Mini Swamp Cooler

Here is a quick, simple and cheap instructable! Overall this project should be 5-10 dollars if your buying everything new. You may need 15 minutes to build this, unless your rampaging through all your drawers looking for the materials.

How a swamp cooler works:
The evaporating water in the swamp cooler draws away heat making it cold inside. The fan draws the cold air out of it, cooling surrounding areas. The warmer it is in the room the cooler it blows.

Materials:
-Computer fan = $5
-9v battery = $1
-Popsicle sticks (8 or so) = free
-Plastic Bag = free
-Glue sticks (Hot glue gun) = (5 pack) $2
-Water = free
-Switch (optional) = $2

Tools:
-Hot Glue Gun = $5 -10

Step 1: Standing the Fan Up

This is where your hot glue gunning skills come in handy!

Glue 2 Popsicle sticks one each corner, it provides the stability you need. If your wires are very long make sure to wrap your wires around a little bit so you don't have to cut and splice.

You can trim the tops if you want to make a cleaner look.

Comments

[wkahlich]

is that ice you put inside the plastic bag?

[chuynator98]

its a great idea!! now you can put it in a t-shirt

[Swix]

I made something that looks very similar to this, using it to make glue dry faster. saves lots of time ;]

[yousouf]

i suggest you to put a thing that can keep the air going in one direction but III love it

[nutsandbolts_64]

I had one problem with this sort of thing: the plastic bag sort of restricts the flow of air thus very low speed = not much power = not much air conditioning = very hot time = weird facepalms so I came up with something that will be presented instructable-wise in a few days since I have other business to attend to

[happytoaster]

i have a question. How do you connect the fan to the battery? Don't computer fans connect to computer so their wires are designed for that?

[natester632]

cut the connector plastic piece ans re-strip the wires and attatch them to a 9v plug/ adaptor thingy :)

[james13098]

sweet

[souichi]

how will you refill? i prefer bottle or metal plates because plastic can make problems

[chazskinz]

totally awesome....and there's a solar one too?!
you rock!

[temp]

Do you know why it's called a swamp cooler? That doesn't really make sense.

[animed]

early swamp coolers would grow algae and get a 'swampy' smell. The technical name is evaporative cooler

[ANDY!]

maybe it gets used in swamps. i just called my ible that cause everyone said it was.

[beehard44]

it won't be efficient in swamps because of the humidity

[ANDY!]

wow, this is taking a spin.

[donaoh]

Hi, im new to all this, so i apologise if my question seems irrelevent and silly. I was wondering how the wires are attatched to the battery? Are they wrapped around the end bits?

[Geeko]

Actually mine had this little knobs on them which made them stay, kinda cool really. Some people may tape, solder, or just by and a adapter. So its really your choice.

[Geeko]

Yea, your all right it isn't really a "Swamp cooler" but it could act like one in a hot enough setting. It is an A/C but this is just my first mini version I got plenty of ideas for the V2. Thanks for straitening it out for me, but what should I call it. Just a mini A/C?

[lemonie]

It's almost the same as this: http://www.instructables.com/id/Mini-Solar-Air-Conditioner/ except the two work on different principles. As it happens that one was only called a "Swamp cooler" later (not realising that it was initially). Like zxcv says, you're isn't strictly speaking, but it's a nice variation on the design.

L

[zxcv]

I don't know if this qualifies as a "Swamp Cooler" as well. Swamp Cooler works by the evaporation of water in the air. The water changing state from liquid to gas absorbs heat from the air and thus cools the air. In essence this uses the changing state from ice to water in the same way and essentially is the same. I think of "Swamp Cooler" as a cooler that evaporates water into the air (making it cooler but swamp like,) or thinking of my Uncle's Swamp Cooler that had all sorts of green stuff on it from years of use (cooler from the black lagoon.) Either way, not a bad instructable to make, although I would focus the air across the water, maybe using one more bag and two more popsicle sticks diverting the air over the ice and out the top. Or better yet, divert the air to blow in a direction, thus making a portable air conditioner for the office cubicle. Free ice, free power, stingy air conditioning. With the current setup I don't know if it would actually cool the surrounding air any more than the ice alone. Fan heat < increased evaporation via airflow over ice in a bag?