DIY Cooling Projects – Save Money and Beat the Heat

A nationwide heat wave has left retailers across the country scrambling to keep up with the demand for portable cooling appliances. With shelves emptied of mobile air conditioners and swamp coolers, desperate consumers have been left to seek out DIY cooling solutions to get them through the uncomfortably high heat.

We’ve made it easy for you do-it-yourselfers by collecting some of the most creative ideas we’ve seen around the web.

Classic: Keep Cool with Ice and Fans

One of the simplest DIY cooling devices you can put together yourself involves nothing but a fan and a bowl of ice. When the cold ice is placed in front of the fan, the air blowing past it is cooled through what’s called adiabatic heat transfer. The result is a localized cooling effect with a temperature drop of a few degrees in the immediate vicinity of the fan.

While not likely to provide a significant amount of cooling, this method of beating the heat is a step up from just a fan.

Extra tip: Refreeze melted ice instead of just pouring it down the drain.

Ingenious: DIY Air Conditioner

This clever DIY cooling solution mimics the operation of an air conditioner, but it’s built using an ordinary fan and uses water as a refrigerant.

The basic concept works like this: pump ice cold water from a bucket into copper tubing that has been coiled around the grille of an ordinary fan. When the hot air passes over the cold pipes, the air temperature will drop. In principle, it’s the same effect as ice and a fan, but with an automated process that should make it less of a hassle (once it’s built) to keep operational.

You can find dozens of sites with instructions for this DIY cooling project online, along with variations to meet particular cooling needs. Does it work? Fans say it can provide as much as a 5 to 10 degree temperature difference!

Extra tip: The original version of this homemade air conditioner relied on gravity to move water through the pipes – a good thing to keep in mind if you’re suffering from the heat in the middle of a power outage!

Portable: Mini DIY Swamp Cooler

Swamp or evaporative coolers work best in hot, dry climates where evaporation occurs rapidly, cooling the air in the process. Because they’re relatively simply mechanically – they consist of nothing more complex than a fan and a pump – they are a natural favorite for DIY cooling systems.

The simplest homemade swamp cooler doesn’t even use a pump. Simply stretch a piece of fabric in front of a fan with the bottom of the fabric resting in a bucket of cold water. As the fabric gradually absorbs the water, hot air from the fan causes it to evaporate and the air cools.

More elaborate versions can be built inside plastic tubs or other containers, so they are portable, and use pumps to keep the pads properly moistened. The largest version we’ve seen uses a garbage can as a water supply and an HVAC tube to pump cold air into a travel camper. It’s even solar powered, so it can provide cooling even when no electricity is available.

The amount of cooling an evaporative cooler can provide depends entirely on the size of the pads and the strength of the fan. If conditions are right, though, a DIY swamp cooler can lower the surrounding temperature by up to 20 degrees.

Extra tip: Plans and instructions for the projects shown here can be found on Instructables.com.

Plan for the Next Heat Wave

Hopefully, these ideas will help you stay comfortable the next time a heat wave catches you unprepared. But if the idea of doing-it-yourself doesn’t appeal to you, or if these homemade solutions won’t provide the cooling power you need, start shopping for a portable cooling unit today. We have hundreds of in-stock portable air conditioners and swamp coolers ready to ship today.