It's not often that I can cross something off my project list, so when I can it's a happy day. I finally have a cooling solution for my office, something which I've been planning to do for over three years. Here's a picture of the item in question. I've had it running for about 25 minutes and my office is at least 10 degrees cooler than it used to be. I think for the first time since I moved in, my office is the same temperature as the rest of the house.

Originally I was going to install a fan in the ceiling, which would have an added benefit of venting the attic as well. But after thinking about it, I decided that since I only need cooling in the summer, cutting a hole in my roof wasn't totally necessary. Besides, I couldn't find all the ducting and such that I would have needed (and the largest fan I could find only moved 300 CFM of air, which wouldn't do very much for me). So I decided to replace the box fan that was sitting in my window with something a little more potent. The box fan was on its last legs as well. It made a noise like a rat with a hot nail through its eye on any speed but low, and that provided very little ventilation. Home Depot sells fans for venting attics, and I bought one of those.

The first incarnation of the window unit had a plywood insert which the window would close to. I figured that this would help keep down on the noise from outside. After thinking about that idea in conjunction with my monster fan, it looked like vibration would be a factor, and so I had to figure out something else. Then it occurred to me that I could literally replace my window fan.

It's ugly as hell, but it was easy to build and the parts were cheap (the fan itself was $49.00; everything else came to like twenty bucks). It's just a couple two-by-four frames held together with some angle bracket. The fan bolts onto the front frame, and the rear frame holds the power switch and thermostat. The wire mesh on the front and back keeps fingers out of harm's way. It even has features too: there's a carrying hadle on the top of the front frame and cord storage on the left side of the rear. It gets power from a repurposed extension cord. And because it was made to mount in attics, the motor has built in thermal protection.

The one drawback is that it's a little loud. But since fan noise has never bugged me much, it's not that big of a deal. Besides, I have the thermostat tweaked so that it'll shut off at night. During the day car noise is drowned out by the white noise of the fan, so that's actually a bonus. Frankly, I'll put up with a little noise if it means my office is cooler than the average suana.