Homemade Air Conditioner simple DIY AC uses 45 Watts - can be solar powered!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ก.ย. 2024
- make your own air conditioner with a fan, copper tubing, clear tubing. small fountain pump (158gph) and ice water. cost $30. 45 Watts. can be run using "3 panel set" from harbor freight tools. very easy to make. runs on wall current or solar power system. update: i ended up using a 200gph water pump. it works much better
I made this this month, following this video and one other. It actually cost me about $45 (without the fan) through various stores on Amazon, using only free shipping options. I'm using an 18" fan with 25' of 3/8" copper tubing. It doesn't cool my large-ish bedroom as much as I had hoped, but it does take it from a little too warm to comfortable. After later buying a more efficient cooler to keep the ice and water, two frozen one-gallon jugs keeps the tubing cool to the touch for at least five hours. I haven't yet actually timed it. Again, it's not as strong as I'd hoped, but the concept does work well enough that it's worth the time to replace the ice jugs when I feel warm. I just wanted to share my experience, as it wasn't as good or as cheap as I expected, but it was still worth the time and money.
Thanks for letting us know it works
Your comment is 5 years old... Have you come up with a better way?
@@brendalg4 Now I live on my own and control the thermostat lol. Additionally, I now have a pad for my chair that circulates air through it, which whisks away a lot of body heat, pretty effectively keeping me cool.
this is by far the nicest looking cooler i've seen anybody build! good job!
yep. if you're currently running a kitchen refrigerator/freezer it adds less than one dollar a year to your electric bill (to freeze a couple of jugs of water a day). if you want to make ice 100% off-grid, you could run a small freezer off of a couple of solar panels (similar to my 30w fridge video) and freeze the ice in that :)
You have so many great diys!!! I just finished the copper tubing on fan air conditioner! !! I'm loving it.Thx so much!!!
Tried it. Air was cool directly in front of coil but had condensation build up which was dripping water all over the floor under my fan. Also, definitely need to use a proper cooler. I used a bucket with ice and water for the test run. Didn't last more than an hour before ice completely melted. I will try it again with a cooler in hopes of keeping the water colder and longer. I live in the Philippines so needless to say, this would have been a great idea had it work a little better. I'll give my results with the cooler later...
Hello dis you try with thw cooler? And what about the condensation problem?
loved it. my outside air conditioner is 42 years old , the maintenance people have been saying every year or years how much more efficiency i could get with a new unit if i replaced my old unit. . thanks for your thinking outside the box. i will never get a central unit ever again.
If you have an old cooler sitting around drill holes through the top for the tubing to go through. After sliding the tubing through the holes seal it with some caulking. This will give you a longer life on the cooling power rather than an open bucket.
Good call
couple of my newer vids show how to make ice "off grid". one is a solar powered ice maker. another shows a solar powered freezer capable of freezing full gallon jugs. either could be combined with this "copper wire fan" for complete "off grid" operation.
most home stores like home depot and lowes sell the copper. I used 20 feet. i've had the fan for a while. not sure where i got it.
Check out my latest video titled "DIY Solar Ice Maker". It shows one way to make ice 'off-grid' using only two "45 watt solar panel kits" from harbor freight tools. (or use a single 90 watt panel). The system shown in that video can also run a small chest freezer (they use as little as 60 watts per hour). that would produce lots of ice too.
Hydroponic growers have been doing this for years with water chillers. Just the cost of the water chiller is a bit more expensive than a bucket of ice. Nice video!
this is an amazing off the grid AC system. I run on solar and this is going to help tremendously
obviously, I will have it a sealed and much more efficient system but just the fact that it will work is amazing to me
People try to act so smart and say this is a bad idea because making ice creates more heat from your freezer. Your freezers don't have to work any harder to make ice lol. Unless you are using boiling water which would inturn make your freezer 3 degrees warmer if that. Which still wouldn't affect the output your freezer uses regularly by much. morons. This idea is awesome, great video man! Cheers
Jordan Thistle Nice one Jordan. some people just type without thinking then boom! LOL
robert james exactly, morons
+Jordan Thistle
You have to add the cost of making the ice. You're total energy usage is the fan + the freezer energy from making the ice. Trouble is there are major efficiency losses so you gain very little and likely lose more than a high efficiency air conditioner.
