Staying cool with out air conditioning

[dremd]

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

I went from 30 feet of randomly coiled tube in the quick and dirty proof of concept test to between 80 to 90 feet of tightly packed fairly uniform tube as you see here.
On the left you have all the return lines, on the right is the feed line.

Remember, this is just one section out of as many as 2 to 4 sections.
If this doesn't do it I don't know what will.

That looks great as long as you can get the water through it which should be no problem with a diaphragm pump.

[dremd]

I figured I'd add that I ran copper tubing wrapped around the evaporator feed line from thermal expansion valve as a cooler. I could usually cool my butt off enough on Decel which of course cut my coasting distance, but I felt was worth the trade off.
I always wanted to have both a resovoir and the factory A/C heat pickup on a separate loop with a thermostat for extended No a/c run time, but the Golf got totaled before that happened.

I also no longer switch off my ignition switch in traffic after a close friend nearly died after stopping for a fire truck and a loaded 18 wheeler plow in to the back of the car behind him with the cruise still set at 81 mph. 4 others died all in front of him. The wheel bag that deployed was actually out of my totaled golf.
It's been a very noticeable hit in MPG for me, enough so that I'm considering picking up a Leaf as a second (local only) car to save the TDI for heavy (I don't believe the leaf likes anything over 1,50lbs behind it) towing and highway towing.

[Varn]

I think if you are trying to stay cool the butt is not the place to do it, there is a layer of fat there. Neck and head are where it is needed first, there is also a generous blood supply in the kidneys (lower back). Build yourself a beanie or turban to cool your head.

Hard to justify cooling you poorly when you have to use the energy or money to make or buy the ice. You will be needing extra electricity to power the pump too.

[Cycle]

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

My amp meter says the pump draws a little under 2 amps at 11 volts (the jump pack is getting low on power).

Get a brushless mag-drive pump. You don't have to worry about brushes wearing out, you can PWM control it to vary the speed, there are no pump seals to wear out or leak, and the pump takes a lot less juice because there's no seal friction to overcome.

The coolant pumps I'll be using on my bike (US Solar Pumps, model TL-C11H) pump 10 lpm with a head of 0.75 meters, they each take ~6 watts.

In a recirculating system with all the air out of it, the only head is the flow resistance of the system, so the pump's not working very hard to lift the water, since the weight of the water balances going up and coming down whatever height you're pumping it to.

[cgraner]

search YouTube for Homemade Air Conditioner DIY - The "5 Gallon Bucket" Air Cooler! DIY- can be solar powered!

I would assume a variation of one of these could work in a car. Maybe set it up in the back seat, passenger seat, hatch area, etc. Solar powered too

[oil pan 4]

Originally Posted by dremd

Where did you find the Smaller Sureflo pump? .

It was used in my water injection system. I bought the pump back in 2010 on sale for $50 or $60 from northern tool.
I am replacing my water injection pump with a much bigger, much more expensive version.

[oil pan 4]

Originally Posted by Varn

I think if you are trying to stay cool the butt is not the place to do it, there is a layer of fat there. Neck and head are where it is needed first, there is also a generous blood supply in the kidneys (lower back). Build yourself a beanie or turban to cool your head.

Hard to justify cooling you poorly when you have to use the energy or money to make or buy the ice. You will be needing extra electricity to power the pump too.

The water pump will draw an average of about 0.5 to 1 amps.
I know the pump draws 2 amps, I think the pump will only run about 25% of the time.
This system will draw less electrical power than what it takes to engage the electric clutch on an A/C compressor, never mind what it takes to constantly run the engine cooling fan and the blower (up to 25 amps continuous load) and the engine power it takes to drive both the A/C compressor and alternator.
I have already established freezing the ice and using it for targeted cooling will only require a tiny fraction of the energy needed for traditional blanket cooling an entire vehicle, no matter how you cut it.

The lower cooling pad is only 1 of up to 4 cooling pads. Lower back pad is next.

How is it cooling poorly me if after 20 minutes its cold enough to be uncomfortable and at 30 minutes its cold enough to start to physically hurt?

The original goal was for

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

the seat cooler to have the ability to make the seat occupier uncomfortably cold.

. The original goal was nearly met with my quick and dirty proof of concept test then far exceeded by my first build.

[oil pan 4]

Originally Posted by Cycle

The coolant pumps I'll be using on my bike (US Solar Pumps, model TL-C11H) pump 10 lpm with a head of 0.75 meters, they each take ~6 watts.

This pump I have will average about 6 watts of power consumption.

[oil pan 4]

Originally Posted by cgraner

search YouTube for Homemade Air Conditioner DIY - The "5 Gallon Bucket" Air Cooler! DIY- can be solar powered!

I would assume a variation of one of these could work in a car. Maybe set it up in the back seat, passenger seat, hatch area, etc. Solar powered too

Here is something I posted in response to an ice bucket with fan post question:

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

Since I understand how refrigeration works, no I have not built one.

I don't think it will cool worth a crap.

Like Daox said, I believe in liquid cooled seats. With the ice water cooled seats you are pretty much only trying too cool heat your body puts off.

The ice to air cooler has to cool the air, you and the heat you put off, plus all the heat coming into the car from solar radiation, thermal conduction from the out side environment which includes engine heat coming through the floor and fire wall.

If you want to cool off using ice, buy a 10 pound block and set it in your lap (the primitive version of cooled seats).

Here is why it wont work to cool the interior of your car.
Small to mid size car air conditioners seem to put out some where between 2,000 to 5,000 BTUs per hour when stopped in traffic with a heat soaked condenser with minimal air flow and A/C compressor turning at idle speed.
In large SUVs and luxury cars on the highway cooling capacity could easily exceed 12,000BTUs per hour.

A bucket with 10lb of ice and a fan has a cooling capacity of some where around 1,440BTUs in the amount of time it takes it to melt (I am thinking well over an hour).
That would work great if you were only trying to cool your back and bottom. At rest I believe a person puts off something like 400 BTUs per hour.

If you could melt 10 pounds of ice for whole vehicle air cooling every 20 or 30 minutes, it would work in theory/on paper (which means it rarely ever works out the way you think it will).

[oil pan 4]

To get power to the cooler I am going to install a simple 2 wire, single trailer brake light connector under the seat. Make the wire between 1 and 2 feet long.
In my Camaro this will be real easy, just splice into the power to the electric seat. In my suburban I will have to run wire from a power source some where.