Time to prepare for that upcoming insufferable summer heat.
For real. This tutorial actually works.
Instead of freon, you will be using cold water from an ice bucket to run through copper tubing.
As Rube Goldberg as this appears, this very principle of cooling is employed, famously, at a landmark Union Square insurance tower...to this very day. This solution consumes a lot less electricity than standard air conditioning as well!
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16 Comments
It is very simle idea to make mini A/C at home requiring much less power consumption and no atmospheric pollution. The innovative and workable idea is worth appreciating.
WonderHowTo, where were you when I was in college living in a tiny apartment with no AC? I actually went out and bought a water-fan device to try and cool my room (it would run water through a filter behind a large fan). The result was a very damp room that wasn't much cooler than a regular fan would make it. And the thing cost $100!
This would have been perfect!
The video, while entertaining, is inaccurate. This is basically a simple chilled water system with the energy comsumption of the fan and the pump being equal by comparision to actual engineered designs. The idea of using ice water instead of freon sounds good - but one question: Where does the ice come from? An ice maker or some other device using refrigerant in a typically less efficient fashion because of the low temperature required for generating ice. This idea, in fact, places more demands on the environment than a standard AC unit. Nice presentation, though.
Job13... That assumes your freezer doesn't have to be on all the time. Since you never turn off your freezer, it's more efficient to put some of the ice it makes to use as a cooling device (though you're correct that it's not "technically" an AC). The extra cooling required from opening your freezer door a couple extra times a day is negligible. Especially when compared with the required power consumption of a regular AC...
and you can reuse (most of) the water.
where freon goes when you trash an old a/c? can't be good
anyone know if there's significant research into the harmful effects of a/c air
i know i feel sick after a day in an air conditioned room
thanks tinkernut.-- i've been to that building in nyc, thought they were just being cheap hippies
inhaling freon or chlorofluorocarbon will get you high.
freon definitely is an ozone destroyer
not good at all colin
In acient times they used old clay pots with small holes placed in it to allow the water inside to evaporate when the wind blew by.....evaporation = cooling process. The also have the same concept with desert bags.
would it be colder if you added salt?
its cool, inexpensive, and simple. but how much cooler does the air actually b vs a regular fan? n yess i guess salt should preserve the ice a little longer
which voltage fountain pump did you use? i find 7w, 11w, and 14w at my local store.. i don't know which one to use. my dorm doesn't have an A/C, and it's freakin hot in the summer! help!
i mean, wattage
try running the cooper tubing threw some blocks of dry ice.
Awesome & inexpensive idea! I always wondered if something like this would work...
Just in time for summer :)
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