South Dakota Summer Is Coming – Try a DIY Air Conditioner

My 2 and 1-year-old boys share a room in our house. It's the coldest room in the winter and the warmest in the summer. In the winter it's easy to fix. We plug in a $20 space heater and their toes don't turn blue.

Summer is a different story. We installed a new furnace and central air conditioner back in August. It made a big difference. But that didn't fix our likely leaky and under sized duct work, poor attic insulation and old 1970's breathable windows. Since the furnace and air conditioner were original from the house, built in 1976, we decided that was the most important thing to replace so we aren't completely cooked or frozen, depending on the season.

Sure, we could get a window air conditioner for their room, but they're expensive, eat electricity like the boys eat Cheerios, and it feels like a waste after installing a new heating and cooling system, which also wasn't cheap.

Good news for Rockley and Esia: there is a sort of "space air conditioner" and it's super cheap. Bad news for dad (me) is it's a DIY project.

This is so simple and brilliant. I don't know if it would work as well as the video says it does, but if 42 degree air is coming out of those pipes I will probably try building one. All it takes is a 5 gallon bucket, Styrofoam liner, pvc pipe, small fan, and ice in the form of a frozen gallon milk jug of water. In the video they powered the fan with a solar panel but plugging a small fan into the wall wouldn't eat much electricity.

If you try this please let me know how it works.