Portable 12V Air Conditioner --Cheap and easy!

[Scott]

Portable 12V Air Conditioner --Cheap and easy!

[bubba]

It looks great if your saling on Pudget Sound in cool waters or where it does not get 115 F in the shade and 90 F at night like inland. I just trailer my boat North West in the summer

[Scott]

I realize it wont cool much but for a little help sleeping at night it might give some relief.

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[DaveB]

Scott, don't waste your money! The unit doesn't get rid of humidity and only adds to it.
I have a Koolerair that works on same system but couldn't even get the cab of my pickup down two degrees in air temps. of 85 degrees. On the mac. it was just a big joke and only melted the Ice in cooler and wore down battery.
Just my 2cts, Dave

Portable 12V Air Conditioner --Cheap and easy!

[TAW02]

Oh lordee, I wish it were this easy!

For whatever is inside that cooler box ... can actually displace all that mean and nasty cabin heat!!! Must be an artic ladslide of blizzards and icebergs, but unfortunately that mean old bastage Newton came along with those laws of thermodynamics and such .... drat!

Sir Isaac Newton sez'

'Objects in heat motion in Florida ... tend to Stay that-a-way no matter what!'

Big T

[Scott]

Not to rehash the age old thread about lake/ ocean water cooler/ a/c, BUTTTT, I was discussing this with my brother, (HVAC engineer) and he thinks that yes you can bring down the temp in a boat with the lake water pulled from below the first thermocline (sp?)

Did the math in his head while we were pulling my boat this year. So its suspect at best. He did say it would be slow and not much of a cool down but it would cool a space the size of my boat.

Im sure the engineers will chime in here. I got my a** ate last time I brought this up and subsequent posters since.

[TAW02]

I have seen heat-transfer solutions implemented in many different ways. Most all only offer a trade-off of services.

Aaaaas I vaguely rememeber .... (here we go with an 'ol yarn)

Bear in mind I am just an 'ol mechanic on the wrong side of town

A tinkering old relative on my mother's side had something going in the parlor/den. A large handbuilt metal box with a fan and car radiator in it. It blew COLD!

Now keep in mind this was the late 50's and air conditioning was usually not found anywhere but the Woolworths downtown.

Many times over the years the talk of this invention came up and I would listen in. There was many whispers and much laughter to go with it. Didn't take long before I grew to think that this ol guy had something conspiratorical (is that a word ) going and it took awhile to figure it all out ... until later when I became educated in the basics of such things.

We rarely got around to visiting this branch of the 'family tree' so talk was limited on how the family was getting along. Later of course I talked about this with my mother. She had the story and related to it like this;

"My cousin Carl was always tinkering," she said, "And the thing you saw that everyone was taliking about was Carl's way of figuring-out how air conditioning worked ... or should work that is."

Yes, seemed Carl plumbed an ol car radiator on the inside wall of a brand-new Deep Freezer him and his wife purchased with what little savings they had. This included drilling two pipe holes into the side of the freezer. All went well and the pipes where then plumped to another radiator he enclosed in a large sheet metal box. Installed a fan to blow through this radiator and plumbed a small pump to move anti-freeze solution and water between the two radiators. Worked like GANGBUSTERS!

Yep 'ol Carl had it all going now. He had both and air conditioner and a deepfreezer for the price of one!

But then came the 'hitch' or the trade-off persay. Once the lady began packing the freezer and all was well a heat spell hit the neighborhood and Carl ran the AC box all night long. Yep you guessed it.

THAWED OUT THE FREEZER and frozen ice melted rapidly adding to the meltdown and thawing out meat and other perishables. Carl was face with a 'sweatbox' and a very livid woman!

Oh well ... at least the Parlor and Den was cool

So that was all the whispering and laughter was about!

One of lifes' greatest mysteries revealed.

Big T

[DaveB]

Scott,
Back in 1980 I installed one of the first Adler Barber air cooled refigeration with Ice tray I installed on my boat to do the Carribean for 3 years. It worked great but created Cabin heat even tho compressor was installed in cockpit locker. Compressor was running often. (I had my home built wind genarator that put more than enough amps to run everything on board in the trade winds).
On my return trip I noticed a couple of boats in the Bahamas that had water cooled refigeration that they hooked up to a Adler Barber cold Machine. At the time I found their unit was running 1/3 time less than mine , I was on the avarage drawing 3.2 amps. Theirs 2.1-2.3 amps including the pump.
Today this is well known and manifactures make these units for the Southern Latitudes.
Getting back to Air Condition, a 5000 btu in hatch does all my cooling at a AC outlet.
I have a 1200 watt $130 2 cycle gen. that powers it but only used it once as here in SW FL. a 10 inch fan uses much less energy from house batteries and we use them middle of summer. Humidity doesn't bother us much when a solid air movement is going over our bodies in the berth.
Dave

Not to rehash the age old thread about lake/ ocean water cooler/ a/c, BUTTTT, I was discussing this with my brother, (HVAC engineer) and he thinks that yes you can bring down the temp in a boat with the lake water pulled from below the first thermocline (sp?)

Did the math in his head while we were pulling my boat this year. So its suspect at best. He did say it would be slow and not much of a cool down but it would cool a space the size of my boat.

Im sure the engineers will chime in here. I got my a** ate last time I brought this up and subsequent posters since.

[Kelly Hanson East]

Its pretty simple thermo to figure out why the lake water idea doesnt work. If the lake water is cool enough to make it work, you wont need AC in the first place.

[jathomps68]

KoolerAire is a brand new 12-volt air conditioner that was developed
by an outdoorsman who enjoys Camping, Fishing, and Boating. Like you, he searched the web looking for inexpensive, portable, 12 volt air conditioners with less than favorable results.

[Hamin' X]

Koolaire has been out for a number of years. Before you buy one, I suggest that you read the reviews at Amazon and do a search on "KoolAire" on this forum.

~Rich