The other day I came across instructions for an improvised air cooling device on Snapguide. Take a styrofoam cooler, cut a couple of holes on one side, insert some pieces of cardboard tubing, cut another larger hole on the lid, place a small fan on top of that hole, put a pop bottle, filled with frozen water, in the cooler. Turn the fan on and you get cool air.

My bedroom gets very hot when the outside temperature goes above 28 degrees C. It’s expected to be a scorcher today, so I’ve closed the windows, lowered the blind, and turned on my “air conditioner”.

And it cools the air! Probably not the entire room, but I put it on the dresser and in my chair about eight feet away I can feel the cool breeze. I expect my bottle of frozen water will last about four or five hours, so I’ve just put a second bottle in the freezer to have for this evening. I have several frozen ice packs as well. I’m good to go.

The best part is that I had all materials in the house: the cooler, the fan, a cardboard tube, and a bottle of frozen water in my freezer. It took me all of five minutes to assemble the device.