[Newsbot]

Title: Here�s a cool idea: Make your own air conditioner for just a few dollars
Category: lifestyle
Posted By: N_Fiddledog
Date: 2015-07-07 00:27:46
Canadian

[martin14]

uhhh, that's not an air conditioner.

[BartSimpson]

martin14 martin14:

uhhh, that's not an air conditioner.

Yep. It's an old school swamp cooler.

[andyt]

$1:

The bottles of water can be frozen at no extra electricity, she said in an email. “Keeping frozen bottles of water in the freezer will keep a stable temperature in the freezer, therefore the freezer doesn’t have to work as hard and will not use more power,” she said. - See more at: http://www.theprovince.com/technology/H ... 4qyW7.dpuf

[andyt]

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

martin14 martin14:

uhhh, that's not an air conditioner.

Yep. It's an old school swamp cooler.

Nope. They rely on evaporation to cool the air, so you get cool, moist air instead of hot dry. Not so good for hot and humid weather.

The op really is about a primitive air conditioner, since air passes over a source of cold, the water bottles. You're just using your freezer (which is a type of air conditioner) to provide that source.

[Tyler_1]

Couldn't a guy just put the fan in front of the ice and not ruin a good container?

[PluggyRug]

andyt andyt:

$1:

The bottles of water can be frozen at no extra electricity, she said in an email. “Keeping frozen bottles of water in the freezer will keep a stable temperature in the freezer, therefore the freezer doesn’t have to work as hard and will not use more power,” she said. - See more at: http://www.theprovince.com/technology/H ... 4qyW7.dpuf

[Zipperfish]

If it's just too hot this isn't a bad idea, but your room would feel pretty swampy in the morning. Air conditioners also dry the air (which is why they need a drain). Dry air allows moisture (sweat) to wick from your body adn clothes. Evaporation causes heat loss, so you feel cooler (even at the same temperature).

As for the claim that water can be frozen at no additional energy cost--theoretically possible, but unlikely to be measurable in a home fridge/freezer unit. The thermal mass of the ice is far greater than air, so it takes longer to cool the freezer, but also longer to warm it up. Your cycles would decrease in frequency but increase in duration. Since every power-up of the cooling system is associated with a power spike, then there could be some savings by reducing cooling cycle frequency. Thermal mass does help with temperature stability though--if you are in and out of your freezer this can be important.

In this case you are removing the water though, so that energy is lost to the system.

[andyt]

You're putting room temperature water in the freezer and cooling it to well below zero. That's going to take an energy input, especially to go from liquid to solid, because water has high specific heat. You are adding heat to the freezer every time you put in those bottles of liquid water. If you then leave the bottles in the freezer, it won't take any extra energy from that point on, but then that defeats being able to use the air conditioner you've built. You have to keep taking the bottles out at night and refreezing them in the morning.

[N_Fiddledog]

Tyler_1 Tyler_1:

Couldn't a guy just put the fan in front of the ice and not ruin a good container?

Kind of...

There's this:



Here's some more "California Coolers" and other homemade gimmicks to keep cool and such, from Popular Mechanics.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/home/a1 ... ditioners/

[BartSimpson]

Or you could stop being a cheap bastard and just pony up for a decent A/C unit.

[N_Fiddledog]

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

Or you could stop being a cheap bastard and just pony up for a decent A/C unit.

You're not getting it Bart, because you're not looking out your window for 7 months at icey rain or other cold stuff.

If it's always hot then, yeah, but for a quick fix every once in awhile...

And it's been an unusually long session of the hot and dry recently, so it gets us thinking.

[Tyler_1]

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

Or you could stop being a cheap bastard and just pony up for a decent A/C unit.

No.

[Zipperfish]

andyt andyt:

You're putting room temperature water in the freezer and cooling it to well below zero. That's going to take an energy input, especially to go from liquid to solid, because water has high specific heat. You are adding heat to the freezer every time you put in those bottles of liquid water. If you then leave the bottles in the freezer, it won't take any extra energy from that point on, but then that defeats being able to use the air conditioner you've built. You have to keep taking the bottles out at night and refreezing them in the morning.

Yes, if you're removing the thermal mass then you are clearly losing that energy to ambient. We keep cool packs in the freezer all the time though because they are handy to have in a pinch and becasue then the ice cream doesn't melt whne the kids are in and out of the freezer.

[Freakinoldguy]

andyt andyt:

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

martin14 martin14:

uhhh, that's not an air conditioner.

Yep. It's an old school swamp cooler.

Nope. They rely on evaporation to cool the air, so you get cool, moist air instead of hot dry. Not so good for hot and humid weather.

The op really is about a primitive air conditioner, since air passes over a source of cold, the water bottles. You're just using your freezer (which is a type of air conditioner) to provide that source.

A better idea would be to cut and attach the two perf drain hoses and fan to the top of your freezer. Then you'd have a continuous supply of cool air.