anyone electrically savvy?

[GoldenRivet]

ill try to make a long story short.

as some of you know, im a flight instructor... in one of the hottest climates in the United States.

As a majority of general aviation aircraft are not air conditioned i had an idea...

grab one of these things... http://www.kooleraire.com/

it plugs into the cigarette lighter in the car and they work pretty good, i have a friend who keeps his truck cool on work sites with it when the truck will be parked unattended for long periods of times and he demonstrated it to me - it does make a difference.

mind you its not like having a full fledged air conditioner running, but anyone who has left their car or truck parked at a store for an hour or so in the summer sun knows that their car quickly turns into an oven.

when he demonstrated this thing to me his car had been parked for an hour and he left the kooleraire running the whole time - when we entered the vehicle, the truck seemed as if it had only been parked in the direct summer sunlight for a few minutes... there was a notable temperature difference.

at any rate, i would like to put one of these in the baggage compartment behind the seat on my Cessna 150. there is plenty of room for it and i think it will work great at keeping the relatively small cockpit cool during training flights.

the question is:

my cigarette lighter in the airplane is decommissioned - and even if it worked the unit's plug wouldn't reach the cigarette lighter anyhow.

so.....

would it be possible to take one of these



and somehow wire it to one of these...



and perhaps build some sort of enclosure to contain it so that the KoolerAire unit could plug into the aforementioned homebuilt battery pack?

or does such a device already exist and can be store bought ?



anyone who knows about electrical stuff - help a brother out

[Letum]

Most cigar lighter receptacles run at 12vDC and so does that battery IIRC.
So yes, you can just cut the wire and hook it up to the battery.

[CaptainHaplo]

Unfortunately - 12 volts isnt the only concern.

The problem isn't voltage in reality - its amps. A normal aircraft cig plug is rated at 3 amps. I looked on the page and could not find a amperage rating for the device. Before you go ordering one and trying to do a battery pack, check the specs and find out what amperage the cooler requires.

What you want to do is match the amps and volts both to the device, that way your getting maximum life out of the battery and little chance of overamping the device.

Also - you need to look into a charging unit of some type if you go this route.

I assume your having major maintenance done by a A&P licensed mechanic. If so, talk to him about putting an additional plug near what will become the "storage" area so you can just plug it in. If the existing plug is out due to a fault in the plug, no biggie, but if its an electrical problem elsewhere - that really needs to get looked into anyway. Adding a plug wouldnt be that difficult, provided there is room for the modification (wiring under the floor). If regs prohibit an under the floor mod - you can alway correct the problem with the existing plug - and move it (wires under the carpetting) to the rear of the cabin - depending on the plane.

[Spoon 11th]

I googled it uses only 390 milliamps of power. With that battery shown in your picture (7 Ah). If we assume that 7 Ah is for 10 hours average usage that's 700 milliamps per hour for 10 hours. Since this KoolerAire device only uses 390 milliamps you should get at least 20 hours of continuous usage. Hope this makes sense.

[Letum]

I wouldn't worry about the amperage too much. Anything the lighter socket
can handle, the battery will be able to take for at least 4 hours and
probably a lot more.
I would imagine that the cooler unit is quite voltage tolerant as well.

[SteamWake]

That little fan wont draw much currrent and will probably run on that gell cell for a number of hours.

The connection is easy Only two wires if you hook it up backwards the fan will run backwards so jsut flip flop the wires.

The only precation you need is a fuse in the circuit and make sure the battery doesent flop about and short itself out. Ill do a little drawing and post it up here later.

[GoldenRivet]

thanks for the replies.

the fan is fuse protected... im trying to do as much research as possible before doing or buying anything.

i could get the cigarette plug re-commissioned (its just disconnected basically no faults etc) however... im not sure about the "legality" of moving it to another location.

thanks again guys

[SteamWake]

The only other catch may be electrical 'noise' from the motor interferring with the radio.

But since its a DC motor and probably brushless it should not be an issue.

I dont know what the FAA would have to say.

[GoldenRivet]

Originally Posted by SteamWake

The only other catch may be electrical 'noise' from the motor interferring with the radio.

Tried my friends in a Piper Cherokee, it worked fine and no interference noticed at all.

Originally Posted by SteamWake

I dont know what the FAA would have to say.

i would hope nothing much at all... since im not modifying the airplane itself.

[geetrue]

Can't you just open a window

Just kidding that probably only works on DC-3's to see how to take off, but if you smell smoke put her down.

Personally I would not trust a jury rig on any plane, RV, truck, bus or boat is fine, but a plane???

[GoldenRivet]

Originally Posted by geetrue

Can't you just open a window

Just kidding that probably only works on DC-3's to see how to take off, but if you smell smoke put her down.

Personally I would not trust a jury rig on any plane, RV, truck, bus or boat is fine, but a plane???

its not jury rigged... it has an on off switch and is easily disconnected from the battery. plus it is easily in arms reach if anything goes wrong.

i found a female end cigarette plug adapter with positive negative "clips" on the end that you could hook to a 12 volt battery of the same amperage rating... plus the whole device is fuse protected on the device side of electrical flow.

the purpose of the device (more or less) is to keep the cabin temp of the aircraft down while it is parked on the hot ramp.

I saw some creative soul the other day had taken a small 5200 BTU window unit air conditioner, he bolted it to a small tool cart, duct taped flexible dryer hose to the vents and ran it into the plane. the unit was powered by extension cord.

he said it kept his cabin temp down into the low 70s so that when he was ready to depart, all he had to do was roll the cart back into the hangar and unplug it.

expensive though.

opening a window works fine for moving air around, but you dont move much air around while parked or while taxiing - considering you are only going 10 - 15 mph on the ground.

its nice to fly up at 6,500 feet or more in the summer where the air is in the hi 60s or low 70s - open a window up there and you will get cool in a hurry... but during parking, taxiing and climbing your down in a 110 degree heat index

[MothBalls]

You might try one of these.

http://www.sportys.com/acb/showdetl....oduct_id=12259

If that's not in your budget, try this and a cooler.

http://www.roshgo.com/Merchant2/merc...c01/CTGY/00408

[GoldenRivet]

thanks man...

You clearly didn't read the first post since you linked me to the very thing I'm talking about

LOL

[geetrue]

Did you see this GR? I didn't want to start a whole thread on it ...

Can you imagine the smell?

http://www.idahostatesman.com/businessnews/story/833497.html

On Tuesday, the first flight for the husband-and-wife team's Pet Airways, the first-ever all-pet airline, took off from Republic Airport in Farmingdale, N.Y.

[SteamWake]

Whos gonna pay for that goggies carbon paw print :rotfl: