Precision 21 Portable Air Conditioner

Because the cabin of my boat is not too large, I chose the small Igloo Ice Cube cooler, the kind with the opening lid compartment.

I then drilled a hole through the lid compartment and attached a 12V cabin fan to the bottom of the lid.

Then I cut another whole in the front side of the cooler as an air intake vent and attached vent covers.

Sometimes, I put a dryer vent in the top to direct the airflow.  When not in use, the vent is stored inside the cooler and the cord fits into the lid compartment.

When I go to bed at night, I fill the cooler with ice (it holds one standard bag of ice), close the lid, and plug it into a twelve volt power pack.  During the night, the fan pulls the cabin air in through the vent hole, cools it by filtering it through the ice, and blows it back out into the cabin through the top.  In the morning, I'm left with a cooler full of water that I then dump out.  (Note:  the vent hole must be kept high enough so that it is higher than the water level of the melted ice.)  The times when this little portable air conditioner comes in handy is hot, rainy nights when I can't open the hatches or ports.

Igloo had a special on pick coolers for breast cancer awareness, so that's why my AC is pink.  Now it's my portable pink air conditioner.

This same idea could be used with larger coolers for larger internal areas by incorporating more fans and more ice.

See also Precision 21 Stackpack and Precision 21 Dodger