Home Made Air Conditioner I

I was wanting an air conditioning unit for my tree house. So I thought, why buy a $250 A/C unit, when I could build my own?
It is very low cost to operate, compared to a central a/c, and provides spot cooling/heating, only cooling/heating the areas you want to cool/heat, heatly.

It is also eco friendly, because it uses water as refrigerant, and it can multi-task, cooling/heating the room, while cooling/heating your beverages (or whatever) in the cooler.

Step 1: Step One: Supplys

Supplys needed:

Salvage from the house(or Walmart):

1 Box Fan
Screw Driver
Scissors
Utility Knife
Est. cost $0-$25

Buy at Lowes:

1 Smartpond 155 gal/hr fountain pump
1 20' box of 1/4"(ID) copper tubing
1 20' coil of 3/8"(ID) vinyl tubing
2 hose clamps
1 pack of zip ties
1 Cooler-32qt(8 gallons)
Est. Cost $50.00
Congrats. You just got through step one.

Comments

[yourcat]

Great project! I'd like to see a peltier device (dunno if I spelled that right) cooling the water, but that would get expensive really quick... :-(

[hleon]

(removed by author or community request)

[yourcat]

Not if you did it like in the thing you posted in answers.

[hooty102]

Hey, just to let you know, I threw this together in a couple hours yesterday afternoon during the heat and oh man! It RULES for being a quick and cheap alternative to buying a portable AC unit for my apartment. I've got pictures if you ever want to see how I did it.

[hleon]

thanks. I would like to see the pics. please post them ASAP

[hooty102]

Attached are the images, I did things a bit differently, but it seems to work just fine.

[hleon]

what size is your copper tubing, and how much did u use? Did you test it with another a/c on, or by itself in a hot room?

[asanaya]

Hey thanks probably use this in a garage or my shed and put it on a cart but great Instructable!!! :-)

[twdaniel]

This works great! I used a 175GPMH fountain pump and a narrow 48qt cooler with 3 gallons of water. 6 brick sized reusable ice packs last around 4 hours. I used a dremel tool to cut a small portion out of the top of the lid so it would close properly with the pump power cord and tubing, and used spray foam to provide more insulation.

The materials were a little more than the article stated because I purchased them from a local hardware store instead of a big box store.

Cool project!

[Mahitchima]

hm, it seems like you are using a bit more energy than needed to make this work ?

cut 2 medium big holes in the box, put a big copper pipe through, seal it, make it fit the fan on one end.

then you got the fan dragging air through the box (air gets cooled)

you could use the water pump for something else?

Maybe solder the small copper tubing inside of the other copper pipe in a coil of some sort.
Just a suggestion =)

Great project by the way :)

[_Aias]

That doesnt look like 1/4" copper pipe to me, looks like 3/8 and 1/2 vinyl. ???

[jordan69s]

"Also, where do I find the pump to build my own?" You guys can find that pump at the pet store for a fish tank pump, or find a water fountain on a garage sale and use the water pump! Also, if you could manage more tightly turns on the cooper pipe on the fan, the more cooling the fan will be able to push... Great idea and congrats in putting it all together!

[Hairman]

I do love this idea, however I wanted to ask you what the electricity use is on the fan and the pump, and also the creating of the ice? This you say cost about $80, and I was able to purchase a small, 5,000 btu air con unit for just under $100 bucks Canadian, and it is high efficiency. I was wondering if there is a point where the payout is not there. I know first hand that having fans on in the summer sometimes for hours, equals the use of the air conditioner since the air con need not run in continuous. Again, I applaud your work. I was just considering what I have already considered every summer, as obviously you have too.

[Redstormx1]

http://www.instructables.com/id/Home-Made-Freezer-Box-FridgeAir-con-/

Here is a more advanced system i have made :P . I didnt want to use a water pump due to more energy been used. but could put these two systems together nicely .

[Takelababy]

I'd tho't about doing something similar by going down thro the floor and laying pipe on the ground in the crawl space and back up to a fan or auto radiator.

[billd6]

I made one of these several years ago and was disappointed.

