$1.00 Room Air Conditioner (for da poor man)

My first Instrutable ...

About 15 years ago I was laid-off from work and money got real tight. It was during the hottest part of the Summer ( the hottest summer of the century LOL). I needed away to stay cool at night so I could be well rested and ready to look for new work the next day.
I had reached into the freezer for a soda I wanted ice cold, it had froze solid. I sat it on the counter to thaw and came back later to find it half frozen and found a puddle of water dripping onto the floor from the condensation. Then it dawned on me that's exactly the way an air conditioning unit works...

Step 1: BOM

Please be careful using hand tools. Im not the dumbest person in the world. I use hand tools everyday of my life. But I always keep safety in mind and know that things happen, and try to be best prepared. Remembering such things as don't cut something with the sharp bladed pointing toward you.  If you don't know how to use basic hand tools, please ask someone for help.

BOM (Bill of Materials)

4 2 liter soda bottles (with caps)
1 Cooking sheet
1 Box Fan
1 Box

Tools

Razor Knife
Duct Tape (one of mans greats contributions)

Comments

[fuf]

I would consider this a de-humidifier, because it takes moisture from the air.

[tech53]

More importantly a refrigerator/freezer puts the heat back into your house doesn't it? I could see this as being great for cooling a room that gets warmer than the rest of the house, or maybe if you went camping something like this being really awesome, but would it really work for cooling a house? You would have to put the heat exchanging surface of your fridge near a window wouldn't you?

[nadeem5476]

that will make your room full of humidity and thats why it is a fail idea

[Blofish]

I'm not sure as to what your referring to as a failed idea... A broken milk jug?

[nadeem5476]

it will just fill a lot of humidity in the room , and u willnot b able to take breath in tht atmosphere dear ! thts y its a failed idea.

[Blofish]

nadeem If you fill a glass with ice water on a hot day, water will condense on the glass. Hence Condensation. That is what this will do as long as the cold water is at or below the dew point. Since the ice water is in plastic bottles that water is not introduced to the air. Now, if I were to forget to empty the water from the tray, the warm air will pick up that water. Its just like an air conditioner, works the same way.

[nadeem5476]

thanks for the clarification , but does this mean that this thing and freon gas a/c works same ? if there is ample amount of chilled water i m using as a freon gas , without compressor (but just using a pump to pmp the chilled water in the lines of the condenser ? ) ?

[gazoutg]

If you don't use a compressor the freon won't get hot outside and cold inside. If your freon pipes don't get cold they will not make the humidity condensate on them and nothing will happen For more infos : http://home.howstuffworks.com/refrigerator2.htm

[nadeem5476]

@ gazoutg yes dear i know , i was asking that using freon OR a chilled water (AS A REFRIGERANT) means the same , i know the FREON requires a compressor to compress and chilled water only needs a pump to pump into lines . any how thanks.,

[Blofish]

I think the answer is Yes. Freon being cold is somewhat the same as cold water. They both asorb heat. This doesnt use a pump just a fan to force warm air on the bottles. Thank you for your comments : )

[farzadbayan]

Nice and practical

[jimmerforpoy]

Could you put all that in a mini freezer and have it go all the time without the bottles melting?

[Blofish]

As per gazoutg reply... Yes Heat is removed (adsorbed) placing an ice bottle in your mini Freezer... In time they will have absorb heat enough to melt, but slower. If you put ice in a cooler the ice will melt after a time (dependent on ambient temp etc.)

[gazoutg]

I'm not an expert.
But from what i understand of compresser cooler (like fridges) and Peltier unit (used in portable electric cooler):
 - they dont "make" cool air they remove the heat (energy) from inside the box and expulse it outside (for example the air behind a fridge is hotter)

That mean your improvised AC will throw out cool air but your fridge will compensate by heating the room.

[Blofish]

I used it in my bedroom and froze the bottles in my fridge in the kitchen... Not the same room... True, they don't make cold, it adsorbs heat... Thanks

[Win7Maniac]

True. To understand how AC units work, you have to remember the connection between heat and pressure. When pressure increases, heat rises, when it decreases it gets colder, and vice versa. The compressor (which is almost always outside) COMPRESSES the compressant, usually freon, which is then sent through copper tubing to the a-coil inside the furnace, under the blower. The a-coil allows the compressed freon to uncompress, lowering the air temperature in the chamber, which is then sent back up through the vents. Then the freon goes back up for recompression outside. The compressor is outside, with a fan, so that the heat from compression will be left outside, not inside. If you feel some spots on the outside of most freezers/refrigerators, you can feel it is hot. Again, the compression.

[popa27272]

my uncle used to do the same thing with a block of ice from the store and one of those cheap metal tins and it seemed to work fine without a box around it

[lemonie]

Can you add photographs?
If you could have the hot part of the fridge outside and leave the door open you'd be there maybe.

L:

[Blofish]

When I make another one Ill take some pix. This is pretty clear. I would like to take data on this. Cut a big old hole in the wall and stick the back of the fridge out.... (that's another instructable!) LOL

[tristan993]

this is great, but you're not getting rid of the hot air in ur room. ur only adding cooler, dryer air. i would have a tube-like construction with a fan sucking in the hot air from the room and another blowing the air, cooled by the bottles, back out.

is the temp of the cold air inversely proportional to the temp of the hot air?

[Blofish]

If you look at the last drawing, it is pulling warm air in and cooling/drying the air.

is the temp of the cold air inversely proportional to the temp of the hot air?
I don't know how to answer that. Thanks for the comment

[IdahoDavid]

Actually your freezer works more efficiently if it is kept full. By keeping sets of bottles in there freezing you are wasting less energy. This is a very simple alternative to working with a lot of pipes and pumps to circulate water in front of a fan. It is also well within the technical skills of a lot of people. This is definitely worth trying for small-space cooling and in areas like the Pacific Northwest where the number of overwhelmingly hot days and nights doesn't justify investing in an actual air condioner. Well done.

[Blofish]

Your correct. I to this day keep extra ice bottles in the freezer. Never know when the power will go out or how long.

[Blofish]

PS Thank you

[meddler]

I kind of made the same thing for my wife when I was stationed at Fort Riley in the ARMY. She was pregnant with our first child and the hot Kansas summer was killing her. What I did was place a couple of milk jugs filled with water in a chest freezer to freeze. Then I cut the bottom out of a 5 gallon bucket I found along the road, put the milk jug inside the bucket and placed a fan behind it. Worked pretty well as I recall. It inspired my cooler ible I made from an old camp cooler.

[sjonahm16]

He probably uses his freezer to store other things so he didn't think it necessary to add the price of freezing them. Great idea! I like this diy air condition a lot better than others cause the soda bottles are much easier to reuse than ones that involve ice water. Thanks for the idea.

[Blofish]

Your welcome sjonahn16.
Thank you for answering sonicdrives question for me.
The freezer ran away. I dont think it really cost all that much to freeze water.
It was something when I had nothing. If you think about it, an air conditioning unit removes moisture from the air and 'discards' it. I recouped some more 'cold' from the water accumulating in the tray (cooking sheet) and wasn't discarded but was recycled back into the bottles as they warmed. I know I didnt say that right, its more like more heat was absorbed into the water in the tray. I think heat transfer is hot to cold.

[sonicdrive]

good idea but what do you spend in electric turning the bottle of water to ice fridges are not the cheapest thing to freeze water