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Originally Posted by t vago
Uhm... Why not just re-install the A/C?
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Trying to find a way to reduce weight and engine parasitic loss, while keeping cool on most short trips. Plus, just trying to think creatively.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ProDarwin
How long do you plan on driving? You would need a HUGE reservoir to do any substantial trip.
Installing AC would be the best option.
Alternate options:
Cool-shirt (DIY setup info all over the lemons forums: Summer Approaches : share your best cool shirt/seat setup links (Page 1))
Cool seat. IIRC someone on the lemons forum did a cool seat as well. Just took the cover off the seat, pushed some copper tubing into the foam, and put a little bit of foam on top. This could easily be converted to a warm seat in the winter as well 
(The above was with a fixed back seat which is well insulated on the backside due to the fiberglass construction) |
Some neat DIY stuff there!
I'll have to keep some of those in mind.
Average trip time: ~10 minutes.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mort
Hi NoD,
An average car A/C provides about 50,000 BTU/H of cooling with an added engine load of about 6 HP. A ton of ice has the cooling power equivalent to 12,000 BTU/H over 24 hours. So to have the same cooling as an average A/C means melting ice at the rate of 1 ton every 6 hours. If you don't need the A/C on full blast, and as you say, your trips are short, maybe you can figure on an hour at 24,000 BTU/H. So you'd need to load up with 166 lbs of ice. In your car an extra 166 lbs might increase fuel consumption by 1 mpg. That's a block of about 3 cu. ft. of ice, which doesn't sound like much space to me. The local liquor store sells crushed ice: 10 lb bags for about a buck each, and 2 bags are a little less than 1 cu. ft.
If you have a lot of free ice, and space to carry it, this should work fine.
-mort
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Thanx for the math skills in use. I think this is more what I was after, just didn't know how to go about asking it I guess. Looks like it was take WAY more storage (as well as weight) put into the ice alone to make this work.
Quote:
Originally Posted by drmiller100
idaho has very low humidity.
you are better off figuring out an EVAP system - swamp cooler style.
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That was my 2nd thought on the matter if a small ice canister was just not going to work. Would replacing the evap coil of the AC with a simple high-pressure mister system work decently? Would be easy to wire up the pump to turn on with the AC switch and wouldn't take very much water...