I think it would be more efficient if 1) buy a much bigger cooler 2) partially fill with ice 3) climb into cooler

@RightOnJonCrane

2 жыл бұрын

This actually sounds like a great idea!! Right On Chris! 👍😄🤣😂

@Stroheim333

2 жыл бұрын

@@RightOnJonCrane Why not let the tube with the circulating water go in through a freezer with constant ice, instead of 1) make the ice in the freezer, and 2) let the ice melt in a box...? Easier to manage, and should save some dollars on your electricity bill.

@defcon1526

2 жыл бұрын

@@Stroheim333 I was thinking you could cut a hole in a cheap fridge and put a bottle in the freezer then run 50/50 radiator fluid through it. The problem with running water through the hose is you really can't get is below 32 degrees Fahrenheit, other wise you'll freeze the lines. But by using radiator fluid, you could get it below 32 degrees and run cooler water in front of the fan.

@heavyjoechipman3594

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you for making me laugh while my house in Texas is 86° in May. Our central unit broke down for good 4 days ago. Its miserable. The homeowner/landlord(i'm a border/renter in family home) refuses to fix ac or make arrangements to fix it. While this is a great idea, I have a 5000 btu window unit coming from Amazon in 3 days. I'll be cool and comfortable while the rest of the house swelters. God bless you for changing my mood and perspective. ☺💜🙏👍

@ChipNov1998

2 жыл бұрын

Lolololol

Sir, I happened to have a 1250 HP Pratt & Whitney aircraft engine, a 50 cubic foot chest freezer, 150 feet of 10" diameter copper pipe, a 20 HP sump pump, some 8" PVC, an ungrounded extension cord, and a pair of safety glasses lying around and thought I'd take your inspiring experiment to the next level. It was a bit tight getting everything to fit in my single-bay garage but it was worth it. Sometimes, it gets warm here in Death Valley but once I got the ol' Pratt & Whitney a running....the temperature plummeted from 125 Degrees Fahrenheit to 115 Degrees Fahrenheit. One note of caution, you want to make sure that your house isn't completely air tight as the walls will harmonically oscillate in unison with the Pratt & Whitney's RPM. Drawbacks, well there were a few: my wife shouting expletives and beating me with a broom and the cost of the 1500 gallons of aviation fuel that I had trucked-in from Salt Lake City. Other than that, I'm proud of what I've accomplished today and will continue my research. May God Bless you all and The United States of America.

@jpscharged

10 ай бұрын

U forgot the salt and ethanol to allow you to have water temps below 20 degrees F. I have a 120 man military insulated tent i have to keep below 75 in death valley in the summer. We didn't succeed in cooling it off that much but we did accidentally create fission with more power out than put in.

I m a retired AC tech ( 40 y +). The main problem with this home made cooling system is the copper coil. In order to transfer heat properly, a heat exchanger MUST have fins otherwise, it won t be able to do what it is suppose to. The other thing is that a good heat exchanger MUST have at least 3 to 4 rows and not just one like on this video. When you don t have any thermodynamic knowledge, this DIY project makes sense, but if you have some, it just doesn t ! Conclusion : Don t waste any money trying to do the same because it s NOT working... unless you put it in a very very small closet. Note : it could work if the copper coil would be replaced by a real heat exchanger. Note 2 : BTU calculation formula ;( outgoing water temp - incoming water temp) x flow rate in GPM ( US gallon per minute ) x 500 What is 500 : One US water gallon weights 8.3 pounds X 60 minutes = 498 ( rounded to 500 ) Example : water out temp : 49 F, water in temp : 37 F, flow rate: 1.2 GPM (49-37) x (1.2 x 500 ) = 7200 BTU per hour

