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I made one of these but used a single cooler with ice cubes+water+frozen saltwater Jars. The system was closed as opposed to wasting water like this guy did.

The big issue was that the water temperature rose very fast and the ice melted way to quickly. You'd get maybe 10 minutes of really cool air and it would be done.

I thought about maybe using hay to keep the ice colder but it was getting to elaborate when the fan would work just fine.

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Were you making the ice in a freezer that was in the same room as your "air conditioner"?

I get where you are headed, but you should probably think about the ice as "fuel." The cost (in terms of heat/energy) of freezing the ice can be spent during times when you are not in the room and/or not using the "air conditioner."

Actually there are commercial HVAC systems that use ice as a coolant - the water is frozen at night when electricity demands are lower and then is used to cool the building during the day.

Of course :).

It was in a dorm and I only really ever slept in the bed. SO I would make the ice in my tiny dorm fridge and put it into the A/C's cooler when I wanted to sleep. This happened only two nights.

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