Rob
but isn't your freezer always running to keep whatever food you have cool?
why not use a thing that you already have and always use?
+VB6_CPP_CSS_CSGO_CODER
Because you have to add water to your freezer that warms the freezer thus it has to run longer to freeze the water. Where as if you didn't remove ice from your freezer it would run less and use less electricity.
One KW makes 3412 BTU's and one BTU is required to raise one pound of water 1 degree F. So figure out what happens when you put 75F water in a freezer. First the water is usually hotter because you don't need AC for a 75F room, so you're probably using 80F water going into a 10 or 20F freezer. That's a lot of heat and the cost of it has to come from somewhere, you're also opening the freezer in an 80 or 90F house which adds more heat to the freezer!
One gallon of water weighs 7 pounds so figure how little one pound of water is, that's basically a few ice cubes. So you're heating up your freezer to take ice out to put in front of a fan that you have to power.
What's wrong with this picture?
Rob
How nicet to see good old fashion american know how.This video was a great treat for me . I really like seeing things like this because the ingenuity is so rare .
Keep on thinking up things like this. Many of the worlds greatest inventions came from those who were not afraid to think out of the box. Thanks for making my day.
Keeping up with all that ice is a bitch. One thing that I found that helps is to add another 10 feet to 20 feet of copper tubing to your cooler. Then connect the return line from the fan to one end of that copper tubing. What this will do is to cool down the return water returning from the fan before it discharges into the cooler water. Otherwise, your ice will melt very quickly on hot days. I am a lazy guy and hate to keep up with all that ice. :-)
Dennis G LaFond: How does the extra tubing cool the return water?
Observ45er
Because since the water in the cooler is cool and in contact with the copper tubing it will have the same effect as the copper tubing on your fan. The copper tubing on your fan cools the air as it passes through. The copper tubing on the return line from your fan inside the cooler cools the water back down to cooler temp before it is discharged back into the cooler. This, along with the moving water from your pump action, is the main reason why your ice will melt so quickly. It will still melt. There is no getting around that. But, it will be far less with copper tubing on your return line inside the cooler. Like I mentioned previously, just a few degrees inside the cooler can make a significant difference on how fast the ice in your cooler melts. Its a pain in the butt and requires constant vigilance. Thats also why if you have a refer in your home that has an auto ice making feature, its very handy for this. Without that feature, you had better get plenty of extra ice cube trays and just realize that you are going to be using extra electricity just making ice for this project. Otherwise you will be going down to the local convenience store often to pick up bagged ice. There goes any advantage to even building this system. . Have fun. :-)
Dennis G LaFond I see. But he is running the water *directly onto the ice*. Therefore he has the best situation. The clear tubing is not between the water and ice.
...
All other factors I have commented on. I suspect that it takes much longer to freeze the water than to melt it so you need a few jugs not just two...
Cheers
Observ45er
Well, its probably best to run the exhaust of the return line on the opposite end of the cooler from the pump down in the water. Not to pour down in the water. That works best for me. Try both ways and time the ice melting and use whatever works best for you. To many variables to pin it down due to ambient temp and moisture content of the air.
Interesting idea. Parents had a fan back in the 60's that did the same thing. You might put the coils on the back side of the fan, bring the ends of the copper tubing to a point near the stand so that it can oscillate. Another idea would be to bury a coil network in the ground and circulate the water through that giving you a cool 45 degree renewable source.
If you salt the water, the temperature of the coils & water will be even lower. I don't know how this would affect the pump being salt water, but it would make it even cooler.
What you can also do to prevent yourself from having to continuously add water. Freeze gallon jugs of water solid, Put them into the chest/bucket as an "Ice cube" when the first one thaws out, put it back in the freezer... by the time it thaws out, the other should be frozen again. Swap it out and you're good to go!