@paulsorensen8489

Жыл бұрын

Well said. I'm not an HVAC person, but an electrical engineer who needed to learn the thermodynamics to design cooling for electronics. It would have been better to do the math first so it could steer the design. Otherwise, just a nice experiment, but not practical. I see 3 basic things wrong. 1. The coil on the fan is restricting air flow of a fan designed for free air. For computer coolers, there are fan blades specific for back pressure caused by radiators and other designed for free air - noise and efficiency. 2. The coil length in the cooler should proportional to the temperature difference to match the one on the fan - someone else mentioned this. 3. The pump probably is not designed for such a long loop. Like the fan, pumps are designed for certain flows and back pressure. Having looked at other designs, my simple low tech solution would be to freeze 168 16oz soda bottles (168 pounds of ice). Set them in trays like cookie sheets and let them thaw and sweat to remove humidity out of the air. Maybe a ceiling fan to stir the air in the room - quieter for similar air volume. Change the bottles throughout the day as they get warm. This would cool the room, but doesn't solve the more fundamental issue. Freezing 168 pounds of ice would add heat inside the house due to inefficiency of the freezer. At best you're moving heat from one area of the house to another, unless you put the freezer outside the house. At 101 degree outside temperature, the freezer would become so inefficient it probably take days to freeze 169 pounds of ice. Overall, inefficient use of electricity. A properly installed AC would probably use less power, do a better job and be more convenient. Yes it would cost more, but then calculate the payback of the higher investment vs operating costs.

@darinsmith2458

Жыл бұрын

I have been trying to figure out how to be able to use my radiant heaters to radiate cool. Somehow using the cooler - pump trick and running it through the radiator. Another thing that comes to mind is that Seattle is a humid area. I am in Denver where it is dry so I don't think that I have to deal with condensation. Not sure..

@KoreyThatcher

9 ай бұрын

How does one make a heat exchanger?

@ldero9520

9 ай бұрын

You have to buy one@@KoreyThatcher

@Bigsupreme2000

25 күн бұрын

great information sir. could you guide us how to install an easy to and cheaper alternative to AC to just cool the room, please?

i think its great that it stabilized the temp in your room at low 80s when it was 90-101 outside. given your body and running computers are a heat source it did pretty well.

I've seen similar commercial setups for boat use. One used a large cooler and a radiator, another pumped water from deep under the boat and through a radiator. I bought one years ago called Cooler-Aire that essentially was a fan that pulled air through a cooler. Never did work that well. Thanks for sharing.

Made one in the past as well. Salt was the big trick for me to get it working faster, although keeping up with ice production is crazy but fun for experimenting.

@jasearon4532

2 жыл бұрын

If you pure spirit instead of water like sanitizer would that be cooler as the spirit cool? I had experienced that spirit could last longer even if there is no ice cubes.! What do you think?

Cooling systems are just the coolest (No pun intended). I just love the thermodynamics of it, you can't cool a closed system down you can only change its entropy. Unfortunately a room isn't a closed system, so the heat outside slowly seeps through even as you try to cool it. But the idea is awesome that you cant just open a fridge in a room and leave it running while open to cool it, because to keep the fridge cool the fridge is taking the heat from the inside and dumping it on the outside via the radiator haha. When I was younger I always wondered why we didn't just keep the fridge open to cool the place down. Cooling systems on aeroplanes are particularly awesome, they use compressors to increase the heat of the air and run it through ducts on the outside of the aircraft so the variance between temperatures is greater so the cooling is greater, and then run it through an expansion valve so it cools even further when returning. This all comes from a bleed valve from the engine! So awesome!

@timharper4246

2 жыл бұрын

That's why you cut a hole in the side of your house and stick the backside of the fridge out of it!

@versag3776

Жыл бұрын

Did you go to AIM?

So I was thinking you could make the top of the cooler a tray with a drain hole back into the cooler and set the fan in it so the condensation collects in the cooler. That would eliminate the towels and bring the fan off of the floor to grab some of the warmer air above it. I would imagine with the set up you had the air should have been cooler at floor level that at head height. Stay cool.

@RightOnJonCrane

2 жыл бұрын

Yes that is a great idea! ✨👍 Right On!

@jacemiller2593

Жыл бұрын

Great idea. Kind of a closed loop system. Good Day, Sir.

