Air Conditioning for a Dogs House

The idea of making some air conditioning for a dog's house came about after visiting a World War 2 underground defense installation and noticing how it was ventilated from above using a method of passive ventilation. It had some pipes directing air down and other ones bring air up using 'air scoops' place on top of the pipes. Whether a pipe brought air in or took air out depended on the placement of the fins on top. Placed one way, the fin will point the opening of the tube into the wind, placed the other way it will cause the opening to face away from the wind, thus creating a partial vacuum and suck air out. This project is a 'proof of concept' as I neither own a dog nor a dog's house.

Cardboard box

Empty Beer Cans

Two tubes are constructed by removing the top off 8 empty beer cans. I used an 'army rations' style of can opener to do this, but you could also remove the top with a bastard file. The bottom of a can is removed (using knife and scissors) and then a can with its top removed inserted into it. Four cans will make a suitable length for an inlet tube or outlet tube. The last can doesn't have its bottom cut off, rather just make a gap for the air to either come in or go out. After the 2 tubes have been assembled, secure the cans with packing tape for a bit of extra strength.

A 'proof of concept' dogs house was constructed using a cardboard box and taping the lid closed. A door was made at the front. Then a couple of hole cut for the 2 tubes to fit through.

The two tubes (one for air in and one for air out) need to pivot freely. This is done by screwing up a suitably sized sheet of aluminum foil into a small ball, slightly flattening one side and gluing it to the bottom of the uncut can. Do the same for the other tube. Trim the bottom of a couple of the beer cans which were cut off previously and glue them under the tube hole in the 'dog' box. Place the tubes through the top holes and check that they pivot freely.

Make top air scoops for the two tubes. Cut a can so it makes about a 90-degree elbow bend and stick it together using packing tape. Then fit to one of the tubes. Do the same with the other tube.

Directional fins are made by cutting the top and bottom off 4 cans, then creating four sheets of aluminum by opening the can up by cutting up one side and then flattening by moving the sheet against a corner.

Cut a suitable fin shape and the spray the two sides to be joined with contact adhesive glue. Attach to the air scoops so one of the openings will point into the wind while the other will point away.

I sprayed the 'airconditioned dogs house' with black paint for that 'professional look' and then placed it in a moderate breeze. Sure enough, the fins placements caused one of the tubes opening to face into the wind, while the other faced away. Hence providing ventilation to the back of the dog's house.

A question has been asked on the effectiveness of the ventilation within the dog's house. To test this, a fan was used to blow air across the top air scoops. Tissue was attached to the air inlet and outlet in the dog's house. When the fan was turned on the movement of the tissue demonstrated that ventilation was occurring.

What was surprising was that when the air scoop which took air out was turned slightly sideways to the wind, the tissue moved more, indicating it is more effective to have the scoop pointing slightly across the flow of air. Following the test, the air outlet was revised to be slightly sideways to the wind.