Ice Chest cooling

[Belchfire]

I need to sleep in the mornings in a hot part of the country in a larger well insulated van
Air conditioning with a generator would attract attention I think

Do any of those ice chest cooling systems work well ?

Thanks

 

[highdesertranger]

they don't work in high humidity areas? where roughly are you? in most places in another month you won't need to worry about it. highdesertranger

 

[DannyB1954]

Those won't cool a van. They will blow cool air on you directly though for maybe an hour or two. Maybe enough for you to get to sleep. A ton of ice melting in 24 hours is equivalent to 12,000 BTU. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ton_of_refrigeration So per hour you would get 600 BTU, (12,000 / 24, if you had a ton of ice). 10 lbs of ice isn't going to do much for you. A small window air conditioner will do 5,000 BTU per hour. A BTU is the amount of energy needed to change one pound of water one degree Fahrenheit.

10 lbs of ice costs about $2 here, so it can get to be expensive.

 

[Belchfire]

they don't work in high humidity areas?  where roughly are you?  in most places in another month you won't need to worry about it.  highdesertranger

In the Northern California area inland so it's dry heat

 

[Belchfire]

Has anyone tried cooling blankets or maybe a smaller sleeping chamber that can be cooled easier?
Thanks

 

[DannyB1954]

In the Northern California area inland so it's dry heat

The ice box cooler is different than an evaporation cooler. The ice box cooler uses the ice to absorb room heat and the ice melts. An evaporation cooler uses water flowing down a screen and the fan pushes air through it. The water evaporates and absorbs heat in the process. In both cases the inside air will become more humid. Once that happens the evaporative cooler will stop working. Without a roof vent bringing in more dry air, now you will be in a hot and humid room. You could design an ice box cooler that does both jobs, but I don't know how much you would really gain. Now you have three motors running. the fan in the ice box, the water pump in the ice box, and the vent fan in the vehicle.

There may be a reason more vehicle dwellers have not jumped on board with this device.
Things work much better on Youtube then they do in everyday reality. Give it a go and let us know how it works out for you. I once seen someone cut open a car battery on Youtube. when they turned it over a hundred AA batteries came out. Hey it worked that way on Youtube.

Ryobi made one of those coolers. https://www.ebay.com/p/Ryobi-Cooler...zxz53l8MdFyLjdk18QSu7isXbBGrjwSBoCRSEQAvD_BwE

 

[Belchfire]

Dog house air-conditioner. Seriously.
I saw a video where this dude was cooling the sleeping quarter of his Sprinter van with one of these. He had a curtain or something between the bed area and the rest of the van, so the "cool" stayed by the bed.  They are 1250 BTUs (and up) and the one he used was  450 watt. Not bad.
https://k9kennelstore.com/Dog-Kenne...MIie2znJe05AIVBNvACh3KvwBsEAQYASABEgKTsfD_BwE

Do you know where the video of the guy who used one of these in his sleeping quarters? Seems like a good idea

 

[lenny flank]

Some math.... As a pound of ice melts, it absorbs roughly 150 BTUs of heat energy from the surrounding air. A common size of small portable air conditioner that can be run in a van from a generator or shore power is around 2500 BTUs. That means if you want to get the same cooling energy from an ice fan, you need to be able to melt 16.7 pounds of ice per hour, which would require roughly 128 pounds of ice for each eight-hour period. For cooling equivalent to a typical small window AC unit of 5000 BTU, double those figures--you'd need almost 34 pounds of ice per hour, or roughly 250 pounds per day.

