It’s 104 degrees outside and your air conditioner is broken. What do you do? Luckily, the innovative folks at HouseholdHacker have devised an AC that will save you some money and give the kids something to do this summer vacation. This $8 AC is so crafty it would make Macgyver jealous.
All you’re going to need is a Styrofoam cooler, ice*, one or two dryer vents and a desk fan.
Don’t be afraid to send us some pictures if you decide to craft one of your own.
This article appears in May 22-28, 2014.
Redneck comfort. What about ice?
it cool but i got good window cooler under patio without sun on it that was 104 degree outside but my 2 bedroom house is 72 degree mmmm I feel so good pass 10 years that I save better than AC that were less than half electric bills is $125.00 a months in summer ! wow that cool
Reminds me of the time we heard an astronaut proclaim, “Houston… We have a problem.”
Ice. A critical component is ice.
Using the containers filled with ice is very clever. Just have lots more in the freezer to repleshishwhen others melt. Ice would be a big mess.
Where do you get a fan like that? I don’t think I’ve ever seen one.
Only problem I see is the raise in humidity and the cost of making the use are not included in the $8.
It looks like a great upcycling project and appeared to work quite well. I’m gonna make one of these just for the fun of it.
This won’t actually cool your house, though… because the energy absorbed from the water when making ice in your freezer is vented from the refrigerator as heat. Since it’s not a perfectly efficient process, ultimately refrigerators vent more heat than they absorb. Add to that the heat generated by the fan, subtract the (much smaller) amount of energy absorbed from the air as the water in the bottles changes state from solid to liquid, and you’ve actually made your home warmer. A better idea would be to put room temperature tap water in the cooler and gain a bit of cooling as the water absorbed energy changing from liquid to gas (an $8 swamp cooler, actually). Or you could make the Ice somewhere else… warming one location in order to cool another (a bit). Either way, when physics are involved, there’s no free lunch. Or even an $8 lunch.
Apparently people can’t read well. The article clearly states ice as one of the items you need.
Connect small tubing to let the waster drain into some flowers or dog bowl. I’m doing this when we camp this week! Sweet
Ice* was added after the first publication.
All this BS is just Stupid
I found the idea very creative, but it also contains some flaws which should be taken care of for e.g ice factor. For better options we can opt for air conditioning port st lucie Florida. For more details visit
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I liked the concept, it is very innovative. But yes I agree that ice is a factor which should be replaced with some other alternative. Otherwise the concept is good. Air con system is a need of our daily life ,so to get the latest updates about the air condition system check http://allweekairconditioning.com/ .