Okay guys I'm hoping someone can give me an idea here. My girlfriend goes to USC and she has no air conditioning in her dorm, my thermostat says 98 degrees right now. It's hot as hell here to say the least. They do not allow air conditioning.

She has space under her bed (its a quazi bunk bed, no bottom bed) where she could put something, and that's close to the window. I was wondering if I could find something to put in here that would run me less than $150. The cheaper the better, obviously. The room is only like 130ish square feet. It's really small. Could I use a window air conditioner under her bed? What about a portable one? I looked on ebay and portable air conditioners aren't very cheap. I also have an evaporative cooler at home and frankly I really despise that thing. Any suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated!

 

AC (or any other similar type setup) is a heat exchanger. Take out heat, move it OUTSIDE, bring in cold. Putting an AC unit under the bed or anywhere else where the condensor side doesnt vent outside of the room will not work, it'll probably make things worse.

Igloo+lots of ice.

 

At Edwards AFB (were I used to work) a lady had an interesting cooler. It was a fan that had a "sponge" on the inlet side of the unit and a water tray on top. You basically had to refill the tray with water roughly every hour or two (depending on how cool you wanted the air). She said (IIRC) it only cost her $150 at (IIRC) Costco. She, like everyone else, called it a cooler. It kept the area cool, like an A/C unit would, but not as expensive/bulky.

 

I didn't realize that max. Would it work well if I got a window air conditioner and stuck it up to the screen? I can't put it in the window or she'll get fined.

George,
That thing is an evaporative cooler. They suck! You have to refill them all the time and if you forget to the sponge thing can mold and starts to smell really bad. They also make it really humid and nasty. That's why I didn't want to put one of them in here.

 

I've looked around and it seems that what I want is a portable air conditioner. The thing is, every one I've found is like 5000+ btus and over 600 dollars. I need something like 3000 btus or less. Any ideas?

I found some cheap ones, but they weigh like 200 pounds. I nearly killed myself walking a 70 pound tv around campus and up 3 flights of stairs, so I need something sort of light too. This is starting to sound expensive.

What if I just built a stand and bought a window air conditioner, and stuck it up to the screen?

 

I can't believe I'm suggesting this... but you could get creative and hide the ac/fan/whatever set-up in, say, a computer case.

Since the room is fairly small, a mid-tower case with a handful of 120mm fans would probably be enough to cool her down. And, since the case would be mostly empty inside it would be light enough to move around. Also, because it looks like a computer case people wouldn't react to seeing one close to a window. (Like you said, IT'S FREKKIN HOT)

All she would need is a small cheap generic case, 200w AT power supply and a bunch of fans. You're looking at about $80 if you buy locally, and $30-50 if you buy online.

 

She's already got a huge *** metallic fan that cost 40 bucks and weighs like 30 pounds. Fans will not work..blowing 100 degree air around isn't helping much. And this thing moves more air than any fan I've ever seen. We need an air conditioner for sure, but they are expensive.

 

I made my own cold air mover using a fan, a burlap sack, a pan of water and duct tape. Got the idea from an Orchid collector's green house.

You need to get and keep the burlap sack wet with the water from the pan. The burlap will wick the water from the pan and keep wet. Now you just need to move that damp air from the sack with the fan.
Kind of the same idea as a mister and fan with out all the squirting and fanning.

It worked for a one car garage. It won't cool off a hot room but if you start early in the day it keeps the room much cooler then other wise.

As a temporary fix you could even tack a sheet behind the fan and keep the sheet wet.

Crazy, hoopty, but it works.

 

Burlap sack idea is neat, but I have an evaporative cooler that I bought and I really hate the thing. Looks like our only option is one of these $500+ portable air conditioners, unless I can manage to get a window air conditioner in there somehow...

 

Well, whats the real problem? Is it the mounting of something on the wall/window, or is it the AC in general? If anything, you could get one and mount it to a small table, and stick the back of it out the open window. Use some rubber moldings or the like to seal it to the window frame.

They arent cheap, thats for sure. Keep looking around, see if you cant find a small one. I cant remember what I found one for 4 years ago, but I think it was around 350-400, although that was canadian dollars.

 

The problem is that she isn't allowed to have a/c, so I can't stick something in her window. I could stick it up to the window if they didn't see it, but I cannot remove the screen without getting in trouble.

 

ok, next DIY idea

I don't know how friendly this idea would be on her electric bill, but it could be a nice/fast/cheap temporary fix.

What you could do is buy a used tiny refrigerator, the cheaper the better, and do what I suggested before.

Cut holes for 2-4 120mm fans on one side, and the do the same for the front.
Have 2 fans suck warm air into the fridge and keep the cfm a little bit lower than the cfm going out of the fridge.
A lot of computer freaks use this method to cool down the water in their water cooling system, (so they don't need any loud and annoying fans)
and it seems to work very well. So I don't see why it wouldn't work with air as well.

You can get brand new mini fridges for about $70, so an old used one should be considerably less. Four 120mm fans will cost about $20-60 if you buy online.

Again, it could potentionally be expensive to do this for a long time, but like I said before it might be a fairly cheap quick fix. Shouldn't set you back more than $150 at the most either.

 

Hah good idea man. I actually was thinking about that fan idea when we had nothing in there. She has no electric bill, the school pays for that. I had considered it, but cooling a computer off is much easier than a 100 degree room :\ I'm gonna go to frys tomorrow and check out what they've got.

 

If she can't use an air conditioner, the only choice is a "swamp cooler." As was mentioned previously, a/c units transfer heat from the evaporator to the condenser. It makes no difference what you do with big holes, little holes, or no holes. If the condenser is not outside of the window in the outside air, with the window sealed off to keep the heat out, you will not make the room any cooler. In fact, due to heat of compression, the condenser will add more heat to the room. Take a 100* room, and put an a/c unit in the room and turn it on, and you can probably get the temp to 110* in short order. The only thing that would work is a water cooled condenser, but you would have to get rid of the heated water and replace it with cold water.

 

Why the hell don't they allow air conditioning or don't already have it? That's pathetic!

 

I have a much easier and cheaper solution – Ceiling Fan

You could probably pick one up at Home Depot for $50 or less and install will take you all of 20 min.

 

I can't install a ceiling fan in her dorm room! I guess I need to find a decent cooler somewhere. I was going to go to Dons shop and then to frys today but mom scheduled me a dentist appt at 4pm! Oh well.

 

Hey at least you can look on the bright side, at least you have a gf.