Portable Air Conditioners

[Gorilla]

AK, if you want to do it on the cheap, here's what you do.

Buy a used window AC unit. Set it on the hangar floor, and turn it on. The output (blowing air) will come out of a horizontal strip on the top perhaps 98% of the time. The INPUT (what the unit sucks) is 98% of the time directly below the output area. Pull the grill off the front, and you'll see what I'm talking about.

The trick is to engineer a plywood box which completely seals and isolates that output duct area. Try using a rubber door seal from Home Depot. You simply want that icy air to be collected in the box, and from there I'd go with a 6" flexible fabric style duct. The end of the duct goes in the airplane.

Water and heat will be dumped out the rear of the unit, hence a roll-around cart with maybe a collection bin at the bottom, like a 20 gallon rubbermade tote.

It'll work fine as-is, but to get really fancy, you can add another duct-box for the AC INPUT grill area, and then you'd have both the input and output hoses in the airplane, as far away from each other as possible. That way the AC will be drawing air it has itself already cooled, making it even colder.

Watch out for voltage. Many window AC's are 120V, some are 240V. Be sure you have the voltage available, and if you need an extension cord, make it a very heavy one.

Keep the ducting as short as practical so as to avoid losses.

 

[icefr8dawg]

I've done this before. I welded a steel duct to fit the output on a window unit and attached a dryer exhaust hose to the fabricated duct. It worked really well for working on the plane in a hot hanger or cooling the plane on the ramp. It rusted however, wish I knew how to weld aluminum...
I don't think it would be that hard to make a 12/24 volt model out of automotive components if you really wanted to. They have one on display at Oshkosh for various aircraft. It weighs a lot but it's small. You'd need an STC to make it permanant installation unfortunately. Portable however...

 

[CrimsonEclipse]

Dead on Gorilla! I've seen mechanics fabricate this with a throwaway
wall unit and stuff lying around. They'd put the duct in the cocpit
window for when they were working on the avionics. It made South
Florida summers bareable.

It seems like it'd be simple. Buy a $250 window AC unit and a cheap roll-about wheeled cart. Build a plywood box for the front of the AC unit so it isolates the OUTPUT side of the AC unit, leaving the input side open, or you can use a second duct for that from the airplane. From the output side, run a 6" or 8" flex duct that goes to the airplane.

I'd leave the AC controls on FULL COLD and HIGH, and wire a separate switch on a handy box outside the plywood. Attach the duct to the airplane and turn on your switch. Should work OK. Don't forget the AC unit will drip water, so be sure it doesn't accumulate anywhere that might cause damage.

 

[AngelKing]

Thanks for the info guys, just what I needed. It is very warm down here in Key West.


AK