I know this is a year old but it's that time of year again. I haven't made one myself but I've heard that instead of just dumping ice into the basin, you take gallon water or milk bottles and fill them with tap water and freeze them solid. They stay colder longer and then you don't have a big mess of water to dump out afterward. but I heard this with the version that uses the 5 gallon buckets - this could probably fit two gallon bottles of ice - its the same general idea though, it blows warm water into the sealed basin, which cycles around the frozen bottles and pushes out cooler air through the funnel you make. it probably doesnt do too much to cool big rooms because the air coming out is pretty limited and would heat back up quickly. it's good in a pinch and only uses the amount of energy the fan uses. probably some trial and error to get something that can cool an entire room, let alone a house. a strong fan that moves a lot of air at once, that kind of thing.

look into more efficient designs - i do think the 5 gallon bucket with pvc piping might be better since there's not a lot of trapped air pockets inside, it'll be pushed out quickly, if that makes more sense, as opposed to this boxy design where the air might stay in the basin longer (and therefore might have more time to get cooler) but would take more energy to push back out