DIY Free Air Conditioning for your work bench/shop/garage

[TEDROCKZ]

No shiny tassels :roll:

 

[Duuuuuuuude]

No shiny tassels :roll:

 

[GROUNDpounder]

I was researching housing ideas for koh, by looking at burning man forums/pictures. Same principal, temporary desert dwellings. While doing so I came across several different versions of this homemade A/C with varried results documented.

 

[Duuuuuuuude]

Did some testing today...tried a gallon jug, as well as a half dozen water bottles. I also experimented with holes at the bottom vs holes at the top, different fan speeds, numbers of open ports, etc.

More and more I'm thinking that this is a waste of what was a perfectly good bucket. At best I can get slightly lower than ambient air to make its way out.

 

[Duuuuuuuude]

I just rewatched the video and noticed he was pointing the temp gun straight into one of the ports...meaning that he was getting a reading from the frozen jug, not the air itself (temp guns read surface temps, not air temps). :roll:

 

[dezfan]

At least you can scratch this off your "bucket" list!

 

[TEDROCKZ]

Told ya! Needed shiny glittery tassels. The guy in the video had them and his worked.:ror:

 

[SINister]

Turning the bucket into an evap cooler would work a lot better. The air is moving too fast past the ice to work in this design.

 

[CrawlinMike]

Should make it sort of like an air radiator. Make some up n down copper tubing going through a cooler of ice water, the blow air in one end of the pipe and it should be freezing by the other end depending on how much surface area you can get on inside copper tubing. A small foam walmart throwaway cooler would be good and maybe a couple tranny coolers under the ice water and blow air through them.

 

[Duuuuuuuude]

Turning the bucket into an evap cooler would work a lot better. The air is moving too fast past the ice to work in this design.

I can regulate air flow pretty well...plugging up all but one hole with the fan on low produces just a trickle of air coming out.

 

[rockhugger]

I was hoping this would be a success, but sounds like a flop. I saw one using a coleman medium/large sized cooler. I'm curious if the larger volume of air works better. Maybe a few chambers, or baffle plates glued inside to direct the air around would be better.

 

[C*H*U*D]

What about one of these? This is more like a conventional swamp cooler.

<iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/tV5Q_wiyf4Q" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" width="420"></iframe>

 

[Duuuuuuuude]

Bonus points for using Lego. "thumbsup"


Evap coolers work well until the humidity comes up. Not sure how well one would work here...

When it's too humid for swamp coolers; why the ground darkens with rain - USATODAY.com

 

[SINister]

^ Great idea wish I'd thought of that"thumbsup"

 

[rockhugger]

would adding a desiccant help with the humidity? I don't know if the rate of air flow would be to fast for that to be effective.

 

[CrawlinMike]

Now I just need to seal it up and make a inlet that fits the fan to blow into the top tube. But you get the idea.

 

[Duuuuuuuude]

I think your going to have a hard time blowing air through those tubes...

 

[CrawlinMike]

Why

 

[SINister]

Where is the bowl going to go and your gonna want a choke on that monster.

 

[CrawlinMike]

This took me 30minutes to sink in what you were referring to. I am almost laughing too hard to type!!^^^