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[johnny_cat]

I've kind of stood the window fan up on it's short side using my 15 and 30 pound dumbbells as anchors to hold it in place. It's blowing air directly on me which is preventing my ass from sticking to the seat. However, I want to improve my design. I have several large cardboard boxes in my room, and I was thinking of duct taping one of them to the fan and placing a jug of frozen water in there. The idea is that the cardboard box would force the air that the fan is sucking in to flow past the frozen water, hopefully cooling it marginally in the process.

How well do you guys think this would work?

[Zrk2]

This is very dorfy. I demand further testing.

I imagine the results will be minimal though.

[ein]

I've seen something like this.
The person ran the cold water through copper tubes, though.

[GlyphGryph]

Now, this SHOULD work, though it would work better (for less time) with maximum surface area. Still, this should work. A better idea might be a large flat container full of ice cubes.

[johnny_cat]

It works dude. The temperature of the air being pushed through is noticeably lower by at least 10 degrees or so, and that's just with a couple packs of frozen peas.

To improve the design, I think I could go out and buy a few smaller water bottles rather than using the milk jug.

[userpay]

It works dude. The temperature of the air being pushed through is noticeably lower by at least 10 degrees or so, and that's just with a couple packs of frozen peas.

To improve the design, I think I could go out and buy a few smaller water bottles rather than using the milk jug.

Probably more than a few and a fast freezer because it sounds like they'd melt pretty quick. A good idea either way with limited resources.

[johnny_cat]

It works dude. The temperature of the air being pushed through is noticeably lower by at least 10 degrees or so, and that's just with a couple packs of frozen peas.

To improve the design, I think I could go out and buy a few smaller water bottles rather than using the milk jug.

Probably more than a few and a fast freezer because it sounds like they'd melt pretty quick. A good idea either way with limited resources.

You'd be surprised how long they'd be able to stay frozen. 6 bottles of water, keep 3 in the freezer, and by the time the ones in the box are melted, the ones in the freezer should be ready to swap out.

[optimumtact]

You should design a grid holding system to hold the bottles so that the air is channeled past all sides of each bottle

-------------------------------------------
|                         ||                         |
|     Bottle here  ||     Bottle here  |
====================
|                         ||                         |
|    Bottle here   ||    Bottle here   |
-------------------------------------------

Repeat this as needed, you could do it with stacked ice cube holders as well. You could further improve it by
using more heat conductive materials as the bottle holders.

[GlyphGryph]

At a certain point, though, there's definitely a trade off where the air becomes too cold and the bottles are melting too fast anyways.

Sounds like he's not that far from the happy equilibrium now.

[alway]

Be sure the freezer you use isn't in the room; they generate more heat than is removed from the water. This is problematic for obvious reasons when trying to cool the room.

[Urist McDerp]

I once visited New Mexico during a heat-wave. I took a set of long johns (pajama undershirt and pants) and affixed a grid of water-tight zip-lock pouches to it. Fill each pocket with a few ice cubes. Wear clothing on top to insulate the ice from the outside temp, and the long johns will protect you from the ice. Replace when cubes in the pockets as they melt.

It worked too well, but it was kind of fun. As fun as going from ice-burning to oven-burning can be.

Also, do you have a water squirt bottle? Utilize artificial sweat. That's much easier.

[Tellemurius]

You mean make a swamp cooler? basically constantly run cool water across a cloth and have a fan blowing through it, humidifies the air but instant cooling especially in dry areas.

[Farmerbob]

I've kind of stood the window fan up on it's short side using my 15 and 30 pound dumbbells as anchors to hold it in place. It's blowing air directly on me which is preventing my ass from sticking to the seat. However, I want to improve my design. I have several large cardboard boxes in my room, and I was thinking of duct taping one of them to the fan and placing a jug of frozen water in there. The idea is that the cardboard box would force the air that the fan is sucking in to flow past the frozen water, hopefully cooling it marginally in the process.

How well do you guys think this would work?

It will work poorly.  That's a big block of ice and will take forever to melt, the slower it melts the less effective it's gonna be.

I'd suggest freezing a few small bottles of water and holding them between your legs.  Seriously.  Wrap them in a washcloth to keep them from damaging your skin.

When they melt, replace them with another.

If the air is dry, you might try lightly wetting a light cotton t-shirt with water and putting it on, then turning the fan directly at you.  This would take more maintenance, as in dry air, the t-shirt will dry fairly fast.  In wet air, it will just make you hotter.

There are special cooling systems called evaporative coolers, but if your financially strapped, a wet t-shirt will be the better choice.

[Farmerbob]

**Two posts were created - the top is the "I really don't have any money at all" post.  This one is the "I have some money, but not enough to fix / install / run AC"**

If you can afford one, a big, powerful fan can do amazing things for cooling.

When I was around 20, I had roommates move out of an apartment we shared.  I could not afford AC either.

I bought a really powerful fan, something like this: http://tinyurl.com/3jzx9m7

I set it up in June, in South Carolina, where the heat is NOT dry heat, and I moved it to whatever room I was in.

The first night I set it up to cool me as I slept, I woke up freezing my arse off because I was sweating and the fan was wicking the moisture off me so fast I was cold.

That fan served me very well for years.

The fan linked above is the closest thing I could find to the fan I had.

You don't want some crap box fan if you are trying to stay cool in hot weather, you want a powerful industrial fan that will force you to put rocks on your stacks of paper, or the paper will tornado around the room.

[Blargityblarg]

I have evaporative cooling, which is, to put it bluntly, fucking wonderful. The only problem is the humidity it creates; if it's especially humid, doors can be coated in condensation, and shit rusts much more quickly than usual.

E: Also cheaper to run than refrigerative by a long margin