Portable AC

Stingray Don

Stingray Don

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Stingray Don
An overboard dump for the condenser air discharge would be mandatory, otherwise the heated air will negate the cooled air from the evaporator.

Condenser discharge temperature on an R-134 unit is over 100 degrees.

Maybe the discharge could be routed through an opening in the rear bulkhead into the aft fuselage, or an adapter of sorts could be made to direct it out the small vent window in a Piper. The condensate drain? Get out yer cordless drill and a unibit. :D

I like their claim it will cool a room to 44 degrees. Yeah, if the outdoor ambient temp is around 50. :D
 
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Ya think?

1100 BTUH means it'll president vide a cool breeze in an airplane cabin, but won't cool the cabin materially.
 
SCCutler said:
Ya think?

1100 BTUH means it'll president vide a cool breeze in an airplane cabin, but won't cool the cabin materially.
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The average sized human generates 400-600 BTUH sitting still. Add the environmental heat gain and it looks like a losing proposition. :D
 
Stingray Don said:
Interesting portable AC unit. Uses R134 instead of relying on loading a cooler with ice. Runs 5 hours on battery power. The only issue I see is they recommend running the provided exhaust pipe outside to vent hot air and a drain pipe for the condensation when using indoors. Not sure how you would vent and drain in the plane.

Oh wise denizens of POA, what say you?

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1253665084/zero-breeze-the-worlds-coolest-portable-air-condit
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Venting is easy, send it through the rear fuselage access port. You could ghetto an adapter with a plastic plate, sawzall and duct tape. Drain the condensate in to a jug. But, as stated, that BTU capacity will be ineffective.
 
Stingray Don said:
Interesting portable AC unit. Uses R134 instead of relying on loading a cooler with ice. Runs 5 hours on battery power. The only issue I see is they recommend running the provided exhaust pipe outside to vent hot air and a drain pipe for the condensation when using indoors. Not sure how you would vent and drain in the plane.

Oh wise denizens of POA, what say you?
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Ain't nuthin' a big ol' hammer and punch couldn't fix....:yesnod::lol:

But wait, am I missing something? These units aren't built yet. It seems we are supposed to pledge money to build the company first, then the units are built, and then the units are shipped?
 
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I like the concept, but this draining this and that is a pain. I want to plug and play and be done with with it, if there was an easier way to vent that hot air out my 182 I'd even consider two of these units

For now I'll stick with my arctic air
 
Intriguing though it's not particularly novel. Frankly, you can probably do as well with a Peltier cooler. Back when I was involved in science fiction convention constuming efforts, they'd build little air conditioner packs out of Peltiers. You need to still have somewhere to blow the hot air which can be problematic in an airplane. For instance, the logical place in the Navion is in an area that's actually in a higher pressure than the cabin so you're fan would also have to fight the pressure differential going the wrong way (air flows in all over the Navion and it exits around the canopy). And as mentioned, the thing is going to condense water which is either going to have to be tanked or drained off.

I've got this thing called a Movin Cool in my hangar. It pulls a lot of water out of the air while blowing hot air out a 12" duct on one side and cold air out 2 6" robbie the robot arms on the front.
 
I'm sure the issue is the amount of available power to run the thing, not the ability to design a Freon system large enough. A 10 amp cig lighter socket will provide 120 watts of power, hardly enough to cool a hot plane.
 
I've dabbled in cockpit cooling with some of the ice based products and here's the conclusion I've come to on the subject.

The only time you really need A/C is in the period between getting into the aircraft and takeoff and maybe the period between touchdown and taxing to the ramp. Admittedly, that's longer for some of us than others but my general feeling is that most of the ice solutions have been more effort than they're worth(nm the price). You end up taking longer getting the ice into the freezer the night before, loading it up, connecting the wires, etc than you have to endure the heat. Then you've also got this thing taking up a bunch of space in the cabin... and with the ice based ones now you have to dump it and clean it out after the flight. It's just not worth it on all but the most unbearable days.