1. The air is really not that cold.

2. The copper tubbing sweats profusely.

3. The fan sprays the condensate everywhere

[MyEyezHurt]

I have to agree with number one big time. I'm not worried about the condensation as my fan is on top of my reservoir but the unit really just doesn't work. It actually makes the broken central a/c unit of mine look top of the line.

[MyEyezHurt]

I built two of these and neither of them were able to cool down a bedroom by a single degree. I would probably have to buy $5+ of ice to make it do even that much. I live in Florida where the humidity is 60%-70% so maybe that is a variable to consider. It was a fun project but financially it was not a good investment whatsoever. I could have bought a lot of fans for the money I paid to build these....

[mhollands]

I have a question that hopefully someone will be able to answer for me. I know that the high the humidity the most likely chance that condensation will occur. I live around Orange-Fullerton,CA area and it does get up to the 100's with around 50-70% humidity in the summer time. So I was wondering how was the condensation on this setup for those who are in much warm climates with high humidity, so that I be prepared to ensure that it does not drip every where on top of monitoring water flow and temperature and possibility of the need to improve the homemade radiator (copper). Thank you for your time!

[MyEyezHurt]

I live in Florida and inside my apartment the humidity ranges from 60%-70%. I built two of these and they sweat profusely (as they should). If your unit is not sweating it is not working. The more condensation the better. I put my fan on top of a 20 gallon tub and drilled holes on the lid for the condensation to fall through. I also laid down screen so that nothing got in the tub other than water.

[MyEyezHurt]

I built my own yesterday with 40 foot of 1/4" OD copper tubing winded about 11 times front and back on about the same size fan. My pump is about 130-170Gph and the lift is probably 2 - 2.5ft. The problem I am having is the coils are not sweating. My reservoir is 20 gallons and the water is ice cold. The output flow is a little slow I haven't measured it but do you think that could be the issue? It's not cooling much more than without the coils....

[MyEyezHurt]

I'd like to add I live in florida where the humidity is at least at 80%. I think this is the main problem, I am going to build another one with larger tubing and with a much faster rate of flow and see what happens...

[baseball3]

OK, I have a couple of questions.

1. Is there a cheaper alternative to Copper Piping?

2. Would an older pool pump work for the water pump?

Thanks in advance.

[gneal]

Wow look at you go! That is totally awesome that you have come up with your very own air conditioners. Where did you come up with this idea? Also, where do I find the pump to build my own?

[chamilton3]

To prevent kinks in your copper tubing, fill it with sand using a small funnel. When the job is done, you can easily blow the sand out of the tube using an air compressor.

[bstott]

Or just use water and tape the ends. Then when you drain - No clean. ;-)

[Doomie17]

Excellent idea!!

[Tommywon]

I have an old mini fridge at work, and just wondering if I ran the copper tubes into the fridge into like a milk jug full of water if that would work. Or would the fridge not bea able to cool the water down fast enough for the system to work? Either way I am going to at least build the cooler one for my building! Great work!

[ham4fun]

The heat generated by the mini fridge would exceed the cooling unless the fridge was outside of the cooled area.

[Tommywon]

I hadn't thought of that but you are right.

[sfixx]

I'm looking into building an evaporative cooler. It may be more efficient and cool better.

[tinker234]

wow must be nice

[ryandev]

hey i have a question is there a reason in putting the tubing in front or behind the fan

[hleon]

Yes there is. The cold water runs to the tubes in the front first, and the water flows to the back to cool off a little more if the water is still cold.

[ryandev]

hey i have a question is there a reason in putting the tubing in front or behind the fan

[rubelsheikh]

very goodddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd

[delokaver]

hi mate,

cool project, I've build this one

but i do have a small unconfortable problems,

how do i manage the water droplets from the evaporates cold water ? the coper pipe is "sweating" once the cold water flow thru ...

should i use a strongest deodorant :) (just joking mate) !!!

for now , i only put a platics container bellow the fans, so the water drops will dirrectly go ito it.


any better idea ???

[hleon]

Yes, I run pipe insalation along the bottom of my radiator and down to a bucket on the floor. The condensation gets dumped back into the cooler for me.

[papi198423]

hwy where can i buy that kit and how much u spend for all that kit let me know pls thanks

[hleon]

I spent about $80 USD and about 3 hrs worth time.