Cheap DIY Air Conditioner

I built this completely with materials found around my house.
This is NOT meant to cool down a whole room, it just creates a nice cool breeze. 

Materials Needed:
Coleman Personal8 Cooler (or similar)
Small, cheap styrofoam cooler (usually under $10) will also work. 

3 PVC elbow joints, about 1/2 in. ID (around $1 each at hardware store)

Drill with bit same size as OD of PVC elbows

Computer fan (about $5 from radioshack)

12v transformer* (not sure where to buy these...)

6 empty gatorade bottles

Duct tape (about $10 from radioshack)

Extension cord w/ switch (not totally necessary, but nice to have)

Xacto knife

*transformer only necessary for a 12v fan, you can get a different one for different voltage fans of just install a plug if you have a 120v fan.

Step 1: Cut Hole For Fan

Put the fan up against the back of the cooler, mark with pencil around the outside of it, and cut out a square hole for the fan. Push the fan into the hole. A tight fit is good; it lets less air escape. 

Comments

[bdemirci]

Great instructable, especially the tip about the gatorade bottles. Most other AC guides are structurally similar, but they all (?) instruct to add ice and water directly into the cooler. Keeping it in bottles really helps make the ice/melted water portable and lets you place the intake fan directly in the cooler.

Something I personally did is make 2 sets of the gatorade six-pack, and keep one in the freezer. When one six-pack melts, I simply put it back in the freezer and switch it with the second one. By the time the second one melts, the first set in the freezer is already frozen and good to go. And again, the bottles make switching out the ice/water a LOT faster than if you just dumped it in the cooler like the others.

[it_dont_work]

a good improvment could be to add salt to the water bottles so after they've been froven they'll take alot longer to defrost

[cambigfoot]

cool but how is it for school? a hot dorm room? lol

[PosterGrampa]

For a Fan you can use a computer case fan alonge with a power supply from a computer also. So next time you are scrapping out your old computer save the case fan and switching power supply. That way you are only buying the pipe & duct tape for your air conditioner making it a cheep build. Regards, PG