Solar Cooler in a Can

Step 9 Assemble Your Solar Cooler

This solar cooler is just about ready to go for a test drive. To use it, simply put your food/drink into the capsule, close it up, and put it into the bucket. Then pour water over the capsule until the absorbent medium is full, and take the cooler outside with you. After enough water evaporates, your capsule will be sufficiently cool and ready to eat out of!

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Comments

[Lectric Wizard]

Nice instructable but wouldn't it be easier to use a coffee can or similar to make the food capsule ? Then you wouldn't have the possibility of your food tasting like propane odorant . It is a great idea though !!

[JamesRPatrick]

My original plan called for a coffee can and I spent about an hour looking for one, but nobody in my house drinks coffee. It would probably work better though. As for the propane odorant, there was no scent left in the tank after it was fully drained.

[danneauxs]

yes, i was thinking this while reading. Great inst. & I think I'll try it with a coffee can. I always by metal ones just to keep for storage.

[JamesRPatrick]

By the way, this instructable has been updated with this new version for drinks.

[eulaliaaaa!]

If you look on the mini images, this step looks like Frankenstein!

[ziggiau]

Does it make any difference if you didn't include the middle set of gutter guard (on the inside? i.e. do you need to have some space between the inner can and the wet cloth to allow for air flow, or would it matter if they were touching?

[JamesRPatrick]

I think it actually does better without the inner mesh(more contact), but you end up shoving all the towels down to the bottom of the bucket when you put the capsule in. The next version aims to fix this problem.

[maewert]

Nice instructable.  The principle was once used all over the US before electricity became wide spread. 

I noted there was no mention of the color of the outer container.  Black is a good choice when the unit does not see direct sunlight, since the blackbody radiation would help to shed more heat but would absorb the heat if in the sun, so shade that puppy :-)

Also instead of circles, vertical strips might make for more efficient evaporation since the evaporation process creates a slight upward draft which helps speed up the cooling.  (This is why a hanging towel dries more quickly than one laying on the floor.)  I'm thinking one would want to make vertical slots that maximize the exposed surface area for evaporation while retaining the container's structural integrity.

Anyway, these are just possible improvements to an otherwise good instructable. :-)

[JamesRPatrick]

Thanks for the advice. I'm currently working on a new version which should be up by the end of the week, incorporating vertical drafts and a white exterior.

[abarson]

I'm guessing that this could be up-sized to something like a 5-gallon plastic bucket for the outside, and the one gallon paint can on the inside?

[1hotpilot]

Just how much cooler than ambient does it get? i.e. at 90 degrees F will it keep items 40 F?