Air conditioner using heater and ice box

I'm sure its not the first time this has been done, but here is my version.

I used a 5 gal. cooler, 24V submersible water pump, cigarette lighter plug and clear plastic tubing.
I replaced the spigot with the water pump and drilled a hole through the lid for the return tube.

The heater in my coupe circulates the air inside the car, instead of drawing air from the outside.
No worries about humdity, like swamp coolers.

Just took it for a test drive and it works well keeping the air inside nice and cool.
The ice water stays cold all day and the heater fan blows a nice cool breeze.

I had the idea for a while and did this for my long freeways trips during the summer months through the desert. Not as cool as a conventional $$$$ air conditioner, but keeps the temps inside down for free.

 

That's cool! No pun intended.

 

can you throw some dry ice in there and keep it colder longer?

 

Great idea, as long as I don't add too much dry ice that the water freezes.
Not sure, if I can find it in my small town.
Would also give colder temps from the heater.
Right now I am using a bag of ice with water and 6 ice packs.

 

you could pump glycol through it and chill with dry ice to prevent freezing

 

now were getting somewhere.

 

I thought of that, but water doesn't require clean up and not so much of an issue in case of a leak.
The 40º water is plenty cool and just so easy to deal with.
I only connect and use this for one day at a time every other month or so and don't leave it in the car for the entire summer.

I felt proud earlier today, after the first short test trip.
Just thought about it in my mind without any tests or experiments and wasn't sure if it would give enough cool air.
The only thing I tested before buying the parts, was to make sure the heater core flows easy and was not plugged up with scale, which wouldn't matter so much with hot coolant.

 

Experimenting With Dry Ice
Safety First!
http://www.west.net/~science/co2.htm