Hi I recall a recent post with some information regarding the use of portable AC units being considered for use in their ERIBA. I have carried out a search but cannot find it

Having recently returned from a trip to Europe we did have some hot and stuffy nights, when the tower fan we use would have been better employed to blow dry hair.

I have seen stuff on YouTube about hanging ice cubes in bottles on the fan, but do have some concern over melting ice and electricity.

I was just wondering what solutions people may have found and wether anyone has used one of these small water filled AC units, I have also seen some small table top personal units as well, but I am not convinced they would be big enough https://www.amazon.co.uk/Conditioner-Per...ditioning+units

Hi Andy
Yes, we have one of these machines. We purchased an 'Arctic Cube' in France last month....cost about £40. At the time the temperature outside was 25 deg C, but inside the van it was nearly 40 deg C!!. We put the AC up on the kitchen top and closed the windows etc. We found the temperature went down about 3-4 deg an hour if put on full. Note, we left the poptop up. The downside of being on full is it needs to be topped up with water every 2 hours. We left it on overnight on level one and then the water will last about 8 hours. It definitely helped to make the caravan cooler and have even ordered another one from Amazon as a back up...for about £19 (not sure if it will be as good as the Arctic Cube). By the way the unit takes about 1.5amps.
Chris

Sounds promising I was thinking of putting one each side of the bed, are they very noisy during the night.....cannot be worse than my snoring but I never hear that !!

I did consider one of these https://www.amazon.co.uk/Igenix-IG9704-E...nditioning+unit but at 2000 watts I think that is about 8 amps might be a bit of a high load on most campsites.............

Just a thought: Has anyone tried one of the fancy Dyson Cooler/Heaters ? Expensive for sure but one of the lads I work with has one in their home and he swears by it.
Chris

Hi Andy. We found the Arctic Cube on the lowest setting was quite quiet and no problem to sleep with it running. We did move the machine further down the caravan and put on the dinette table. Temp in van in the morning was lower than the outside temp. The cube is about 6 x 6 x 6 inches.
Chris

Ordered one from Amazon, thought at under £20 it was worth a punt...........

Andy

Think its this you were referring to https://www.coolmycamper.com/how-it-works/

else

Just get a relatively cheap large bladed fan and drink plenty of water as dehydration is accelerated

https://transcoolgb.com

Excellent bit of kit….add essential oils to keep the pests away too

Whilst these little evaporative coolers look like a cute idea the reality is they are mostly pants if you are in a relatively high humid area, they work best in dry arid desert like conditions

It's likely that they could only drop the air temp between 2 and 6C with humidity levels above 55% and more like 85% in climates of 27-35C of Europe

Sure stick your face near the vent and they feel nice as you have pleasant moist cool air being forced on your skin increasing your evaporation

However

The reality for your van is you are tipping litres of water in to it for little cooling around 1800btu/kg of water evaporated at 85% efficiency, so maybe taking 6 hours or more giving little or no cooling other than by air circulation whilst steadily increasing the humidity in your van that makes you feel more uncomfortable

Would you pour a litre of water over your carpets and blow a fan over them with all the windows shut so it feels a bit cooler ? as this is what your doing all be it a little more efficiently and compact

Quote: Pepé Le Pew wrote in post #12

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I don't think I'd be expecting miracles from a plastic box that costs twenty quid, but if it makes you feel better, what the heck.

It may well be that the feeling is a perception rather than actual - and quantifiable - but that doesn't really matter.

A cold bottle of Prosecco gasping a wisp of vapour while drops of condensation weave seductive trails down its neck makes no sense from a scientific standpoint, but I don't think there are many people who would refuse it on that basis.

And if you actually meant to say a dry, acrid desert rather than an arid one, then I apologise for bringing it up.

.

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My son lives and works in Las Vegas. Doesn't smoke, doesn't drink, doesn't gamble. Where did we go wrong?
The point is, he cycles about 8 miles to work at around 2pm when the temperature regularly tops 100f.
He wears a T shirt doused in cold water. By the time he gets to work, evaporation has done the job. A plant misting spray does the job just as well.
Incidentally. He cycles past the hotel where the shooting took place. On that night he stopped an extra ten minutes after work to chat to a friend. Without that ten minutes he would have been directly in the firing line.