I always thought that a "cold coil" would be useful for creating an air conditioner that didn't need to sit in a window. But I wasn't sure how to make one. Circulating ice water through copper tubing. It is so simple, yet so brilliant. I bet that you could make a portable version.
These videos are interesting. I wonder if you do the same thing to a window fan but instead of having the copper tubing going to a bucket of ice, have the tubing run out the window and down deep in the ground and back up with a pump, favorably in a shaded area and also wet the soil with water. I wonder how well that would work. Maybe you would never have to worry about ice. Just keep the soil damp.
that is basically what geothermal is except they use an ac compressor to dump all its heat into the water lines and bring back cold water to re use with the ac. huge fields are needed to keep the water lines cold.
I built one, using the idea's I learned in the video... It works, but the ice melts pretty fast for some reason? Yes, the tubing does condensate, I just put a towel down, no big deal.
It blows 'cool' air, not 'cold' air... but very refreshing and cheap. Looks cool too!
I wonder if you're just transferring the power usage to your freezer, which has to make all that ice.
lol.
Yeah I wondered about that too. Though my main worry is how long will the ice last before it runs out and you're just pumping room temp water through the lines.
Cause then it'd just defeats the purpose if you have to keep putting jugs of water back to the freezer to freeze.
***** exactly
***** But isn't he using his freezer anyway for food and stuff? So he uses more current by simply putting water in the freezer to freeze?
Patrick Simmons
Exactly the point.
The main reason for making the water cooled fan in the video is to lower cooling costs by a significant amount (rather than turning on your home AC).
It's counter-productive if the ice that melted now has to be re-frozen cause then the freezer would be removing the heat from the water and spitting it back out into the house through the back of the machine, where the condenser is.
So you're back to square one.
I was going to do the 5 gallon bucket deal for the barn and make three of them...but with this, I can get a large oscillating fan and one setup should help cool 3 horse stalls a bit. Just need to bring the temp down a bit... Horses will love it!
If you make the ice in your frig this will have a net warming effect on your home, but fine for local cooling. Do to the fact that both your refrigerator and fan are not loss-less, when you freeze ice in your refrigerator it makes your house warming. Your refrigerator transfers the heat from inside the refrigerator to outside, which is still in you house. This is why all AC units are BOTH inside and outside.
OMG, like my 4 year daughter would said, this is really cool. I like this idea specially to use it in the garage where i have no insulation at all. good job.
BRILLIANT idea!! Thanks for sharing this terrific idea so others can chill out without spiking their electricity bill. I'd say you're a local McGuyver. Nice work indeed!
If you can make the ice in an out building or porch or somewhere outside the home heat load it will help a lot. Making the ice causes heat from the freezer condenser and you dont want to have to cool down that extra load and work in circles.
Howdy Desertsun, Thanks for sharing this with all of us. I do like your design It's real nice looking. I'll be making one of these in the future, and will use it in my RV. I will use a real good ice chest to hold the ice water, and work everything so the water lines go through the wall of the ice chest to keep everything clean looking. I sure do like the way you wrapped the copper tubing around the fan grill. It looks very nice. Again, Thank for sharing your video....
with the extra cost of tubing Couldn't you make it twice as efficient by putting the coils on the back also?
yes, put them right over the electric motor so the condensed water drips on it. That is a brilliant idea
I think if a person has the intelligence to figure out how to keep the moisture away from the motor.
@@neil2385 hehehe
You just gave me a great idea. This would be a great way to keep the water flowing through an ethanol still cool. Originally, I was thinking about using a car radiator but now I'm going to try this instead.
"$30 ...that's almost free" ........lol
"that water is fa-reezing"
Wow what a perfect design your.
Very neat tying up those tubes
Almost free another freebie is better than socialism LOL
That killed me! 🙂 Almost FREE! I AGREE!
this is soo much better than AC
AC have such high running cost
and the maintenance then theres coil change and gas refill
you will be paying more than what AC cost you in maintenance within 5- 6 year s
but this freaking thing is awesome
Yeah. Excellent job of making it look easy! I'm impressed,here.
