The heat is getting crazy here in Alaska : I made a bucket air conditioner

in #diy6 years ago (edited)

For a week straight it’s been in the 80’s, we broke some records too.
Well I was refusing to plug in my floor air conditioner unit, so I made a air conditioner out of a bucket...
I used what I had, so it ain’t pretty. I was pretty desprite for relief, my room was 85° if not more.
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So what you’ll need:
• A plastic container that has a lid( 5 gallon bucket or you could go mega and use a garbage can, I suggest a clean one )
• A fan, one that can have the face plate removed
• a hand held jigsaw with a plastic cutting blade
• a drill
• a 1 1/8” paddle bit
• a 1/4” paddle bit
• a pack of zip ties
• a marker
• old plastic bottle or containers filled with water and frozen to make ice blocks

So first remove the face plate from the fan. I had a mini personal fan, three screws.
Center it on your lid, and use your marker to mark between every other spoke on the inside of the rim. Like a dotted line. Mark where the screws went.

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Now we are going to be cutting the hole for the fan.
Drill a hole large enough for the blade to fit. Then follow your dotted line.
Next use the small paddle bit to drill holes for the zip ties.
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Next attach your zip ties.
Line up your holes on the fan with the ones you drilled. Put your zip tie down through the little hole you drilled, and up through the large opening. Don’t cinch them down yet, wait until you have all of them in place and set. Then go around the lid and cinch them down.
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Next you need to drill the vent holes. I have seen people use pipes and little frilly things to show the air moving. But I didn’t have the materials or the patience to do that. So I drilled three 1 1/8” holes about half way from the top. Remember cold air is heavy, so the lower the vent holes the better. But you have to remember you are using ice, ice melts.
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Pull your ice blocks out of the freezer and stuff as many as you can into the container without hitting the fan.
I was able to get the old vinegar container, a sour cream container, a whipped cream container, one small side bottle, and a Powerade bottle.
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Turn it on and hug the bucket. Yes I really did hug the bucket, it’s so freaking melty here. I know it could be hotter, been there done that. No thank you!

I set the bucket up at the end of my loft bed, it dropped the temp about 5 degrees. But it was nice to have cool air. I even have a box fan hanging from the ceiling, but it wasn’t helping. With the two of them going it was tollarable.

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We still ended up going to the lake, one of the kids got a leach. All I heard was a kid freak out and scream “leach leach leach”, like prince Navean off the Princess and the frog. So I quickly stopped my van. They where able to pull it off, but they dropped it on the seat and it started to crawl towards them. The poor kid tried to climb through the seat to get away! One of their siblings was the hero and helped them get the leach into a napkin.
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Well after the lake we where good until the house started to heat up again. I asked the hubby to go buy some ice because I used up all my blocks. The damn ice machines broke at the gas station so they had one out of three working and it was “crushed ice”.
Well shit!
So I broke down and started up my floor unit. I have it set to 70° and on a six hour timer. It’s all fine and good after 8pm. The sun is still up, but it’s not like heat of southern Idaho.
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So that all happened yesterday, yep 😑

Oh we also harvested 10 pea pods 🤤 I already ate some.
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Hope you all are keeping cool.

Life in Alaska

• All photos and content are our own. Please do not use any part of this post without our expressed permission. Thanks for not being a dick •

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That's a cool idea, that bucket! I don't have AC, I wish! Its been pretty hot here too, 38 celsius with the humidity today and under a storm watch, had an amazing lightning show last night though! 🌩

Thanks 😊 I have seen a few people have made them, but no step by step. It works okay, I think if I could have had a tote and a larger fan it would work better. But to cool my loft area it’s alright.
My AC units are 9-10 years old. The old house had only crank open windows so we couldn’t get a small window unit. I had to rig the vent and window opening with wedges of plywood to keep the heat and bugs out. I think the year we got them it was in the 90’s.

I would be a bit weary of the lightning, it’s been very dry here.
Today we finally got a breeze. Supposedly we are suppose to be getting tropical storm aftermath. They have been saying that for the past week, but nothing.
Everyone is freaking out with the storm coming saying it’s going to be a mosquito-geddon. That a crap ton of eggs form last fall will hatch or some crap like that.

Uggg! Its getting waay too hot here too (U.K.) - Unseasonably hot!
I have a fan like yours... i may even try and copy what you have done lol

Leaches - Horrible little suckers!

Try it! It helps a bit.

I have never really delt with leaches before. I know their medical history uses, some leaches are still used in medicine.

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