@Zerocyxone9

2 ай бұрын

The most important thing is that it can blow cold air right in front of your face…you dont need to cool the full room.

Not only are you cooling the room but you have also came up with a good way to collect fresh water! They are do something very similar to what is being experimented in dry regions I'm south America. Basically just creating water out of thin, or in this case humid air! Great video!

@josholin31

Жыл бұрын

Think if you were to increase the pressure of the air around it. It'd condensate with less energy taken from the cooler. Along with lowering the freezing temp. Same is true with heated water. If you lower the atmospheric pressure, you lower the boiling point. Imagine if we used both techniques during desalination. Most energy would be recycled via heat pumps and vacuum pumps from one chamber to the next. (The evaporation and condensation chambers.)

Thank you for doing tis demo, the ice cubes I knew would dot e best job. Those other ones where the air gets blown across the ice are nothing but swamp coolers. What you built was actually an efficent air cooler and yes, the condensation was the result of the air being cooled. Great job!

I've done this before. I didn't use copper tubing though. I also used a small 12v motor. I used it for a cooling fan at our beach tent. Other than keeping the ice replenished it worked pretty good. I did use rock salt to help with ice melt.

@versag3776

Жыл бұрын

Ooh good idea! That accelerates the temperature transfer (endothermic) if you match fan size and speed this could work well but also lots of ice to be effective.

Interesting demonstration. Won't scrap my home unit though. Thanks for the look.

@RightOnJonCrane

2 жыл бұрын

Yes! This is for sure no substitute for some nice cold AC!! 😄🧊💦

I can see where something like this would work nicely on a boat where you can pull an infinite amount of cold water from what ever body you are floating on. Thanks for doing the experiment.

Thanks for sharing. It was interesting, stay cool. Can’t believe the temperatures I am seeing in your part of the country!

@RightOnJonCrane

2 жыл бұрын

Right Tony!! So hot out here! Felt like Jersey for a moment! 🔥🥵

When I would complain about the temperature in the home growing up. My Dad would tell me to go work outside , and then come back inside inside in order to notice a difference.

This is very similar to my results. I'm in SE Tn. so we have high humidity. Swamp coolers don't usually do well in 80+ humidity but I wanted to see what it could do. I made the coil on the front of the fan then let the return water feed the swamp cooler on the back of the fan. Thinking this would be the best of both worlds and just experimenting. It does do something but it's no 5 ton system or even a 3 ton. I kept it incase the power ever goes out it will run off the generator.

Great video. I am SOOOOO tempted. I hate the heat immensely.

@RightOnJonCrane

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks Ben! 👍✨ I was actually surprised how well it worked!! Not amazing but it did work.

Perfect for my apartment in Denmark where AC is banned. I was able to cool my room in Copenhagen up to 2-3 degrees which is the difference between being able to sleep and not. Last summer in Copenhagen, we've had some days that were as hot as 35 degrees and being up north, the sun almost never sets, and this is honestly a lifesaver!

Cool Idea , Did you try adjusting the fan speed .Just wondering if different speeds made any difference in room temperature ? What speed was the fan set on? Also if you use antifreeze mix in the lines if that would have a positive effect? can you slow down the pump? Would the rate of flow help or hurt the room temperature . Awesome video Thanks for sharing .

Excellent and you gave a lot of data to backup your claims And because of that all thumbs up

Hi Jon- That was a great experiment! They say that a good AC unit will only drop the room temp 30 degrees below the outside temp... Your AC did a great job... My Grandmother said years ago people would hang wet sheets in front of the windows to cool the air coming in.. When it gets over 85 degrees I get very lazy and don't want to do anything. =D Just the opposite when it is 50 degrees I want to do everything!

@RightOnJonCrane

2 жыл бұрын

Right On John! 👍✨ That is interesting about the sheets and sounds like a great idea. I’ll try that out. I know you are getting blasted with the heat as well! Happy 4th of July! 🇺🇸

@rogermcdonald1607

2 жыл бұрын

@@RightOnJonCrane The NFL uses those oscillating fans that they spray a fine mist of water in front of them to cool the players!

