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I just bought one of these.

http://coolorheat.com/

It draws only 30W and can cool to 40F below ambient. It should make summer more bearable in the VX. :D

I will will have a report as soon as it arrives in the mail. :cool:

I would love to see a review of that!

Dan,

If you lived here I can tell you that you would be buying something. It is going to be in the very high 90's this coming week. Like 97 Degrees some days. That does not include the Humidity to go along with the Temp. :(

Terry

I'm intrigued. Wonder if it's any good? I can make my half hour commute with no A/C and the fan turned up, but these longer road trips are really killing me.

I just bought one of these.

http://coolorheat.com/

It draws only 30W and can cool to 40F below ambient. It should make summer more bearable in the VX. :D

I will will have a report as soon as it arrives in the mail. :cool:

It arrived while I was at Hybridfest. I installed it last night. The seat pad attaches two the seat with two straps. The fit is good.



The business end of the unit is a 3x3x8" box which contains a pump and whatever other technology is used to cool the fluid. The fluid is pumped thru an insulated flexible conduit about 3/4" dia including the insulation. Inside the conduit are the tubes that the fluid flows thru. The tubes run thru two pads, one on the seat and one in the lumbar region. Along with the two cooling pads, other pads are arranged to allow air flow behind your back and under your seat. The pump unit plugs into a 12v socket and also comes with a 120V AC to 12DC rectifier.



My first impression was fairly good. The pump unit is quiet with a slight gurgling sound. During the drive to work, I could feel the "coolness". The drive home will provide a better opportunity to judge the value of this Poor Man's AC system.

HAHAHAHA

Its water cooling your butt. LMAO. What cools the water is a TEC. Its also makes heat more than likely. Well Im sure it makes heat. :) It could have a pretty good power draw.

TEC's are used in those heating or cooling ice chest. They have been used for years to make the heating and cooling in aircraft. Im sure if it dosent chill enough you could order a higher watts TEC, heat sink / fan and make it quite frosty.

Be sure to put the pump/control box in a area where it can breath. TEC's need to expell the heat they make or they will burn up in a hurry.

http://www.americool.com/basics.htm

Have used TEC's over the years to cool overclocked computers. Seeing that i refuse to run one of my own machines at stock speed spec's Ive used about every type of cooling known to mankind.

I hope it works out. :)

OK so it was about 85F on the drive home. It didn't take long to feel the cooless on my back and butt. It was a strange feeling but one that I could get used to. When I got home my back was only slightly wet. Normally I am drencehd.

Did it help? Yes. But I had hoped for a little more cooling. I will try to find a better place to put the box so that the heat can be dissapated better.

Is i worth it? Well that depends. I will have to sleep on it. Ask me in a few weeks.

The box with the TEC device if located in a cool spot should get the seat temp lower. The TEC device will generate a temp differential, rather than an actual temperature so the cooler the output is kept the cooler the seat will be. If it has a fan to dissapate the heat, and it is in the car, the waste heat from the inefficiencies in the TEC device, as well as the extracted heat, will heat the car, gradually reducing the temperature differential and the actual temp of the seat. got to get the heat out of the car. maybe Put the box under the car so the heat is dumped outside?
An interesting use of TEC devices (Peltier effect thermal diode is another name for the principal cooling element).
stay cool:cool:

Too bad it's not available as a kind of cooling vest which would have better cooling effect.
You'd go cyborg with the lines though

Hi Hot Georgia:

___There is such a thing and if you have a 1 hour or less commute (you do), they work like a charm. Just plain old ice-vests w/ the high tech higher temp phase change fluid in the packs themselves. I always meant to do a write up on cooling solutions with this being the number 1 solution in my book but never got around to it.

___Good Luck

___Wayne

I wish I could recommend the poor man's AC, but it was not as effective as I had hoped. I will hang on to it to see if the seat warmer is any better.

I wish I could recommend the poor man's AC, but it was not as effective as I had hoped. I will hang on to it to see if the seat warmer is any better.

well.. do you need more time ?? hehehe , you probably forgot about this thing.. but it sounds really interesting, how did it work in the winter ??

Too bad it's not available as a kind of cooling vest which would have better cooling effect.
You'd go cyborg with the lines though

They make such a thing and a road racer in Atlanta makes and sells them. I'll see what I can dig up. I think his name was Rich Schaffer, but I can't remember the company name.

Found it.

http://www.coolshirt.net/

The shirt with the water going thru it is similar to the underwear used to keep astronauts cool in their space suits. The one you dip in water would work nicely in dry heat, like here, but not at all in humid places.


--des

Vent windows FTMFW. They take a deat heat, late August Texas 99*, 87% humidity day and make it...bearable (still not pleasant, though). I didn't have a/c in my Mustang in high school in California, but with the vent windows I never missed it. I don't even have a/c on my Mustang now, so the vent windows REALLY help and take the awful summers here down to something surviveable. It's a real shame they don't do vent windows anymore - they really work so well.

(being able to put the top down helps too).

For hardtops...get real old-school...swamp coolers!

Vent windows FTMFW. They take a deat heat, late August Texas 99*, 87% humidity day and make it...bearable (still not pleasant, though). I didn't have a/c in my Mustang in high school in California, but with the vent windows I never missed it. I don't even have a/c on my Mustang now, so the vent windows REALLY help and take the awful summers here down to something surviveable. It's a real shame they don't do vent windows anymore - they really work so well.

