Pinterest a/c bucket

You've probably seen this or something like it floating around pinterest- a a/c bucket you can make yourself.  So we decided to try it out for ourselves!  After all, the power bill+ AZ heat x being pregnant in the Summer= not so happy hubby!


First of all let me just say my hubby- try as he does, is not a handy type of guy.  He's willing to learn though so all projects around here are a learning process.

Ok so to start off here's everything you'll need:

• 1- 5 gallon bucket with lid (about $4)
• 1- styrofoam insert (we had a hard time finding these and had to special order them online)
• 3 sections of 2" PVC pipe cut about 3-4" long - ok this is where we had issues! The first ones we got were too large, and the second ones we got were too small.  So we ended up taping the smaller ones in.  Don't ask me how this happened TWICE when you ask the store for a 2" pvc pipe.
• 1- small desk fan (about $13)
• 2 1/8" Hole cutter for your drill
• 2 1/4" Hole cutter for your drill
• Hole cutter attachment (we found out the hard way there's a special attachment to use)
• Drill

Step 1-
Cut 3 holes in the top/side your bucket and styrofoam insert.  You want the larger hole (2 1/4") in the bucket and the smaller hole (2 1/8") in the styrofoam insert.

Step 2-
Insert your PVC tubes into the holes.  If they were too small like ours then do as we did and turn to handy dandy duck tape to seal them in place.

Step 3-
Cut a hole in the lid of the bucket and styrofoam insert.  HINT- cut it on the smaller side, my husband cut the bucket lid wide thinking the whole fan would sit down in the bucket, but it ended up having gaps around the edges, I'm sure it would be more efficient if the hole were smaller and concentrated on the main area where the fan blows.

Step 4-
Place a 1 gallon jug (we used a old milk carton) of frozen water inside the styrofoam insert, place the lids on and put the fan on top of the bucket.  Turn the fan on LOW (the more time the air has to circulate around the ice the cooler it will get)

And here it is! Our first try at least.  So what are the results?

With just the one running in our living room it doesn't cool it down by itself, however I think it does help maintain the temperature between the a/c turning on and off better.  I don't think the air gets to 40 degrees like it shows in the  movie, but it is cooler than just a fan blowing so I'm sure it helps some.
Here's the original movie and instructions-

We have ours plugged in the wall.  If we had solar power it would be even easier to justify, but a small desk fan I'm sure doesn't run up our power bill.

This would be handy when camping- the down side is you'd have to have access to the frozen jug of water, or replace the ice.

Overall, the investment is a 50/50 thing.  I'm sure if we had a few more of these it'd make a small dent in our power bill, but without making them and trying them out I'm not sure how much.  The results were not as drastic as we were hoping however.

I give this experiment a 5/10 rating.