Carefully done and looks and works great!
Thanks!
Dave in Seattle.
Hey! How long in between (hours/or minutes) did the water evaporate in the bucket? How often did you have to refill with water? :)
my question exactly trying to decide if I want to do this...
The water doesn't evaporate. It goes back in the bucket.
+Reza R I think she meant to say was how often do you have to change the ice?
I imagine it would depend on where you live. Dry climates or high humidity areas would likely have to be refilled more often than other climates.
nice one, just plain common sense applies, thanks a lot, I'm from a tropical country it's very applicable here in the philippines, specially our electrics rates are getting expensive. God Bless
Hey, wish u'd told the length.I ordered some, 10 ft, but it doesn't look like urs. is urs 1/4 outside or inside and how many feet
hi there. it's 1/4" OD (outer diameter) tubing. i used 20 feet - but if i make another one (i probably will) i'll use even more - probably 30 or 40 feet. (using 20 feet leaves about 3/4" to 1" of space between the coils. using 30 or 40 feet would leave approx 1/3" to 1/2" of space between coils). that will increase the cooling power even more and will still allow for plenty of airflow.
ah, that's y I guess it didn't seem to cool. I used 10 feet. thanx
s buchanan 2
Great video. Years ago when people had hot water heat, in the summer they'd pump water from their cistern or an open well to cool their home.
I want to try this using antifreeze inside my chest freezer as a cooling liquid
Dont use antifreeze wont do anything... use ammonia. Although you might have to shut it off because it will freeze everything.
dunn dunlop I might be having a senior moment, but how exactly would -30C antifreeze not do anything? Its the same idea as the guy who posted the video (liquid cooling a copper pipe that is blown into the surroundings). Anyway, there are other liquid mixtures I could use, but antifreeze was the first that I thought of. I will keep everyone updated on how it works, when I get around to doing it. Maybe I will post a video
Doomzdayxx
yeah. make a video
Doomzdayxx All i know is some old ice factory's would run that. Also alot of people are switching to ammonia in their car AC. So yea.
dunn dunlop
Well, I would need a compressor anyway for the ammonia gas, so I might as well just get an AC. I was just suggesting the antifreeze because it has such an amazingly wide temperature range in the liquid phase. There are other options too, but antifreeze is the first one that came to mind since it's so common
Well said.
The main difference is that the true AC runs freon through the copper coil instead of water. And the freon is cooled, not by ice, but by changing from liquid into gas (by an evaporator) causing extreme coolness in the coil, and to liquid again (by a compressor), and so on. The compressor's side affects, heat and condensation, are handled by a back facing fan and a condenser.
But, outside of that, the true AC still involves a front facing fan blowing warm air across a cooled coil.
do you all know, while water circulates through the copper pipe in front of the fan the water will become chiller even without using the ice and water falling into the tub/bucket and recirculating it, it works as air cooling system. this itself will be sufficient to reduce the room temperature down.
Krishnamurthy Balan Water won't get chill just because of air flow. Vapour formation only give that chill feeling on our body.
Water alone cannot provide any cooling. The water will just be at room temperature so you're not cooling anything off.Think about how liquid cooling works on something like say a computer. It works because you try to keep the water (high specific heat thus great coolant) at room temperature by circulating the heated water through a radiator and blowing air through that radiator thus getting the water back down to room temperature so that it can cool again. It works because the components you're trying to cool are much hotter than room temperature (in the case of computers you're talking 120+ °F compared to room temp of 70-80 °F).
omg i cant believe how many dumbasses these kind of diu threads have. look they creaverunt perpetuum mobilem
I've dismantled the tubing from my fan, and converted the whole thing into a foot-cooler, by laying the copper on the floor in front of my computer, thus keeping my feet cool while producing music, which is sort of nice. Looking forward to really trying it out this weekend, it should be a hot one :D
@Tim Gautier
Not true. A fridges compressor does not produce the heat but the heat exchanger coils on the back of the fridge do and it has nothing to do with inefficiency. Air Conditioners and fridges are actually highly efficient and no other form of cooling comes close to their efficiency. Peltier elements are so inefficient it isn't even funny.
