Evaporative air cooler for A/C?

[Big time]

How would evaporative air conditioning work in cars?
Evaporative cooler - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

IMO refilling the tank with water would be a minimal hassle, but
* It might not cool enough, specially in hot yet humid climates.
* Air might get too humid, thus air exchange might be needed. It can even be combined with some short cycles of regular A/C to reduce humidity.
* Mildew and fungus might appear on the car upholstery.
* Maybe sloshing due to car movement might be an issue.

Ideas?

[Old Tele man]

...my parents had one on our '55 Ford station wagon, worked great when humidity was low...and the water hadn't evaporated away!

...you can sometimes see one on a car at "oldie" car shows:



...of course, it's NOT very aerodynamic! But, maybe the same idea could be "incorporated" INSIDE the body sheet metal with a NASA inlet air scoop?

...earlier post on this subject: http://ecomodder.com/forum/119943-post16.html

[nemo]

Just looking at that I would think that the increased drag would make standard AC more efficient.

[freebeard]

As Old Tele man showed they are popular with air-cooled VW people. But then so are roof racks filled with ice boxes and vintage luggage.

I had one once, and the problem I had was that if I opened the other window to let air flow back out, that overpowered the cooling effect. If I sealed up there was no air flow through the unit.

[Old Tele man]

...we (on '55 Ford wagon) cracked a rear window on the opposite side for 'cross' flow.

[oil pan 4]

It wont work in miami. They barely work here in the high plains of NewMexico where humity can normally be between 17% and 25%.

[freebeard]

Originally Posted by Old Tele man

...we (on '55 Ford wagon) cracked a rear window on the opposite side for 'cross' flow.

That could work. In 1957 the pop-open rear windows on the Beetle were an option (I didn't have). The driver door vent wasn't effective and just cracking the driver side window overpowered the restricted flow through the 'swamp'.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Swamp-coolers are a popular option among truckers in Brazil, since it doesn't require to get the engine on just to get the A/C on while sleeping.

Look at the top-mounted box: that's the main unit. Some are self-contained, but others have auxiliary water reservoirs to be mounted at random spots in the truck.

[Old Tele man]

...here's an MIT Master's Thesis paper on an automotive evapcooler conditioning system:

http://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/hand...369202.pdf?...

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

It's not so hard to get evaporative coolers in Brazil. My grandma has one in her house.

Joape - Indústria de Equipamentos Ambientais Ltda. - that's a company which makes evaporative coolers in my hometown