@darkshadowsx5949

2 жыл бұрын

the only thing i want to do when its 50f is curl up in a blanket. that's frigid cold for me. i took a bike ride when it was 46f once and i was trying really hard not to shiver and shake the handle bars going ~45mph.

@yeliab814

2 жыл бұрын

@@darkshadowsx5949 at that speed and temp, the wind chill aka “feels like temperature “ would be 34.8°F - no wonder you were shivering and numb!

2 жыл бұрын

I lived in India for a year. On the hot season, the best is to wet your sheets before going to bed!

I did it and am satisfied. It wasnt intended to be commercialised really. But the room is cool and nice nonetheless. Cheer up.

It's a Dry Heat in the Room. Seriously, thank you for a well produced test and video. To paraphrase the epic film Jaws, "We're gonna need a bigger Cooler!"

I have thought about this kind of thing many times. The condensation is a real problem, esp. as your try to scale up. I'm gonna invest in whole house AC but this was a very fun experiment.

@RightOnJonCrane

2 жыл бұрын

Right Jeff! With the condensation I needed a tray underneath like an old refrigerator!

I made one similar a few months ago using a transmission oil cooler ($25) and a small 1 foot x 1 foot box fan. The Styrofoam cooler I used has 2.5" thick walls, bottom and lid. I froze large blocks of ice in tupperware containers and used them instead of cubes. The air from my set-up measured 47 degrees F using a laser thermometer. I installed the fan/heat exchanger onto the lid so I could remove it as a unit. I also attached a basin to catch the condensation of which there was plenty. It cooled my bedroom down from 86F to 80F but, it also lowered the humidity a lot. (I have a digital gauge) My heat exchanger is a little too efficient because it turns a cooler full of ice to room temp. water in about 45 minutes. I am working on restricting the water flow through the heat exchanger even though my 4W pump is on the low setting already. I run the little box fan on low as well. I think if I can get the air temp off the fan to be about 65-70F my ice would last a lot longer. I agree that it really does lower the humidity making the room feel better even when it warms back up again. I have it blowing on me while at my computer desk and it does feel really good. I think the most efficient thing would be to cool the human and not the room. I am contemplating making a "cool suit", similar to what race drivers wear, by attaching small thin walled plastic tubing in a grid pattern to a shirt. Probably would be too much of a pain to connect/disconnect the lines every time I wanted to get up so most likely not practical.

@FBPrepping

2 жыл бұрын

Have you thought on cooling the water with a Peltier plate?

@markdaniel8740

2 жыл бұрын

Many larger office buildings, hospitals etc use a similar method. A central location chills water and each room can have its own fan(s). Much more efficient than moving air.

@turbomini89

2 жыл бұрын

I think the slower you flow through you exchanger the warmer your outgoing water will be, more time in the exchanger = more heat exchanged. Speed up your flow and it may help.

Cool project! Yesterday was insane.

@RightOnJonCrane

2 жыл бұрын

Right Luke!! 🔥🔥 Talk about a heatwave!!

Great experiment 👍🏼🙋🏼‍♀️good idea with the copper tubing, cooler of ice and water fountain pump; it worked!! On my budjet, going to try frozen water in two liter bottles sitting in front of fan and see what happens. Thanks for showing your experiment 🌡️❄️🙋🏼‍♀️

Good stuff...i like the way your gray matter works...👽

@RightOnJonCrane

2 жыл бұрын

Right on Chuck!! 👍🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊🧊

Very COOL Jon. I think I like Chris Logan's comment and Idea. Nice experiment and myth breaking. Well done.

@RightOnJonCrane

2 жыл бұрын

I totally agree Randy!! 👍🧊 Right on!

Hello, I think these are a great idea except that I’m learning that they could cause mold and mildew over time. I’m in Southern California and need to cool my music room. I’m willing to install a wall air conditioner or portable AC if I need to, but curious if there’s something in between the ice chest and an AC that could work.

