New Project Idea

As we all know the summer months can be great for being outdoors; however, the interior of our cars don't like it nearly as much. The sun heats the interior of our cars to extreme temperatures and is unsafe for both humans and other devices such as electronics that one might leave in a car. This extreme environment has got me thinking of ways to cool the interior of the car. Now the obvious solution is to open the windows. This works well for the most part but there are instances in which this doesn't work.

• High crime areas
• Areas prone to rain
• Lack of security for items left in car (as well as the car itself)
  

One could argue that if you only crack the windows rain won't be too much of an issue but after seeing several storms blow through Michigan this year I don't feel like chancing it.

Cars are by no means air tight this is one of the reasons that you can close your door without expending a lot of force. Modern cars are equipped with a vent. In the case of my 855 this vent is located on the right side of the car near the tailgate between sheetmetal so you can't see it from he outside as opposed to the 245 I have.

My idea is to force air through the vent while the car isn't running. I plan on using a 120mm cooling fan from a computer. If that fan proves to be too big I'll use 80 mm fans. If the fan is too small I'll use multiple fans. The problem that I'm currently having is sourcing the power. I was thinking that I could just run the fan array off of the car battery, but after mulling that around in my head for a bit I don't think that will be the best idea. There are plenty of times where I don't use my car for several days such as the weekend or when I'm home. This means that I need to find an alternate power source. I've got two options the way I see it.

1. An auxiliary battery system
2. Solar power

I'd like to use solar power; however that could be expensive or just not look right, whereas I could hide auxiliary batteries else where in the car. I'll keep you all posted...