If you knew how air conditioners actually work then I don't think you would be saying stuff about them being inefficient. They cool by using expanding gas that is reused again and again. The heat that is pumped out the back is not only from the compressed gas running through the heat exchanger but also from the actual air that is in the room. See when the gas expands in the evaporator coils is absorbs energy from the air which makes the air colder. This gas gets warmer because of this and on it's way back to the compressor it gets compressed into a liquid and it's pretty hot by then and the heat exchanger gets rid of most of that heat. So you are actually sucking heat from the air and putting it into the gas and then that is removed out the exhaust at the back of the unit.
It works ! Thank you so much for your thorough demo.
Works best in a small room. My Dogs thank you.
Agreed. Geothermal cooling is effective and already in use in some places (and increasing). Most of our ancestors also did this in the form of deep root cellars to provide cold storage (using natural drafts for air movement as opposed to a fan). For that matter, even a fan in an open window at night (when it is cooler) will be much more efficient and effective than trying to constantly freeze/melt ice from one's own freezer.
it will be more effective if you put the fan on lower speed
Yes it would make air much colder. A lot of people don't understand how air through coils work
Yes, the air would be colder, but there would be proportionally less of it, and because the air in proximity to the coil would be closer to the temperature of the coil, the net heat transfer rate between the two would also be reduced. Ultimately, it would not cool the space as quickly as moving a higher volume of air with greater temperature difference between air and coil.
Also, he may have a fan with a plastic shroud. the way your copper coils are touching the metal shroud helps in radiating the air much better then plastic will. I was skeptical at first, but after seeing what you did I found it to be quite efficient. good job!
Things like this are useful for cooling a targeted area, but most people usually ignore the amount of energy it takes to make the ice in the first place, and the fact that the heat removed to make the ice is simply pumped back into your kitchen.
To everyone saying that the freezer would be on anyway, so the ice is generated for free, you're wrong. Freezers and refrigerators have thermostats. They turn on their compressors when they need to in order to keep their temperature consistent. Putting water that isn't already frozen into your freezer causes it to turn on, and more heat is pumped back into the room to make the ice. Even assuming 100% efficiency, the ice will cool the room exactly as much as the freezer warmed it.
Of course, if you want to chill another space than the one the freezer is in, and don't care about extra heat in your kitchen, then this is a good solution, but so would be an air conditioner, which generates a temperature differential using virtually the same method as the freezer.
Justin Leone your an idiot
it depends on how cold the water is to start with. when I put the frozen gallon of ice into room temp water, the ice melted in about an hour. when I start with colder water from the fridge, the ice lasted 2 1/2 hours. this is in an uninsulated bucket. if you put the ice and water in an ice chest, the ice may last 5 or 6 hours. use 2 or 3 frozen gallons in ice chest and start with cold water and the ice may last all day.
now figure out how to make the fan blades run off magnets and you are completely off grid
If you put a fan in a window and their is air flow it will turn by itself and you would only need to make a crystal cell or two to run the water pump.
Until you need more ice
or just use a solar panel :P
Great idea, But I'd expand on two ideas with this..
1. I'd add a small drip guard under the coil to catch condensation and direct it to a sink, or container.
2. Instead of a standing bucket of ice water, I would make a complete loop, with another coil inside an old freezer outside.
The the coil inside the freezer would be submerged in a container of ice cold water with anitifreeze in it.
I'd also add antifreeze to the coil water, so when it's off the water in the freezer side of the loop does not freeze.
