How does a cars aircon work? Is it possible to use it OUT of a car using mains power (obviously stepped down to 12v - I think)?

I am making a crate for my dog and need to keep it cold for these 35+ days we are having since he is a Husky he finds the heat horrible.

If not it ISN'T possible does anyone have any suggestions for aircons I could use? I am not getting a 5kw air con unit to cool a 6m^2 area (probably 4m^2 but it is 6m^2 now) so I need something smaller.

It'd only get used for a couple of weeks in summer and LOW power consumption is my aim and it only has to drop the temp to mid-high 20s as that is more bearable for him.


Any ideas please post them!

Cheers,
Michael.

buy a bag of ice, some salt, a bucket and a small desk fan.
place ice, salt and some water in bucket, place bucket between fan and dog-house, turn on fan.

Pick up a bunnings special about $300 for a small split system

car aircons run off belts connected to the motor, not electricity

yeah u can pick up them portable aircons reasonably cheap if u search around <$350 and they dont need to be wall mounted only have to hook the air hoes out the window or similar to rid of the hot air

get a small water jet/spray system, one of those ones that just put out a constant, very, very fine mist. he'd be a wet dog, but a cool dog.
They used to have a walk-through one at Australia's Wonderland and they have them on the Eiffel Tower too. Gold.

To those suggesting portable ones, I can only find 2kw+ ones. That is overkill. I don't need something that big

Car aircon is out then.

Those mist things would be alright. He likes water so it is no problem. Will look into those.

Sorry to say but a wet dog is not a cool dog. Especially with a husky. Because of the way their fur helps them keep warm by trapping heat in the form of air, it also traps hot air when its wet because the dog cannot transfer heat through its wet fur from its hot skin to dissipate heat. Unless the dog is completely wet down to the skin it will not be able to transfer heat through its wet fur. To get the skin wet you have to physically rub the fur because the water will otherwise just bead off.

I think by crate you mean like a box on the back of a ute? If thats the case an air conditioner like they put on trucks for the sleeper cab might be your best bet, but i reckon the might cost a bit. And they would probably run off 24v as well.

Also, if you have 240v, a small evaporative air conditionder might do the job. These go for ~$250 i think. They are the free standing type that you have to fill up with water every so often. Reasonably cheap to run I think, its really only an electric fan.

Nah.

A crate is... like a cage. But not. They arn't cruel before anyone yells at me. It is used to aid in toilet training and when introducing new animals into the family and he also needs a cool place to chill. His crate is larger than most at about 4m x 2m x 1m but half is blocked off with those dangly things to keep the cool in

Will have a look at evaporative air conditioners. That may work. I might have to end up getting a small 2kw air conditioner as it will only be run 2 months a year at most.

go to a domestic demoishers.

they constantly have aircons out of old buildings cheap

other wise look in the trader

evaporative wont work well out side you need refrigerated.

car aircon most certainly wont work.

best bet though is shade, airflow and keep the dog hydrated. the dog will cope with the heat better than you would imagine.

prehaps in the morning give him a good wet down - as mentioned above you need to get it to the skin though so a pool / dam or else a bucket and someone to rub it it to the skin. chances are though that the dog will just shake the water off him/her self

does anyone remember the old meat safes way back b4 fridges?? the old heshian (sp?) bag over a crate/box, constantly wet by a block of slowly melting ice on top or by a trickle of water, and what was inside was kept cool by the breeze through the heshian. Thats cheap as chips, should cool the air down inside the crate and also give a bit of shade. Even using a garden sprinkler system to keep the bag constantly wet, and maybe even an old thermo fan, or even just a pedistal fan to keep the breeze up through the heshian....

Strap a snorkel on him, line the cage with plastic and fill it with water?

^ I like

Hey.

The dog does swim - 2-3 times a day. But he is getting those heat spot things. Only the past 2-3 days though as our temps soared. We live in the mountains so it is rare it gets over 30.

He can handle the heat but he does get distressed - he goes through 10L of water a day! Imagine the pisses he does when you consider he isn't completely toilet trained!

Evl_Berlina: So what I need is a block of ice ontop of the crate with heshen on it and down the side, with a fan blowing air through the heshen bag? Sounds logical. I am dragging his crate from the shed down tomorrow so will have a look at what I can do but that sounds cheap and promising since it won't be needed that often I don't mind a bit of work every now and them.

you can do it with anything. old towels, whatever, as long as itll hold moisture.

Sounds interesting.

Will experiement with it. I am also investing in a cool mat (well, making one) to go in there as well.

CAA is usefull for everything!

how about getting some techniice http://www.techniice.com/english/index.htm

put some under a towels or two on his bed

Depending on how much effort you are prepared to go to, you could make a car airconditioner work, it just means rigging it up to an electric motor to provide the drive. It would still be rather expensive, as there would be a lot of custom work to do. I don't know if you could get a replacement aircon compressor for a toyota prius, that should be electric.

How does my aircon work when my car is not running?

Battery?

So the battery makes the belts move?

Your "aircon" doesn't work without the engine running. The fan will blow air, but it won't cool it. If you turn your engine off, it will stay cool until the heat exchanger warms up.

^ what he said.

Do a google on the refrigeration
Car AirCons are refrigerated. Hence why a lot of people actually preffer to drive with the window down than have aircon (refrigerated aircon gives a lot of people head aches)
I personally drive with my window open a little and the aircon on my feet/body I cant stand it blowing on my face though gives me ice cream type headaches

With the ice & hessian this is the basic principal that evaporative airconditioning works on - which i believe is more popular in QLD than it is down here in the southern states where we mostly use refigerated aircon

you might just have to look into the old meat safes on the net, should give you an idea then. But yes it is a form of evaporative a/c, a very primative one, but so damn cheap none the less. And looking at komodo's ice URL, you can get those with fresh fish, its what they pack them in for the supermarket. I know at safeway (woolworths) we used to just throw them out after we displayed the fish, so maybe u could get a few of them too to put under his blanket for nothing.

Was guessing...

sounds like a kool ideas hope you solve the problem

As an answer to the headache problem. This is caused by dehydration. Aircons remove moisture from the air inside the car and from the occupants. Cure? Drink lots of water and every now and then flick the aircon from recirc to fresh air for a few minutes.

It doesn't have to be that expensive you could get an old 240v lecky motor outta an old pedisal fan or an old vacume cleaner and atach the drive pully
just my $0.02
personaly I would love to see this built especaly if its "bush mecanics" style ( just gaffa tape, cable ties and milk crates ) lol

And who is going to gas this contraption?

No one if u pull it outa the car without cuting any of the lines lol
( I know its prety much inposible )

ok here is a simple step by step plan

1: put dog on leash
2: find deck chair and magazine
3: wall to local bottleo
4: setup deck chair in coolroom
5: let dog find somewhere comfy in the coolroom, crack open one of the many beers and sit back and read your mag

dog is cool, refreshments are abundant, entertainment is being read

First step would be insulation in the roof and walls of said enclosure. My house is fully insulated and rarely will go over 30 deg. all closed up no matter the outside temp (most I've seen is 31.2 deg. ).

Don't worry about getting a A/c unit thats too big for the area, just means it won't need to work as hard to keep temps down and would actually save you in running costs. You can get those window mounted types pretty cheap.

1.73kw LG window type (just a hole in the wall and hold it up with some brackets)

http://au.lge.com/md/product/prodcategoryl...ctId=1100001084

Hey I found the solution to your problem

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2812622