What if you just got a small little variable speed refrigerator pump and ran the condenser in front of the fan?

I think it be nice to see this done with a deep refrigerator or freezer

It seems that a mini ice maker can be used to replace the incubator. It will cost about 150 watts of electricity, but the water in the ice maker will circulate automatically. Thank you for your video for giving me this inspiration!

@rohann1t546

2 жыл бұрын

An ice maker still produces heat just like any other refrigeration unit. Remember that the circulating fluid is plain liquid water ( it can have a temperature of 5 - 10* c at best, unlike your refrigerant gases which can go lower due to compression).

@peytonmac1131

2 жыл бұрын

The could have the ice maker outside, through a window? Though how long would an ice maker last if it's running constantly? Would it burn out quickly?

Real numbers! Thank you!

@RightOnJonCrane

2 жыл бұрын

Right On! 👍✨

This is perhaps one of the best designs for a homemade air conditioner. This building method, to me, looks easier than others. I like how this design takes humidity away, and not putting cold air with water vapor into the room again. Some countertop portable air conditioning units work on the water vapor concept. I don't want a humidifier in some cases, like when it's 100°F outside. As for myself, it would just be nice to have any system of reducing humidity since my A/C system is broken.

@Alpha-ms9nj

Жыл бұрын

Yes this depends on where one live. In the Mohave desert cools moist air is very much welcomed because of the very low humidity. Swamp coolers are everywhere out here.

Maybe some rock salt added would make the ice colder? Been looking at these kinds of videos for 2 days in hopes of making a temporary portable cooling solution for a 2 hour trip to Vegas to see a medical specialist for wifes illness because my AC in Jeep went out. I love the ingenuity and different methods the DIY types have contributed including this one. I may build this copper/fan gizmo and use it on my Akita's box fan in tandem with my bedroom AC unit on 110 degree days.

I wonder, would radiators in front of the fan (PC Watercooling radiators) if those would be more efficient in transferring the heat from the air to the water?

Brother, great video. I bet if you coil about 6 feet of copper on the bottom of the cooler, your output water temp will be much cooler than with just a short length. Surface area is key. You don't have enough copper coil under the ice for the amount of coil on the fan. Too much time circulating around a fan blowing hot air. You'd be better off with less coil around the fan and more in the cooler. Also, I imagine that dropping to less Gph would give the water a bit more time in the "chiller." Just a thought. Thanks for sharing the video!

I always love reading the comments on these kinds of videos because everybody says "oh, you could do this to make it better" and "you could do that to make it better" and "this will improve it" and "that would improve it" and when you take all of the improvements out to their logical ends you come up with an (ba da ba bum) air conditioner.

@-LowMileage-

2 жыл бұрын

but...if you live in van this could be exactly what you need. One man's trash is another's treasure. Cheers!

@joshuaewalker

2 жыл бұрын

@@-LowMileage- If you live in a van then you already have an air conditioner. If that air conditioner is broke and you have the time, money, and resourcefulness to cobble together this contraption then you can fix the air conditioner.

@-LowMileage-

2 жыл бұрын

@@joshuaewalker Does the air conditioner run when the van is turned off? Idk but if blocks of ice and a solar powered fan will keep you cool at night and not burn all your gas it seems like a cost effective option. Doing AC work on a vehicle is no layman's task. 15 years in a bodyshop tells me you don't do much AC work...just a guess maybe you do. Replacing the condenser and pulling a vacuum on the system to fill it takes tools that cost WAY more than a $100 ice chest cooler.

@joshuaewalker

2 жыл бұрын

@@-LowMileage- You could also park your van somewhere cool. Can't exactly move your garage. You can also easily hook up solar panels and batteries to run a car's electrical systems without running the engine. Keep thinking it through. It'll always be better to use an A/C.