I don't know how well the freezer would cope with it, but I'm sure you could use it in twelve hour bursts at the very least.
this would be good in a small camping trailer, 12V fan, 12V pump...get the ice ready at home...maybe just before bedtime on those sticky hot summer days
That rocks dude very good idea use a solar panel even better ice chest for the water and ice and you got it almost free AC SWEET !!! Thanks so much
Building this Next weekend when I get paid LOL Awesome video. I thought about using a pump and a single bucket after I watched another video were they just used gravity and TWO buckets. I thought it looked really inefficient. Thanks for the upload!
You speak of the cost of running the pump and over look the cost of freezing the water and the cost of running the fan. Using smaller tubing and putting the tubing on the front and back is much more efficient. You have a great basic concept, with a few tweaks and powering your fan and pump with solar and the system will be awesome.
Great video. I looked this up because I'm trying this myself tomorrow and this video got me excited for it.
this is a great idea and might cool down the room on those hot summer days, but it won't take any humidity out of the air. an air conditioner has an evaporator that is super cooled by refrigerant and freezes moisture then that frost melts and condensates outside.
congrats youve learned the concept of chiller set cooling
Good job mate. My "thing" is drying clothes. We gave our tumble-dryer away and slotted a dishwasher in instead. But, clothes dry just as quick now, if not quicker, without any radiators, heaters, tumble-dryers. Now, all i do is pop the clothes on the airer and start a 18" floor fan on the end of the airer, just 65w. People cant understand that it dries the clothes so quick without heat.
The only negative to this could be humidity of the air. But we just open a window or use extractor fan.
the water will keep exchanging from what I can tell, but the ice will melt. What makes it so cool is the ice, though cool water will still cool the air just not as much. You'll have to replace the ice, but as he said in the video if you had an icebox or an insulated bucket the ice would last longer.
Nice project. If you use sealed water container you will get chilled air more time than the open type vessel
i second that my friend... just purchased my first DIY solar cells and kit and plan to build my first solar panels
seriously clever & cool, you might try running the cold water through an oil cooler/radiator upstream of the fan.
hi. i haven't had any condensation/moisture on the coil at all so far. this may be due to the fact that i live in a very dry climate.
hi there. 2 things. first, you have to circulate the water through the coil continuously. (or almost continuously) or it will just sit in the coil and warm up. secondly, try tightening up the coil on the fan. i'm thinking about adding 10 or 20 more feet to mine. the more cold pipe the air passes over, the colder the air will be. be careful not to put too much pipe on the fan or the air won't be able to get thru the coil.
This is why he mentioned the cooler. If you use an air-tight cooler (drill small holes for tubing on top) the water will take longer to warm up. Also, using two 2liter frozen containers will make it better. So no, no gimmicks. Simply using ingenuity.
If got window near air cloths drier, vent humidity outside using duct to channel the exit air. LOVE that idea! Our drier is nearing end of it's life--this sounds REAL good idea, instead of new drier!
the clear tubing has an internal diameter of 1/4" but it's actually sold as 5/16" tubing. that is its external diameter. fits snugly on the pump. then the 1/4" copper tubing fits perfectly inside of the clear tubing
just some thoughts for improvement, if you made tight bends and made a conscious effort to always maintain a downward slope going horizontally across the fan face you could achieve a constant siphon thus loosing the pump. if you take it a step further with a check valve on the bottom of the inlet then the water expansion would start the siphon for you. a ball valve at the bottom of the exhaust for adjustment could be used to halt the flow and keep the system imbalance. Use a bedini motor for the fan and it runs for free. just a thought... now all you need a free source of ice.
The first part of this violates the laws of thermodynamics.
Great idea and it will cool faster and better then just blowing a fan over ice.
If you have a freezer working in your house already it wouldn't take any more power to keep a couple of jugs of water in there that you can rotate out when the one you are using warms up. Plus this fan probably moves more air than any AC unit. Plus, like he said at the end of the video, If you put the ice inside a small cooler, it will last a lot longer. Then move the cooler closer to the fan to shorten up the clear tubing. You're sailing!!
