the fans on another.

Thanks for sharing! Those are some neat ideas!
Rod

[Shadow Catcher]

Near as I have been able to discover there is no short cut to AC (other than swamp cooler) for a teardrop. The closest thing is a truck cab AC unit that is diesel powered (motor). I think you could power an automotive AC compressor with a small motor which would be an interesting exercise, or just use a small generator. We were very happy to have our modified window shaker at CAG, it worked beautifully.

[rowerwet]

the biggest issue I see with most instructables ac is the ice chest is too small.

[Wayneo]

Hello everyone. I made one of these and it worked fine. It needs a slight mod on this to work even better. You need to have a coiled copper line (with alot of coils) to go in-between the pump and the heater coil. The reason is because it will help keep the ice from melting. I used 10lbs of ice and it lasted about 5 hours at 88 degree's outside, my Tear maintained 76 degrees. If you contain all the water inside the copper line and not let it blow around the ice (thus melting it faster) it will last longer. Block ice will help alot to. I am going to switch out my builge pump to a regular 12 volt RV pump and make it a sealed sytem. I will let you know after I make the mod.

Wayne

[rowerwet]

I use frozen drink bottles filled with water and a dash or three of salt, seems to last longer. the drink bottles are rectangular and 5 fit in my cooler perfectly, I made sure the water returns to the opposite end of the cooler from the pump. After driving home 1 hr using the pump, I let the cooler just sit in the car with the pump off, the ice was still frozen mostly the next evening. But it cools off to a nice level up here in vacationland almost every night.

[rowerwet]

What the hell is rowerwet's avatar a picture of?

a beechcraft 99 being deiced, my first three hours, or as long as it takes, at work are getting our fleet of 12 aircraft launched from MHT to points all over ME, and VT. deicing, shoveling, loading, fixing (the main reason I'm there), inspecting, and keeping on the good side of the pilots. We fly air freight with a lot of brown envelopes mixed in. The rest of the day mostly involves purple tailed aircraft.
and now it is my '99 Ranger and the Roadboat.

[rowerwet]

Near as I have been able to discover there is no short cut to AC (other than swamp cooler) for a teardrop. The closest thing is a truck cab AC unit that is diesel powered (motor). I think you could power an automotive AC compressor with a small motor which would be an interesting exercise, or just use a small generator. We were very happy to have our modified window shaker at CAG, it worked beautifully.

I think I have figured it out, as long as you have a well insulated TD, and a big enough cooler of ice.
I currently use the cooler/ice/pump, set up to cool a web of pex piping zip tied to my seat back, no matter how hot it is out I have to shut the pump off every so often to keep from getting too chilled.
I don't have a/c in my car, I have 4x65, four windows, and as fast as traffic is going.