Summer is coming, DIY AC

[LEVE]

I know that winter is hanging on for some of you, but summer is right around the corner. Some of you may be interested in this DIY system. There's a simple vid on how to make it for us mechanically challenged guys:



I've added it to my project list. It rarely gets warm enough in my corner of the Pacific Ocean to need it, but hey... it will be nice if we get a sustained heat wave of about 80°F or higher. We don't want that moss to die.

 

[85TA406]

I've built one that uses the same principle. It uses an igloo cooler, an automotive heater core, computer fans, and a 12V bilge pump from a boat to circulate the water. Keeps a car cool for quite some time.

 

[pseudorealityx]

And you only need to melt 80+ lbs of ice per hour to get 1 ton of cooling!

IE... unless you're trying to cool a small dark interior closet, it's a waste of time.

 

[hedhunter9]

And you only need to melt 80+ lbs of ice per hour to get 1 ton of cooling!

IE... unless you're trying to cool a small dark interior closet, it's a waste of time.

I built one using a small cooler and put it in our racecar.
(roundy round stock car)
Worked great blowing cold air on the driver during heats and mains..

Bob

 

[PCMusicGuy]

Thanks for sharing but that looks more like a DIY cooler, not an AC.

 

[pseudorealityx]

I built one using a small cooler and put it in our racecar.
(roundy round stock car)
Worked great blowing cold air on the driver during heats and mains..

Bob

Sure, because your head is small. A "room" is not.

 

[rsanter]

So how does it work?
Seems like you could do the same thing using a cheap used shop vac, put a couple extra holes in it and fill the tub with ice.

Bob

 

[finn]

Summer isn't coming. Frost line is six feet down. Pipes are frozen.

When the pipes thaw, then summer is coming.

 

[pseudorealityx]

So how does it work?
Seems like you could do the same thing using a cheap used shop vac, put a couple extra holes in it and fill the tub with ice.

Bob

Exactly. It takes in room air, blows it over some ice, which melts some ice and cools the air, and blows it out.

You use ice because it takes a lot of energy to melt ice.

 

[6768rogues]

I think it will be better than nothing, but not very much better.

 

[Falcon67]

The deluxe Texas version of that is a swamp cooler and 20 lb bags of ice. Works great if the humidity is low.

 

[kenfath]

"You use ice because it takes a lot of energy to melt ice."

Ugh...somewhere I was taught it takes energy to make ice. Perhaps you have a secret lake which you ice farm and store the harvest in the ice house. My suggestion is to take advantage of a pre-season room air conditioner sale. It will serve you better.

 

[Jack Olsen]

It seems like calculating the BTUs of a gallon of ice would be pretty straightforward. Put another way, if all you needed to do was put a fan on a frozen gallon jug of ice, everybody would be doing it all summer long.

It's worth noting that using an IR thermometer on a stream of air is very misleading. I used on one my vintage car's AC and got a 16° reading, while a probe thermometer showed a much more realistic mid-to-upper 30's at the vent.

 

[gc427]

This is about as efficient as using a toaster in a full bath tub as a water heater.

 

[mrobins297aaa]

I'm sure it works until the ice is gone. there's a big difference between 32 deg ice and 32 deg water, for one thing when the ice is gone the 32 deg water can't cool the air any more without getting warmer itself, so before long the water is the same temp as the air.

here's the concept/science, it takes 1 btu of heat to raise the temp of the ice 1 deg until it reaches 32 deg ice, (so assuming you have 10 deg ice to raise it to 32 deg ice it would require 22 btu's) but to make the ice change state from ice to a liquid it make take 300 btu's to make it change from ice to water so as the ice is changing state it is grabing that heat from the surrounding air and thus cooling it and still remaining at 32 deg, but after all the ice is gone the water thats left can still grab heat from the air but not without getting warmer............same reason your drink starts to get warm as soon as the ice is gone
now before someone says bs on the 300 btu's (I don't remember the exact amount) i just used that examble to prove that it takes a heck of lot of btu's to make something change state.

 

[mrobins297aaa]

"You use ice because it takes a lot of energy to melt ice."

Ugh...somewhere I was taught it takes energy to make ice. Perhaps you have a secret lake which you ice farm and store the harvest in the ice house. My suggestion is to take advantage of a pre-season room air conditioner sale. It will serve you better.

it sure does you have to now remove all those btu's that are in that water to make it change back to ice.

i agree get the air conditioner