Good video.You know this TH-cam has been a godsend for me,because I get inspired by people like you to get off my dead can and personally do something about the energy crisis,green smeem,whatever.It a uniting force we have here.How do you think big companies come up with great products?It's by a lot of people inputting ideas for it's development,and a lot of harsh criticism equals it's evolution.Build it test it,with what computers can do now you don't even have to leave your desk!Thanks desert
i got it at harbor freight tools. originally bought the 158GPH one. Definitely buy the 200GPH one if you can. It's much stronger and only costs $2.00 more. $7.00 for the 158gph and $9.00 for the 200gph.
Looks great, I'll try building one. I am going to use the fan to pull air over the coil rather than push it over the coil.The coil will be attached same as yours, except on the opposite blade guard. I've heard that the pusher design may cause a positive air pressure between the coil and fan and reduce the flow of cooler air. Also, in a pusher, some portion of the copper coil is blocked by the blade guard's metal rod reducing surface area.
huh im going to make that. IM in new mexico and there are times i need cool air for my computer corner. THIS idea is a must have thanks for sharing
save money
2 suggestions: put the water in a cooler and mix rock salt with the ice to make the water even colder...good video by the way
We made cheap1 of these w/plastic tubing, only cool water in the bucket--still helped cool a bit--ice far better, & copper tubing + ice chest.
Hey--try venting hot refrigerator air out a window! Req. fiddling w/containing & directing it, but do-able, if ya don't mind a kitchen lookin' Rube Goldberg style--put 2" thick foam panels on Sides, Top & Front of refrig, & w/ HD appliance timer @ nite for few hrs; saves about $10+/month off electric bill too.
NIce! This is really nice setup! I would love to see a new video that shows the water moving. Get it running, add a quart of red colored water. This would show the water move through the system.
That's a good idea! If you brought the pump up you might gain efficiency and cut strain on the pump.
The reason this idea is great is because off grid people using a small solar array can not spare the power to run an actual window unit. They can run a frig/freezer and some other low wattage appliances. This idea allows them to freeze the water in their freezer and then have cool air blowing on them while they sleep. It uses much less power than what an A/C would use. Trying to sleep in the summer with no A/C is a pain. This idea allows a cool air blown across you, making it easier to sleep.
Add a couple table spoons of salt to the ice and the water will get extremely cold. :)
Tony Kinsey Yeah,it would make the water "colder",but that salted water traveling ,through the pump,and copper coil,could be corrosive..!?
JEAN PAUL Lataillade
Don't think the small amount of salt added would increase the the PH enough to cause corrosion. Could always run clean water through every other time to keep system clear just in case.
You could also use softener salts those are 40 lbs / $5-8.
Those aren't corrosive but will still make the water colder, but how that really work is it turns to water from a poor insulator to a decent conductor and it'll work faster.
Salt will not corrode Cooper all the way through.
+JEAN PAUL Lataillade You'd only put salt in the ice block. Since it's in a jug, it wouldn't effect the water in the pipes.
got it,thanks.
add some salt to the ice! last longer!
and to the running water too!
let me know the results.
good job man!
Although not as cheap, a whole house fan is one hell of an investment.
Just one thing, there will be condensate collecting on the coil and you'll probably need a plastic tarp or a bin below the fan to keep your floor dry. Other than that, it's really a good idea.
Yes this works, no template needed. It's easy to roll, usually comes already coiled just Un roll it a bit. Doesn't matter what side it's on. Get a extra large regular cooler, if you want longer cooling buy a block of dry ice instead. Fill with water half way, close cooler top. Keep hoses short to prevent cool loss. And yes you will have condensation. Fan will blow it out unfortunately. Once room gets cooler condensation will slow. A/C tech of10yrs. It works. Or save up $100 and buy window unit.
Your comment is 10 years old do you have more ideas now?
It's true we could just buy an AC but I have heard they take a lot more electricity
That's really cool, very well done. Have you thought about using a radiator like the one in your car? You can pick one up at the auto parts store and they are designed to transfer heat with all the fins and such. It wouldn't matter what kind of car either, but I think I would use one from a truck with a higher capacity. I guess weight is a concern, but then just get a big floor fan. It just gets outta control from there so back to what I first said. Well done sir.
