Anyone ever rig up some sort of A/C

I was going to ripoff one company's design. Here was my basic plan.

Supplies:

Igloo Cooler
3 1/8" hole saw
2 80mm Computer Case Fans
9v Battery
Electrical wire
Ducting of some sort
Duct Tape
On/Off Switch

Cut two holes in the top of the cooler with the holesaw and mount the 80mm fans OUTSIDE of the case, to where they are sucking air out. Attach the ducting over these fans and wire up the two fans in parallel to the battery (Both red to red, both black to black) wire up the switch and make a mount for the battery outside of the cooler.

You could also rig it to run out of the 12v cigarette lighter adapter rather than the battery, if you like.

Fill it with ice and see what happens! The parts should cost about $20-$30, including the cooler.
 
mojo6911 said:
I was going to ripoff one company's design. Here was my basic plan.

Supplies:

Igloo Cooler
3 1/8" hole saw
2 80mm Computer Case Fans
9v Battery
Electrical wire
Ducting of some sort
Duct Tape
On/Off Switch

Cut two holes in the top of the cooler with the holesaw and mount the 80mm fans OUTSIDE of the case, to where they are sucking air out. Attach the ducting over these fans and wire up the two fans in parallel to the battery (Both red to red, both black to black) wire up the switch and make a mount for the battery outside of the cooler.

You could also rig it to run out of the 12v cigarette lighter adapter rather than the battery, if you like.

Fill it with ice and see what happens! The parts should cost about $20-$30, including the cooler.
Click to expand...

Only problem with this design is that you're pumping humid air into the cabin, which might cool things off initially, but the increased humidity can have other problems. The commercial products use a radiator system which uses a pump to pull water out of the cooler, into a radiator, which fans blow air over and cool the cabin. It's a little harder to build.
 
msmspilot said:
Only problem with this design is that you're pumping humid air into the cabin, which might cool things off initially, but the increased humidity can have other problems. The commercial products use a radiator system which uses a pump to pull water out of the cooler, into a radiator, which fans blow air over and cool the cabin. It's a little harder to build.
Click to expand...

True, but I don't think the increased humidity will be that much of a problem. I have used something called a Swamp Cooler when camping and it worked relatively well, and I don't think it was very humid, compared to the relative humidity outside.

If you wanted to improve the design the way you described, it would be fairly easy using a some copper tubing and a blow torch to make the radiator and a PC Water Cooling pump like this for $30:

yhst-39083765508394_2106_8526573



They don't pull a lot of amps. Obviously, to use this, you would need to incorporate the 12v adapter and not use a battery.
 
msmspilot said:
Only problem with this design is that you're pumping humid air into the cabin, which might cool things off initially, but the increased humidity can have other problems. The commercial products use a radiator system which uses a pump to pull water out of the cooler, into a radiator, which fans blow air over and cool the cabin. It's a little harder to build.
Click to expand...

Exactly. You don't want to pump humid air into the cabin, you want to remove humidity (which is actually what Air Conditioning does more than cool the air to make you more comfortable).
 
mojo6911 said:
True, but I don't think the increased humidity will be that much of a problem. I have used something called a Swamp Cooler when camping and it worked relatively well, and I don't think it was very humid, compared to the relative humidity outside.

If you wanted to improve the design the way you described, it would be fairly easy using a some copper tubing and a blow torch to make the radiator and a PC Water Cooling pump like this for $30:

yhst-39083765508394_2106_8526573



They don't pull a lot of amps. Obviously, to use this, you would need to incorporate the 12v adapter and not use a battery.
Click to expand...

Or use a 12V battery. Lots of planes don't have 12V power sources.

Also, swamp coolers work well when you're in a dry climate (i.e. Arizona), and don't do a damn thing in a humid environment (i.e. Florida). Swamp coolers work by using the latent heat of evaporation to cool the air, which works incredibly well in dry air, and incredibly poorly in humid air. So, depending what climate you're in, this idea may or may not work.
 
Patrick said:
Or use a 12V battery. Lots of planes don't have 12V power sources.

Also, swamp coolers work well when you're in a dry climate (i.e. Arizona), and don't do a damn thing in a humid environment (i.e. Florida). Swamp coolers work by using the latent heat of evaporation to cool the air, which works incredibly well in dry air, and incredibly poorly in humid air. So, depending what climate you're in, this idea may or may not work.
Click to expand...

12v batteries with any decent amount of charge are too big and heavy. msmspilot's suggestion would definitely work better in a humid environment. I might make something like this in a few weeks. I have the blow torch, copper tubing and I can probably find an old coil to use as a radiator.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Por...-and-easy!/step1/Background-and-How-it-Works/

That is an idea.
 
Donny Boy said:
I'm renting 172's out of the local FBO. I don't necessarily want to be restricted to flying in the morning/evening.
Click to expand...

Wear cool clothes. I spend 6+ hours a day flying in the Florida sun. No AC. There are worse situations to endure in aviation than just the heat (the cold is actually worse in my mind), in A/C without heaters.
 
Also, fly higher :beer: There are many benefits to flying higher but cooler air is my favorite here in Florida. Every thousand feet will subtract 3.6F from the temp at ground level. This knowledge comes in handy when hanging onto the side of a plane at 13.5k freezing your junk off on what you thought was a balmy day. But I digress.
 
darthpanda said:
Also, fly higher :beer: There are many benefits to flying higher but cooler air is my favorite here in Florida. Every thousand feet will subtract 3.6F from the temp at ground level. This knowledge comes in handy when hanging onto the side of a plane at 13.5k freezing your junk off on what you thought was a balmy day. But I digress.
Click to expand...
Why would you be hanging onto the side of the plane? On another note, on cloudy days, above the clouds, I find it almost as warm as being on the ground.
 
Options options! It was about 80 or 90's today, flew out over the coast and with the windows open it wasnt to bad. It's the ground ops like you said, but once your moving it isnt to bad. Perhaps i'll save my money!
 
amjon said:
Why would you be hanging onto the side of the plane? On another note, on cloudy days, above the clouds, I find it almost as warm as being on the ground.
Click to expand...

I always do my best to get above the layer, personally. Smooths out and is generally quite a bit cooler. Makes me stop being concerned about people puking in the back. :)
 
Fly above the clouds whenever possible helped me.
Sometimes I found myself sweatring Instrument Approaches that weren't so tough, though.
 
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