Have you ever made a DIY air conditioner from a styrofoam container and fan?

They work fine, in dry or moderately humid areas.
In high humidity the downside is the cold clammy feeling. My grandfather, when he and my grandmother lived in the Victorville area of southern California, had a “Swamp Box” which was two layers of burlap hung on rabbit wire walls on the box with only a roof and copper bottom tray three inches deep. There was a pump to move the water to the roof and then the burlap would get wet and the fan was on the fourth side of the box. All of this was bolted to the side of the house with a cutout the fan blew through.

Sounds like it would work for about ten minutes in the Florida heat before the ice melts. Just long enough to remind you how hot and miserable you are.

Yes I sure have! We lost our ac in the hottest part of last summer. I had eveything in my garage so I made one to get us through a couple of nights. I used a fish pond pump, copper tubing, a fan and ice water in a big coleman cooler. Water condenses rapidly on the coils so I had to put a pan under the fan. We kept it in a closed off room. It made the nights tolerable until I was able to get the ac going. It lasted a couple of hours then you would have to drain most of the water and add ice again. It noticeably dropped temp in the room 10–15 degrees.

Cool idea! I’m gonna try it in my bedroom.

@Pachy Let me know how it works.

Interesting but personally I like misters. Of course misters in the bedroom might not be your kinda misters. lol

@Pachy “Cool” idea? lol A Pachy pun.

What bothers me the most about summer weather is the unbearable humidity so this wouldn’t really be an improvement for me and might make the situation worse.

When I’ve previously been in no AC situations, just having a plain old fan blowing on me (as long as it was close enough) was fine.

@Buttonstc I agree. Humidity is the killer, not heat. Despite the fact that it was a rainforest and pretty damn close to the equator I found Central America a lot more tolerable than NJ because of how the humidity was. Ya it would be hot as hell down there but it rained all the time so the humidity never built. In NJ it’s like 80–90% humidity for a week straight. It’s like constantly wearing a hot wet blanket.

@Coloma Have you seen a mister that is inexpensive and can run on a battery? I think a mister would work better for what I need it for, but the ones I have seen are expensive.

@Buttonstc if the makeshift ac fan uses copper coils over the fan and circulates ice cold water then it will actually lower the humidity in the room noticeably.

I remember seeing the old folks putting a block of ice in a tub and blowing a fan over it.

JLeslie It depends on the personality of the “mister” and whether or not he has a “Missus!”