Trebor English
Well-known member
I saw this in the Yahoo van dweller group:
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/VanDwellers/conversations/messages/179164
You need a Yahoo account to see it. I will paraphrase.
Get an evaporative cooler that lets you connect a 2 inch or so hose to the outlet. Get an oversize shirt and connect the hose to that. This makes a 'personal air conditioning' space. There is a bubble of cool air around you exiting around your face. The rest of your space isn't cooled or humidified, just the bubble around you. At night make a tent using a sheet and inflate it making a cool bubble around you. It keeps the bugs away too. If it gets too cold over night just put a little water in the cooler. When the water runs out it is just a fan. If it is too hot and humid it might help to put some ice in the evaporative cooler.
I have not tried it. In Florida an evaporative cooler gets everything moist without cooling much. This has the potential to do some personal cooling without getting everything wet.
Ice is not practical to cool the entire space. Melting one gallon of ice, 8.34 pounds, will absorb 1200 BTUs. A 5000 BTU per hour window unit air conditioner cycling 25% on 75% off is 1250 BTUs per hour, about 8 pounds of ice per hour. If ice is used as part of the cooling of a bubble of cool air concentrated in an oversized shirt exiting around the neck it might work. Most of the cooling would be evaporation of water, 890 BTUs per pound of water evaporated, with ice to supplement on the hottest afternoons.
If it works all credit goes to the Yahoo van dweller group member JC Gilpin. If it doesn't work for you feel free to blame me, the messenger. You know what happens to the messenger.
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/VanDwellers/conversations/messages/179164
You need a Yahoo account to see it. I will paraphrase.
Get an evaporative cooler that lets you connect a 2 inch or so hose to the outlet. Get an oversize shirt and connect the hose to that. This makes a 'personal air conditioning' space. There is a bubble of cool air around you exiting around your face. The rest of your space isn't cooled or humidified, just the bubble around you. At night make a tent using a sheet and inflate it making a cool bubble around you. It keeps the bugs away too. If it gets too cold over night just put a little water in the cooler. When the water runs out it is just a fan. If it is too hot and humid it might help to put some ice in the evaporative cooler.
I have not tried it. In Florida an evaporative cooler gets everything moist without cooling much. This has the potential to do some personal cooling without getting everything wet.
Ice is not practical to cool the entire space. Melting one gallon of ice, 8.34 pounds, will absorb 1200 BTUs. A 5000 BTU per hour window unit air conditioner cycling 25% on 75% off is 1250 BTUs per hour, about 8 pounds of ice per hour. If ice is used as part of the cooling of a bubble of cool air concentrated in an oversized shirt exiting around the neck it might work. Most of the cooling would be evaporation of water, 890 BTUs per pound of water evaporated, with ice to supplement on the hottest afternoons.
If it works all credit goes to the Yahoo van dweller group member JC Gilpin. If it doesn't work for you feel free to blame me, the messenger. You know what happens to the messenger.