Shoreline_
Well-known member
This post is to give everyone information in case anyone else has a bad idea like me (but sounds feasible).
Background. My girlfriend has to pay additional money per month to have an AC unit in her apartment. $50 for one, 75 for 2 and 100 for 3. But she doesnt pay for electricity or water. Well its included with her rent. So I thought what if I bought her a bunch of ice cube trays and built from parts a water to air ac. Not a swamp cooler as our humidity in New England is already high.
The apartment is 3rd floor. Middle unit. 3 windows with indirect sunlight.
700 cfm fan, ducting, 10x10 air to water heat exchanger.
The testing was in the kitchen. About 150 Sq ft with gas pilot oven and refrigerator. Right there it killed my math. I calculated 60 pounds of ice to cool from 88 to 70. My first test was with the facet water. Water in then out to the drain. 1 hour of running no change in temperature. But I had a snafu. The facet fixture valve is messed up and kept blending in hot water.
Tried it a few days later. I bought an outdoor thermometer. Room temp about 81 and humidity 80%. Got a little sump pump and a 15 gallon resevoir and retried closed loop. It heated the water from 68 to 81 degrees so fast. 5 mins or so. Dumped it out and refilled it. It was not sustainable. So I went to the store and bought 10 pounds of ice. Refilled the bin with cold city water at 68. Put the ice in. I know it's counter intuitive because the ice and water have to come to equalized temp. Another problem with my math. Loosing btu for that. But damn it worked. The heat exchanger was pulling water out of the air. I didn't see a drop in temp but the humidity went down a little bit. So I went out and I bought 40 pounds. It worked really good. I got the temperature to drop from 81 to 78 and the humidity to drop, but as the condensing action stopped after 30 mins I checked the water and it equalized with the room.
So the conclusion of the topic is, unless you have a free source of a LOT of ice, it's not a sustainable process. We ended up just buying a 6000 btu ac and have been happy haha. Maybe I'll use it in my garage to heat in the winter.
Background. My girlfriend has to pay additional money per month to have an AC unit in her apartment. $50 for one, 75 for 2 and 100 for 3. But she doesnt pay for electricity or water. Well its included with her rent. So I thought what if I bought her a bunch of ice cube trays and built from parts a water to air ac. Not a swamp cooler as our humidity in New England is already high.
The apartment is 3rd floor. Middle unit. 3 windows with indirect sunlight.
700 cfm fan, ducting, 10x10 air to water heat exchanger.
The testing was in the kitchen. About 150 Sq ft with gas pilot oven and refrigerator. Right there it killed my math. I calculated 60 pounds of ice to cool from 88 to 70. My first test was with the facet water. Water in then out to the drain. 1 hour of running no change in temperature. But I had a snafu. The facet fixture valve is messed up and kept blending in hot water.
Tried it a few days later. I bought an outdoor thermometer. Room temp about 81 and humidity 80%. Got a little sump pump and a 15 gallon resevoir and retried closed loop. It heated the water from 68 to 81 degrees so fast. 5 mins or so. Dumped it out and refilled it. It was not sustainable. So I went to the store and bought 10 pounds of ice. Refilled the bin with cold city water at 68. Put the ice in. I know it's counter intuitive because the ice and water have to come to equalized temp. Another problem with my math. Loosing btu for that. But damn it worked. The heat exchanger was pulling water out of the air. I didn't see a drop in temp but the humidity went down a little bit. So I went out and I bought 40 pounds. It worked really good. I got the temperature to drop from 81 to 78 and the humidity to drop, but as the condensing action stopped after 30 mins I checked the water and it equalized with the room.
So the conclusion of the topic is, unless you have a free source of a LOT of ice, it's not a sustainable process. We ended up just buying a 6000 btu ac and have been happy haha. Maybe I'll use it in my garage to heat in the winter.
Totally correct. I would expect your window AC to be cycling up to the design temperature. I'm just pointing out that ice for refrigeration is something kind of baked into the way we measure AC systems. It's not a foreign concept at all, and it works, when you can supply railcars worth of ice.