I did this project. It actually works. Only 2 problems. Ice melts too fast and lot's of condensation on the coils that drips on to the fan(I used a table top fan). I'll admit the air was definitely colder. THIS IS NOT AC, but if you have no AC, you'll be more comfortable.
I was waiting the whole time for him to say: "FABULOUS!"
cool idea maybe factor in a magnet motor and some sort of gravity pump to eliminate electricity...also air "conditioning" mostly works with the principle of removing moister from the air because moister absorbs heat. so getting the coil cold enough to condense the moister in the air moving threw it naturally results in a cooler air temp, then making a simple drip tray to drain the water falling off of the coil away from the unit would be much more effective.
I have a kegerator (small refrigerator, which I run all the time to keep beer cold) on my enclosed lanai, I plan to run two coils, one in the kegerator and the other on the fan. A pump with in/out flow will pump the water/refrigerant through both refrig and fan coils. I will let you know the progress here.
For all the comments about adding heat because you have to freeze the ice in your freezer. Think about it, you're already using the freezer and if you add a gallon or two of water you take up more space. When your freezer is full it uses less energy and give off less heat. Regardless of if this is efficient or not, this is pretty cool. I may try one.
Watts for AC is more complicated with inductive loads or capacitive loads. In these cases the current doesn't follow the same pattern as the voltage does. For an inductive load such as a AC motor the current is still alternating but it lags behind the voltage, meaning the voltage and the current are out of phase. Therefor volts x amps won't give you the right answer for AC if the load is inductive. For capacitive the current leads the voltage.
Years ago on a hot day with no AC we'd put a block of ice (used to be you could buy a big block of ice) in a basin in front of an electric fan. Sorta kinda worked. This seems MUCH more efficient. Cool! (pun intended)
An alternative solution could be to place a reservoir of salt water or water/alcohol and your water pump in the bottom of your freezer (if you have a side by side fridge) and run the water line out of the fridge to the fan. If you are even more crafty, you could run the pump off of the fridge's power input and just mount an "A/C" switch somewhere in the fridge. An adequate reservoir and enough tubing inside of the freezer and you should achieve a water temp below ambient.
May not be an actual ac but its great it works and saves more electricity than an actual ac unit . Hope u had fun on this project it's so hot right now I'm watching your video just to cool down lol :)
I just want to point out that the net effect is this: the ice cools, transferring it's low temp to the room. The fan blows air to hit people, and cool them down using the body's natural system.
You can get the same effect with an unmodified fan and lots of ice. In the long run, you'll have the same effect- without paying for the pump.
Ice boxes used to be exactly that- a space with snow, ice, or dry ice to cool it.
I would try to attach some netbags filled with charcoal to the fan. Charcoal is an excellent dehumidifier and is odor-free. It will catch the humidity in the air around the fan, and maybe prevent the condensation on the copper tubes. I don't know if it's efficient, but it's a low cost try.
I think the system cannot decrease ambient temperature because it simply recirculates air in the same room. It should be a bit more efficient by putting the gallon/ice system outdoor.
Indeed. However, 100% of the heat transfers to the ice in the form of latent heat and some sensible heat. If he ditched the fan and the pump, and just let the ice melt in the container, he would be cooling BTUs ahead. But, ya gotta give the inventor credit for his creativity. I think it's pretty cool (no pun intended) actually.
For what it's worth, I only know these things because HVAC is what puts food on my table. Thanks for the reply!
put foam strips between the tubing and grill so the noise is knocked down. plus use a ice chest to put your ice in so it will stay cooler longer and a cooler won't sweat.
In the 1950's everyone had water towers in the back, water flowed down slats , the pipes then went inside and ran walk in freezers. forget the ice hook it up to some kind of swamp cooler outside. I'll do it and get back to you I live in very summer hot Texas
I think you should use your DIY evap cooler as a Chiller for the water. Reverse the fan so the air goes out the top and maybe place an exhaust on it. Then place the Chiller some where outside the room your cooling.