(being able to put the top down helps too).

For hardtops...get real old-school...swamp coolers!

Do they even make vent windows anymore? I haven't seen these in any car I've even ridden in? MIne is 96 and it was never even an option. (I doubt I noticed the other cars I test drove.)


BTW, anyone know the price of the "swamp cooler" vests?
Seems like it might be an idea for me. Though what happens in the car in 90s heat, is that the heat builds up and it gets in the 110+ range. Could be dangerous. THere is almost never any way to park in the sun.

--des

Do they even make vent windows anymore? I haven't seen these in any car I've even ridden in? MIne is 96 and it was never even an option. (I doubt I noticed the other cars I test drove.)

The latest vehicle I can think of them being on were '97 Ford F-250/350/etc. trucks. The Ford Bronco (I used to have a '92, but all the '79-'96 models share this) had flow-thru ventilation, too, because the tailgate glass rolled into the tailgate, and with the vent and regular windows open, it worked extremely well. As a/c became more common, vent windows were phased out in the '70's and '80's for most vehicles, also citing aerodynamics. Those Fords are the only vehicles I can think of that made it to the '90's with functional vent windows.

If you ever get a chance to ride in something with vent windows, try them - they're surprisingly effective (can you tell I'm a huge fan?).

That's all I had in my '70 VW Bug and they definitely helped -- though the 100+F temps combined with 75+% humidity and black vinyl interior made the car pretty much an oven in SC for at least part of the summer. There comes a point where airflow just doesn't help anymore -- which is how I built up my heat tolerance. ;):p

The latest vehicle I can think of them being on were '97 Ford F-250/350/etc. trucks. The Ford Bronco (I used to have a '92, but all the '79-'96 models share this) had flow-thru ventilation, too, because the tailgate glass rolled into the tailgate, and with the vent and regular windows open, it worked extremely well. As a/c became more common, vent windows were phased out in the '70's and '80's for most vehicles, also citing aerodynamics. Those Fords are the only vehicles I can think of that made it to the '90's with functional vent windows.

If you ever get a chance to ride in something with vent windows, try them - they're surprisingly effective (can you tell I'm a huge fan?).

You are right. I had vent windows in my 95 F-150, and even on a hot day they put an extreme amount of what felt like cool air through the truck. Too much really. I always had to close the vent some to limit the air flow. I can't imagine the windows helped aerodynamics any though. But those trucks were so aerodynamic pigs it didn't matter much I think.

I remember seeing an infomercial selling solar powered window vents (to keep the car cool while parked). Vent fits between the top of the window and door. Anyone ever use one of these?

Over the last couple days, it's been pretty hot here (70-80) and I found that driving with my driver side window down all the way and passenger side down a crack didn't seem to affect my mpg on the Civic. I still got 50+mpg. I'm sure the car design has a big impact on how much drag this creates, I don't get a crazy amount of air blowing in with the window all the way down.

So has anyone found a satisfactory product?
Maybe I missed something in the threads...

I remember seeing an infomercial selling solar powered window vents (to keep the car cool while parked). Vent fits between the top of the window and door. Anyone ever use one of these?

I have never tried them but I have seen several available at wally world.

I remember seeing an infomercial selling solar powered window vents (to keep the car cool while parked). Vent fits between the top of the window and door. Anyone ever use one of these?


Someone on another car forum reported that the one they bought didn't help much. If I wanted to try it, I'd get one from a local discount store rather than from an infomercial. Easier to return to a local store for a refund.

To help keep my car cooler when parked I use a reflective shade in the windshield, leave windows down a bit, and park in the shade when I can.

What about a mister of some sort? It seems like you could use a small amount of water - maybe a gallon or so over an hour to keep one cool. I'm sure something like that would be effective down here where it's dry. Don't think it would work very well though for those with 90%+ humidity.

Hi Hot Georgia:

___There is such a thing and if you have a 1 hour or less commute (you do), they work like a charm. Just plain old ice-vests w/ the high tech higher temp phase change fluid in the packs themselves. I always meant to do a write up on cooling solutions with this being the number 1 solution in my book but never got around to it.

___Good Luck

___Wayne


Thread is a bit old, but still relevant and increasingly timely. The cool vest works great, but it has some disadvantages. Daughter and I use one when we race our Miata. Good for an hour or so. Problems is, it is expensive, large, and requires a ready source of ice.

I'm intrigued by the idea of a more efficient phase change material other than ice. I'm thinking of trying Blue Ice packets submerged in just a small quantity of water. Wayne, do you know of a fluid or material that is cost effective and better than Blue Ice?

lamebums reported that the old bead seat covers provided a noticable improvement. That relies on just improving air flow between the seat and the back. I tried one of the old ventilated seat cushions. That worked fairly well, at low cost, but mine were of poor quality and came apart pretty quickly.

Bead seat covers...Might be worth a try.

Then again, I have found cracking the rear windows to work really well on the highway, with no appreciable MPG hit.

And A/C on recirculate has a 1-2 mpg hit when it's on.

+1 for reflective windshield covers. They make the cooling modifications more effective since they do not have to cool hot car interior quite as much before cooling you. And parking to face the sun whenever possible.