Now this product solves the ice problem which is big and since all you really need is a cool breeze across your neck so you're not sitting in a puddle of your own sweat it might just be a workable solution... but you still have this expensive rig you have to lug into the plane and plug in. Sure not a big deal but we already have so many other things to remember on any given flight one more thing just seems that much more burdensome.

I might be temped to try one but I've come up with a much cheaper, simpler, and better system. I wear Hawaiian style shirts, which aside from being incredibly stylish are cool and if you do sweat wick it away and dry quickly. There may be other options but the ubiquitous cotton t-shirt is terrible in the summer IMO... you want a light material and obviously wear shorts. A summer dress is also good I'm told if you're a girl or just like to feel pretty. Hold the door open until ready for takeoff for extra ventilation and just deal for the few minutes until you're off the ground. At that point, you shouldn't need AC anyway.
 
I was IFR down right over Bristol one day and it was hot. The conversation was something like this:

ME: 27K would like higher.
ATC: What altitude?
ME: Something around 70 degrees.
ATC: Climb and maintain 70 degrees. Let me know what that ends up being.
 
I gotta wonder.
The ultimate goal of an A/C unit is to lower our core temperature so that we do not feel as hot.
You can do that easily by cooling the blood flow. The army has experimented with this some in Far East.
What I am envisioning is a ZipLoc bag with ice (or some fancy expensive freezer bag) that you put on the rug in front of your seat. Take off your shoes and rest your feet on the ice bag. This will cool your blood and lower your core temperature. Been there, done that (not in an airplane).
Easy to put ice in the bag at the FBO or refill at your next stop.
Of course you can see the biggest limitation: you can use it only in cruise (or similar scenarios when you do not need rudder pedals). Though that does not apply to co-pilot or pax. :)
PATENT PENDING. :)
 
I like my homemade Aircondooler that is similar to the Arctic air models. It can be a little bit of hassle messing with ice and such. I have an on/off switch and only use it during taxi / departure / landing phases. Up at cruise it's not necessary. It's a pretty good solution. If it's just me and another adult I often don't even mess with it. Just leave the door open until just before takeoff. When travelling with the family (kids). It can make the cabin of my Saratoga near 70 degrees within a couple minutes. Crazy how well it works. The cling on window tint on the back glass helps a TON too.
 
3393RP said:
An overboard dump for the condenser air discharge would be mandatory, otherwise the heated air will negate the cooled air from the evaporator.
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Yep, and you'd think everyone would know this. But, some years ago, I checked into a quaint old hotel in Italy, and they had a big in-room air conditioner unit in place. It must have been both fairly new, and running all day--with the condenser air discharge duct coiled up on the floor next to it. The temp in the room must have been 115 F when we got there.
 
3393RP said:
An overboard dump for the condenser air discharge would be mandatory, otherwise the heated air will negate the cooled air from the evaporator.
Click to expand...

GaryM said:
Yep, and you'd think everyone would know this.
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Bonus question on a freshman physics class test: "It's hot and your dorm room air conditioner is broken. If you open your refrigerator door, given sufficient time, will the room get cooler or not, and why?"

Sadly, very few future engineers/physicists got that one correct...
 
Bill said:
Bonus question on a freshman physics class test: "It's hot and your dorm room air conditioner is broken. If you open your refrigerator door, given sufficient time, will the room get cooler or not, and why?"

Sadly, very few future engineers/physicists got that one correct...
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Easy, I won't ruin it. Here's another one, if you run a fan in an enclosed room, does the room get cooler?
 
Bill said:
Bonus question on a freshman physics class test: "It's hot and your dorm room air conditioner is broken. If you open your refrigerator door, given sufficient time, will the room get cooler or not, and why?"

Sadly, very few future engineers/physicists got that one correct...
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hopefully the graduating engineers/physicists did.
 
The correct answer is, it will get colder. Because I feel like it should get colder.
 
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