Has the weather become unbearably hot in your place? You can turn on the air conditioner, but having it run the entire day is not a good option for most of us. If you spend most of your days at home, here’s a clever DIY solution to stay cool.
Now, this kind of air conditioner is simply intended for small personal applications – it cannot work for an entire room like the air conditioners we have mounted on our walls. That’s just impossible! This is most especially recommended if you are usually left alone at home all day. Why cool down the whole room when all you need is a cool breeze for yourself?
This DIY bucket air conditioner is a great idea to survive the summer heat while keeping electricity bills low. You can even use solar panels, if you know how to install them, for even more efficient energy use outdoors.
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Materials:
- 5-Gallon Bucket
- 5-Gallon Bucket Styrofoam Liner
- 2 1/2″ long 2″ PVC Pipe
- Small Fan (5v USB powered fan*)
- Large Plastic Popsicle Sleeves
- 1-Gallon Jug
Tools:
- Cordless Drill
- 2 3/8″ Hole Saw
- Knife
- Hacksaw / PVC Cutter
*Mini desktop fans with plastic blades are a bit strong. Fans with metal blades push air the fastest.
Steps:
Hole placement on your bucket is one of the crucial factors in getting it to blow cold air. You want to get the hole as close to the bottom as you can but leave some room for perspiration build-up that will occur on your popsicles. The bottom of your hole should be between 2″ – 2 1/2″ from the bottom of the bucket. Shave off the hairy plastic with your knife.
After that, insert your foam bucket liner and center it inside your 5-gallon bucket. With your off hand, stabilize the inside of the bucket by pressing down in the center. Then, stick your hole saw through the hole you just drilled and drill another hole through your foam bucket liner.
Lastly, insert your PVC pipe into the holes you just drilled. It should be airtight and you may need to rotate your pipe back and forth to get it in. Don’t put it in too deep though. You want the PVC pipe to be flush with the inside of your foam bucket liner, otherwise, you will create an airflow problem.
Now we are going to be mounting our fan to the top of our foam bucket lid. This depends on the design of your fan so this step might be a little different from person to person. If you are using a desktop fan, you’re going to want to first take it out of its mount. Typically this process usually just involves a screwdriver and two screws on either side.
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