July 16, 2013 - Homebrew Air Conditioning (Version 2.0)

My 1987 Dodge Daytona EV will be attending the Electric Vehicle Converter's Convention (EVCCON) out in Cape Girardeau, Missouri very shortly, during the first full week of August in one of the hottest summers of recent memory.

The ice chest based automotive air conditioner concept test run from the previous video, using the nearly empty engine compartment of an old 1988 Dodge Daytona Pacifica, was more-or-less successful.

Unfortunately, with all of the batteries and other components crammed into the engine compartment of my current Daytona EV, there is just not enough space to fit even a modest sized ice chest in there as well. So, I started looking for a way to make this fascinating air conditioning setup actually work in that vehicle as well, somehow...

Ironically, what I came up with was a completely portable ice chest solution that I can theoretically place in the rear hatch area of the Daytona (on top of the rear battery box) which ended up being more-or-less identical to the unit built by the Instructables user "CameronSS" from which I got the whole idea from in the first place:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Porta...

This video covers my particular take on this rather clever concept. Here is a list of the parts/cost of each component that I ended up using:

1x - Portable Ice Chest (~$20)
1x - 1200 GPH Bilge Pump (~$38)
2x - 1985 Chevy S10 Heater Core (~$30 ea)
1x - 5' PVC Reinforced Braided Vinyl Tubing (~$1 per foot)
5x - Hose Clamps (~$1 ea)
3x - Plastic Dryer Vent Covers (~$13 ea)
3x - 120mm PC Cooling Fans (~$15 ea)
1x - Automotive Mini-Fuse Holder (~$3)
1x - 12v DC Vehicle Adapter Plug (~$6)

So all of that works out to about $225, plus some other incidentals, such as a couple of used Molex connectors, a few zip ties, some screws, etc. I already had the computer fans kicking around, so the total cost for me personally on this project was closer to $180.