 

[bullfrog]

I use the Arctic Cool misting fan that uses Ryobi 18 volt 4ah tool batteries. I use it outside on high fan and low mist, here in the dry desert west it works well especially if I sit 4 feet away in the shade as any moisture evaporates off my skin quickly. It uses 5 gallons of water in about 6 hours which is also when the battery is dead. With 10 gallons of water and 2 batteries (one in a vehicle charger) I can easily go 10 hours. The air temp in an 8'x8'x8' box in a 100 degree full sun weather drops a little below 90 degrees but with the water hitting you and a little breeze it is much cooler. It works great outside but would be a watery mess and not very effective without plenty of ventilation. I also have used the latest and greatest evaporative cooler that along with a swamp cooler type pad uses cooled return water pumped through a radiator (they say you can put ice in the reservoir) so there is little water discharge. The air coming out is cold but not as effective in cooling the box but it is loud and even standing right in front of it only cools a few inch area of your body. The government spent $600 on it and over a $1,000 on a goal zero to power it which it does keep up only on low speed. My $80 Arctic Cool fan and $150 dollars worth of Ryobi batteries and charger does a much better job if you have an unlimited near by water supply just ask my new friends I work with!

 

[BinDerSmokDat]

Consumer reports built some homemade ice type coolers and then tested them in the same chamber they use to test conventional AC units, using a variety of ice types.
They found it drops temps a few degrees for about an hour and then temps quickly climb back up.

https://www.consumerreports.org/air-conditioners/can-a-homemade-air-conditioner-keep-you-cool/

As has been said above, the amount of ice needed to provide the amount of cooling to lower air temps makes these types of coolers unfeasible.

Swamp coolers that use purely water evaporation do work, but they need to be engineered properly and they only work in low humidity areas, preferably desert and mountains.
In fact evaporative coolers are built for homes in typically dry climates like parts of California and the Southwest.

You need an open flow of air through the area. For example swamp cooler blowing in from say back of a van and blowing out a partially opened drivers window up front. This is because the fan on the cooler will be trying to push air in a closed box and be less effective, plus you don't want humidity to build up to uncomfortable levels.

 

[highdesertranger]

dang you have come up with a couple of good posts today. thanks for the link. highdesertranger

 

[BinDerSmokDat]

dang you have come up with a couple of good posts today.  thanks for the link.  highdesertranger

I get so much good advice and so many great ideas from this site, I try to contribute when and where I can!

 

[Groovy2]

this Evaporative cooler works well
Luma Comfort -

Has High performance water pad that looks like corrugated card board
make sure Any evaporative cooler U get has this type of pad -

the Less humidity the Better it will work  -
in dry desert will cool U off Very well -
possible 20 degree drop in dry location -

Where ever its used U have to have AIR Flow thru van
for it to work properly - open windows / doors etc

Im using one in Austin TX in 60 to 70% humidity ish -
pretty High humidity- drops air temp 4 to 6 degrees ish
cools van off in day time so I can sleep at night -

draws 90 to 100 watts depending on fan speed -

1 gallon of water can last 2 to 4 hours
depending on humidity / fan speed -

it takes 540 calories to evaporate 1 gram of water

Luma comfort cooler is kind of tall -
Nicely built - Quite - nice fan -

can be purchased many places Wally - Home depot - etc

I have used evaporative coolers for 30 plus yrs -
work Good in proper location with proper ventilation -

Cooler link

 

[SheketEchad]

Has anyone tried cooling blankets or maybe a smaller sleeping chamber that can be cooled easier?
Thanks

My Aldi's recently had dog cooling mats for 70% off, so I bought two to try since they were only 9.99.  I don't run my a/c at night, just fans.  The mats will do the job for the first two hours, allowing you to drop off to sleep more easily.  The only problem I have with them is I am very hot body temp wise, and by the middle of the night they have become warming mats   But by then I am deep asleep and don't really notice it until I wake up in the morning and I'm sleeping on hot gel instead of cool gel.  However, that does mean they might work in the colder times too, as I don't have heat here either.  For 20.00 bucks, it has made a difference for me.  My  starting room temps at night are normally in the low 80s, to give a point of reference.

 

[highdesertranger]

I wouldn't worry about it much, in a couple of weeks everyone is going to be talking heaters. cooling off is going to be a distant memory for 6 months. highdesertranger

 

[lenny flank]

Yep. Once winter comes everyone will want to be telling us all about their wonderful candle-flowerpot heater.