Great!! Remember, as long as you keep the water circulating through the evaporator below 50 degrees, you have a true AC unit. Basically you created a chilled water system like they use in large buildings. Chiller provides the cold water used to cool spaces. Your chiller is the ice cooler.

I would now incorporate a thermostat to turn the pump and fan on and off based on cabin temp :)

You might also want to use your experiment and try it on a smaller cooler. You will get the same results however will need to replenish ice more often. Might be worth the trouble to replenish ice rather than a 48qt cooler.

I remember something about dry ice gassing off something bad. Oops:eek:
Thanks

dry ice is just frozen carbon dioxide...not a good choice.

WHere will you store the ice while 48qt is being used, anouther 48 Qt. Seems bulky to me. You can always use your genset to burn fuel to keep freezer cold. Waste of money again.
I like the 12 volt stat Idea you have, that would conserv the ice longer. If you could get block ice it would last longer maybe, still very economical idea for AC.
Great idea, just condense overall picture.
My 2cents:party-smiley-004:
B38

Great! Glad it worked out. Also like to see pics.

But wasn't your original topic all the lines of limited space?
A hatch air is about the same size a a 48qt cooler. Only need a small gen, which would not be limited to AC use only and no need to store ice. Providing $$ isn't a driving factor.

sounds like your onto a marketable product

nice work.

I am very interested in this as a winter project. I have no hatches, so hatch air doesn't work. I'm not really hip about lugging a generator around either.

the biggest drawback for me, would be finding a way to store the ice all day till at night, when I am ready to crash, without having it melt.

Very interested in your thread. Great job!

Very sweet! The term i have generally heard for this type of unit is a "Swamp Cooler" The dry ice is not a bad idea... It lasts a VERY long time but you might want a place to vent the c02 from the dry ice evaporating so you dont push all the oxygen out of your cabin!

Not worth betting your life on it working.

a "swamp cooler" is just an evaporative cooler and not a true AC unit. Evaporative cooling is huge in the dry climates (AZ) where the ambient air is so dry. Swamp coolers in humid areas results in nothing more than cool WET air (Lowering temp but not removing moisture). True AC removes moisture and cools the air.