DIY air conditoner

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Rubycon

Rubycon

Madame President
Aug 10, 2005
17,768
485
126
Originally posted by: rmrfhomeoops
Originally posted by: jfall
Buy a portable air conditioner
Click to expand...

Good idea, but spendy though; start at least $300 for 8000 BTU unit. Also not sure how much space OP have in his room.
Click to expand...

They will require a window to be open about 4 1/2" (MIN) for the hot air discharge. The hose looks like a dryer kit. Is there a crawl space below the floor? What about an attic above? :evil:

Originally posted by: Tiamat
Ice-water baths usually stay cold for a while. In a 10 gallon aquarium, I have kept a 4 Celcius water bath using 2 bags of ice over the course of 1 hr. At the end of the 10 hrs, it had increased to 6 Celcius in an ambient of 19 Celcius. (Of course your ambient is probably closer to 35C)

Instead of using copper coil, an old Car radiator would work better with a high power fan due to the increased air flow and vastly increased Surface area.
Click to expand...

Still not going to get around the limit of frozen mass. 12,000 btu/hr is known as one ton of refrigeration as a unit running for 24 hours will make a ton of ice using fresh water.
 
T

Tiamat

Lifer
Nov 25, 2003
14,068
5
71
Originally posted by: MS Dawn
Originally posted by: rmrfhomeoops
Originally posted by: jfall
Buy a portable air conditioner
Click to expand...

Good idea, but spendy though; start at least $300 for 8000 BTU unit. Also not sure how much space OP have in his room.
Click to expand...

They will require a window to be open about 4 1/2" (MIN) for the hot air discharge. The hose looks like a dryer kit. Is there a crawl space below the floor? What about an attic above? :evil:

Originally posted by: Tiamat
Ice-water baths usually stay cold for a while. In a 10 gallon aquarium, I have kept a 4 Celcius water bath using 2 bags of ice over the course of 1 hr. At the end of the 10 hrs, it had increased to 6 Celcius in an ambient of 19 Celcius. (Of course your ambient is probably closer to 35C)

Instead of using copper coil, an old Car radiator would work better with a high power fan due to the increased air flow and vastly increased Surface area.
Click to expand...

Still not going to get around the limit of frozen mass. 12,000 btu/hr is known as one ton of refrigeration as a unit running for 24 hours will make a ton of ice using fresh water.
Click to expand...

Right, i was just pointing out that a water bath doesnt heat up very quickly. Of course this method of cooling an area is just not going to be adequate. Evaporative cooling (via sweat) liberates much more energy than one could do via the frozen water technique
 
2Xtreme21

2Xtreme21

Diamond Member
Jun 13, 2004
7,044
0
0
Originally posted by: Scarpozzi
Originally posted by: Leros
Originally posted by: jfall
Buy a portable air conditioner
Click to expand...

And where does the heat go?
Click to expand...
Into the hallway FTW!!!
Click to expand...

I was wondering about that. My dorm likes to get really hot in the spring / fall and really cold in the winter, but leaving my door open usually balances my room to comfortable temperatures.
 
Raduque

Raduque

Lifer
Aug 22, 2004
13,140
138
106
I'd just spend the scratch for the portable AC unit and run the hot-air output to the return-air register of the dorm's AC.
 
A

Aquaman

Lifer
Dec 17, 1999
25,054
13
0
Originally posted by: Mrvile
Do you think the computers actually make the dorm room that much hotter?
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my computer makes my computer roon 5C +/- hotter in the summer :D

But I can open the windows ;)

Cheers,
Aquaman
 
M

Minerva

Platinum Member
Nov 18, 1999
2,134
25
91
Originally posted by: Mrvile
Do you think the computers actually make the dorm room that much hotter?
Click to expand...

My o/c QX6700 at full load puts out 870 btu/hr when all four cores are fully loaded. And that's JUST THE PROCESSOR! 9 hard drives, 8800GTS, RAID HBA with 2GB, and 700W PS all add up. It would definitely make the room warmer!

 
Mrvile

Mrvile

Lifer
Oct 16, 2004
14,066
1
0
Originally posted by: Minerva
Originally posted by: Mrvile
Do you think the computers actually make the dorm room that much hotter?
Click to expand...

My o/c QX6700 at full load puts out 870 btu/hr when all four cores are fully loaded. And that's JUST THE PROCESSOR! 9 hard drives, 8800GTS, RAID HBA with 2GB, and 700W PS all add up. It would definitely make the room warmer!
Click to expand...

I envy any college kid with that kind of rig ;)
 
H

Hubes

Senior member
Oct 25, 2002
389
0
0
using that fan will not do much. Buy a portable ac unit or just suck it up with a fan.
 
S

SlowSpyder

Lifer
Jan 12, 2005
17,305
1,002
126
Actually, 32F would be the tempurature of water ice.
Click to expand...

Err.. sure about that? Just because it freezes at 32F doesn't mean it can't get colder. I don't know of a freezer out there that works at exactly 32F. If it's 0 degrees outside, then the ice outside is 0 degrees.

Get a portable AC unit. They usually have a dryer hose type exhaust for the heat.
 
Leros

Leros

Lifer
Jul 11, 2004
21,867
7
81
Originally posted by: SlowSpyder
Actually, 32F would be the tempurature of water ice.
Click to expand...

Err.. sure about that? Just because it freezes at 32F doesn't mean it can't get colder. I don't know of a freezer out there that works at exactly 32F. If it's 0 degrees outside, then the ice outside is 0 degrees.

Get a portable AC unit. They usually have a dryer hose type exhaust for the heat.
Click to expand...

But that costs a good amount money and seeing as I only have to be in this dorm for another 3 months, it doesn't make much sense.
 
J

JMWarren

Golden Member
Nov 6, 2003
1,201
0
0
Originally posted by: MS Dawn

They will require a window to be open about 4 1/2" (MIN) for the hot air discharge. The hose looks like a dryer kit. Is there a crawl space below the floor? What about an attic above? :evil:
Click to expand...

The could always open the window an inch and rig up an adapter to change the round vent into a long narrow. As long as the area of the vent was slightly larger than the original.

I still vote to ducting the hot exhaust back into the buildings AC return, stick it to the man.
 
Jeff7

Jeff7

Lifer
Jan 4, 2001
41,596
20
81
Originally posted by: Baloo
Actually, 32F would be the tempurature of water ice.
Click to expand...
Don't tell that to the ice in my freezer. It insists that it is -1.5F right now.;)

I said 0F because I figure those ice freezers are kept pretty cold.
Really, if they'd chill them down to -300F, customers would be getting more cold for the money (less heat, if you're picky). Sure they'd get severe burns from the cold, but hey, it's a great deal! One small chunk of the super-ice will chill your entire glass of soda.


Originally posted by: OVerLoRDI
Wasn't this on Slashdot a few years back?
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There was a thread here awhile ago about someone wanting to build a low-current air-conditioner, because their residence wouldn't allow something high-draw like an air conditioner. If we had a search feature, I might be able to find it.
 
sdifox

sdifox

No Lifer
Sep 30, 2005
100,553
17,978
126
What about ice cube pile in front of the fan? That is how some people were scammed (this is like 20 year back) when they bought window units from the back of a truck. Big Hunk of ICE coupled with fan :)
 
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