[alligator]

I'm going to be going camping during the hottest part of the summer here. I don't like hot weather (which is why I live in Minnesota). Camping is fine in the spring or fall, but I'm stuck camping in late July on this trip - which is not by choice. I'll be camping by my car, so I won't have to walk far.


(This is a sample wilderness photo to get you in the right mindset.)

Since I'm pretty handy with gadgets and electrical items, I thought I'd make a portable battery powered air conditioner. I was hoping you'd help me out. I want to make an a/c unit out of a 12 volt fan, Peltier cooler, and a 12 volt deep cycle marine battery. I have the battery already, but I'd have to buy the fan and Peltier cooler.

A Peltier cooler like this:


and a fan like this:


Anyone have any better ideas?

[RAILhead]

just hook up an oscillating fan to a battery.

[chabig]

Pitch your tent in the shade.

[Face Ache]

[d4nth3m4n]

you f'n pussy. man up.

seriously though, rig something that uses the frost from the propane canister of the grill and rock it that way. i had a propane refrigerator for most of my youth..

[The Godfather]

Peltier coolers are extremely inefficient compared to freon compression systems. Get yourself a mini refrigerator and use the guts to make your A/C.

[Mithras]

Freeze a bunch of water bottles, keep them in a cooler, and take a couple with you to bed at night. Worked for me in the Amazon jungles of Peru

[mdc]

+



And one of these for when you go hiking.

[mac128k-1984]

Dude suck it up, either stay in a motel/hotel or go camping.

An air conditioner for a tent - don't be such a wuss.

[Spook E]

Originally Posted by alligator 

I don't like hot weather

I'm stuck camping in late July on this trip - which is not by choice.

I'll be camping by my car, so I won't have to walk far.

That is so limp, you should just stay home in front of the computer

[alligator]

Guys, relax. I've done this trip many times before in very hot weather. Last year it was 99 degrees the day before I left - and that's with high humidity. This year I decided to try to make it more enjoyable and I just happen to enjoy electronics.

I've got an idea about how to build it, I just wanted to see if there was a better idea. Ice wouldn't last because I will be gone too long. I'll let you know if it works.

[mac128k-1984]

Well if you enjoy electronics stay in front of the computer as Spook E mentioned.

Camping is done to enjoy nature, not to enjoy electronics. There's a time and place for everything and having an air conditioner in a tent is not one of them. If it gets too hot, just sleep outside w/o a tent. I've done that before and its absolutely awesome - falling asleep under the stars. Nothing beats that.

Enjoy the beauty of being outside and not worry about using your electronics. It will be there when you get back from your trip

[mduell]

You're not going to achieve much. With the massive heat flux through the sides of the tent and a tiny little peltier run off a battery, you're not going to get a noticeable change.

If you want a real change, buy a window A/C unit and a generator, and take a lot of gas with you.

[chabig]

Originally Posted by alligator 

I'll let you know if it works.

Don't bother...it won't work.

[Ghoser777]

Don't take any clothes with you either - I mean, if you're going to enjoy nature, you should go in the nude!

[Ganesha]

If ice won't last long enough, what makes you think your battery will? Not that this will work, cause it won't.

Even if you had a real small AC unit, you would only be about to run it for a 2-3 hours off a large (13.2 V 55 AHr) battery assuming the battery could deliver such current without a degradation in vs 0.1 C performance. Since the efficiency Peltier is much less, you would only get tens of minutes of lifetime at the same cooling level. But since a Peltier can't pump nearly enough heat to overcome the heat flux going into your tent the entire point of how much power you have is moot.

[Tenacious Dyl]

I agree, the power consumption of effective cooling systems is just too steep, and the ones that you could power wouldn't do much good when your only insulation is ... a tent.

I'd just suggest a couple good fans and light clothes, get your tent positioned (if possible) so that some wind can blow through your front and back screens, the worst is coming back from a hike or river trip to find that your tent has just been stagnating for hours and has become an oven!

Hope you have fun!

[chabig]

You do realize that Peltier junctions don't "make" cold, don't you? Sure, one side gets cold, but the other side gets hot. And overall, you're putting out more heat than cold because energy from the battery is going out as heat.

[CMYKid]

..annnnnd in humid conditions you're gonna have some water to collect.

[RAILhead]

I can't wait to hear how all this pans out.

[Railroader]

I say you build one of those things Harrison Ford built in Mosquito Coast.

[vmarks]

A swamp cooler cools air by evaporation

A swamp cooler (more formally called an evaporative cooler) is essentially a large box-like frame containing a big fan and walled in by water-wetted pads, usually made of cedar shavings or cellulose. The fan whooshes the hot outside air through the dripping pads (which are continually soaked by a water pump), cooling the air by about 20 ºF as the air evaporates water molecules from the pads. The fan then blows the water-cooled air through the house and out a deliberate vent.

Use a windshield wiper moter (12v) to power your fan.

[peeb]

Swamp coolers can work well in tents.

[CMYKid]

Originally Posted by peeb 

Swamp coolers can work well in tents.

again with the water, but worse now because rather than condensing on the heatsink the waters gonna end up on you and the walls of the tent.

[Tenacious Dyl]

Whatever happens... please bring back some pictures

(The mental image of the swamp cooler turning the tent into more of a pool just got me laughing out loud)

[Visnaut]

So if you're not going to be far from your car, why don't you just sleep in there with the AC on if it gets too hot?

[Cipher13]

I go camping quite a lot, sometimes in some pretty extreme environments (where during the day it can get up to 120 F), and it's impossible to sleep in past sunrise. I've found two solutions to this.

Firstly, don't go to sleep so late that you need to sleep past sunrise to be rejuvenated. That never works for me, but it does for others.

Alternatively, ditch the tent. Get a hammock kit - the kind that has an aluminium frame that can be dismantled, which suspends a "hammock" of sorts that is more like a small (one-person) hanging tent, with an opaque top, and screen around all four sides.

Kinda like this:

Stick your sleeping bag inside and you'll be warm enough, the screen keeps out mosquitoes, and when it starts to get hot, you've got the wind flowing straight through the tent cooling it.

[itistoday]

I see nothing wrong with this idea. You can't "enjoy nature" if nature doesn't allow you to. That's like saying he should sit on an anthill with a sh*t-eating grin because ants are a "part of nature." If it's really so hot and humid as to make the nature trip unenjoyable, then more power to him for trying out innovative ideas to make it a worth-while experience. After all, if you were to really subscribe to that ridiculous idea (to avoid hypocrisy), then you'd best forgo the clothes on your back, that watch, the compass, the flashlight, and f*ck, the polyester tent as well.

[Mithras]

Incidentally, with an adequate cooler, the ice can certainly last long enough. We keep sealed coolers with ice at least 2 weeks into a Colorado river trip, where it's over 100 every day.

[ShortcutToMoncton]

Originally Posted by mac128k-1984 

Camping is done to enjoy nature, not to enjoy electronics. There's a time and place for everything and having an air conditioner in a tent is not one of them. If it gets too hot, just sleep outside w/o a tent. I've done that before and its absolutely awesome - falling asleep under the stars. Nothing beats that.

I agree with the sentiment, and I don't know where alligator lives, but you've obviously never slept outside anywhere where there are black flies or mosquitos. You'd be dead by morning.

greg

[mac128k-1984]

Oh I have, but when I go camping, its usually after the black flies and I don't do the sleeping outside under the stars all of the time just for that reason

[The Godfather]

Do you live near a Walmart? If so, get this swamp cooler.
Sunpentown Evaporative Air Cooler - Wal-Mart