Amount of ice (or freezer blocks) needed to cool a small room.

David · 2022-07-17T11:59:52+00:00

With all the advice floating around about ways to cope with extreme heat, I was idly wondering if freezing water in an external freezer (not internal because that just heats up the room) would serve as a cooling mechanism when brought indoors.So what is the (rough) amount of ice required to cool a smallish room (say 3m * 3m * 3m for ease of calculation) down from 30C to 22C?I assume that the ice starts at -18C, and that there is an extra effect when the ice turns into water (latent heat of thingie?) but I have brain fade at the moment.I've checked for room coolers with ice packs but they seem to be a humidifier (not good long term) with an additional ice pack.I am also assuming that this is not a long term plan (unless you buy in your ice) because the average freezer could take up to 24 hours to get a large volume of water down to -18C and putting too much in could just thaw your frozen goods.Having said that, there is potential to amalgamate the contents of two chest freezers and use one purely for ice making.All in all, it looks as though lashing out around £450 for a portable aircon might be a more practical way to go if there are likely to be yet more heatwaves this year (and beyond).CheersDave R

Jul 17, 2022 Last reply: 4 years ago 21 Replies

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Theo 4 years ago

Electric compressor, like a home aircon unit.

With a 0.9kWh NiMH battery (usable capacity about half that), the Yaris hybrid gets about 5-10 minutes of aircon before the engine kicks in. The engine runs for maybe a minute and then turns off again.

Theo

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John Rumm 4 years ago

ISTR some units were claimed to swallow in the order of 10 bhp - so ~

7.5kW, although I expect newer ones are less powerful.

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