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Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Beat the Heat with DIY AC

If you're looking for a small, cheap way to cool a small area, it's pretty easy to make your own "evaporative cooler." Also known as "swamp coolers," it's basically any system that uses a fan to blow out rising cool water vapor. All you need is a fan, an ice chest, water and a few ice packs. How fancy you get after that is a matter of how much effort you want to put it to make it as efficient as possible, and whether you want it to be portable. Here's a few Instructables to get you started:

Portable 12V Air Conditioner —Cheap and easy!
Homemade "air conditioner" (uses a closed loop of copper tubes to run water around the fan)
Home Made Air Conditioner II This one is ridiculously easy to make.

from Ben Popken @ The Consumerist

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

All the "Swamp coolers" ive ever seen don't use ice. They just basically run air over continuously recirculating water to produce cool flowing air. They are generally seen out west, since they don't work in humid areas, which is why you don't see them around here.

Anonymous said...

Did that idea come from the Red Green show?

Anonymous said...

I did this as a kid in my bedroom.