@terence79chan

2 жыл бұрын

LOL What you said is so true, at least for room cooling. For personal cooling, check out my wearable AC using a 6cm radiator, which works awsome! If you think about it, the smallest compressor aircon in the world with an appropriate-power lipo pack weighs around 7kg, costs about 350usd and using a lightweight battery provides around 90mins of runtime. Wearing all that makes you look like an astronaut. My wearable AC is 0.6kg, the fuel (ice) lasts for an hour and the all-up cost is under 60usd. :)

wondering if the water replaced with automotive coolant can have cool effect without the icing.

Great! simple & easy with quite good result. Why don't you try to put the fan on the ice box & let the water flows into the box ?

First of all Stay cool👍🏻 My friend in Tucson had a swamp cooler mounted on the roof of his attached garage that worked so well he would leave a screen door open going into the house and it would even cool the house. I’m not familiar with a swamp cooler making but I know humidity is a big factor in how well it works. Tucson works good but Washington not sure, he did say it probably wouldn’t do nearly as well in western Kentucky with sauna like summers 🌤

@RightOnJonCrane

2 жыл бұрын

Right On! 👍 I think that would be another cool experiment!!

@oldhardrock2542

2 жыл бұрын

Swamp coolers work great where the outside air is dry. Dry, as in below 30% humidity. There is huge heat removal when water evaporates. When humidity goes up, evaporization slows and swamp coolers just become mold generators.

I think you are really close on your calcs. This was a good watch, thank you!

@RightOnJonCrane

2 жыл бұрын

Right On 👍 Thanks!! 🧊🧊🧊💦💦

My dad told me when he was a kid ( 1950's) the city would go around to the bars and turn on a valve that would send city water through a radiator over the entrance door with a fan keeping the bars cool for drinking and socializing

@RightOnJonCrane

2 жыл бұрын

Right On David ✨👍 Thats awesome 👏 I love hearing fun facts like that!

@joshuaewalker

2 жыл бұрын

Perhaps we should have city-wide refrigerant lines leading to central heat energy storage facilities. It's more efficient to use electricity to pump heat energy than it is to run heaters, and heat pumps are, generally, the only way to remove heat energy. Everyone can tap into the "hot" lines and "cold" lines and can send excess heat energy back to be stored and when at maximum heat storage capacity the excess can be used for electricity production.

Right on Jon. Nice experiment! Its been about 90F here in Iowa and humid as hell! Not as hot as where you are. I laugh every time i see those commercials and the size of the coils and fan is about 6 inches. Lol. Stay cool Jon! 😡😡Roger

@RightOnJonCrane

2 жыл бұрын

Right Roger!! Some of those fans are so small! It can’t be doing anything! 😄

Nice this should work in Goa as the well water is very cold ...at least some relief from the heat. May be run the water thru an ac indoor unit...

Should have put the copper coil at the back of the fan, to increase air flow, get a tray connected to a hose for drainage and last but no least,instead of a cooler use a mini freeze with slight modifications

2 жыл бұрын

Brandon, thank you for your comment! I’m trying to make an AC like this for my car, but never thought (and never seen this idea on YT) to have a mini plugin cooler to start with! Brilliant! As for the coil in the back, maybe airflow would increase, but the extra air would come from outside the coil, with warmer air, no?

Could you please make a similar video with the EVAP pad from home Depot and a bucket? Ideally use a radiator fan. The two bucket method would allow for more surface area. Please and thank you.

you know if your only trying to cool off one room this is the cheapest way to do so. if your worried about condensation they make little ac water pumps that you could run the lines back into a cooler or bucket to keep the floor dry. this goes without saying but this is for the tinkers out there for sure lol. i built a small one for my small office" still getting it together but did a few test runs" just because of the air flow to this room is the worst in the house. a little extra help to keep my pc's cooler is a good thing. great vid by the way, been looking for a real skeptical test vid for a bit now. i didn't go with the copper lines but an aluminum heater core and a server fan at full speed pushing air through it from behind. its a small unit but works for what i need. and it doesn't use nowhere near the power that a window unit would require. ill see how much condensation i get and may invest in an ac condensation pump if it gets to bad. again great vid ! thanks for posting .

Never had any experience with this but could you use dry ice wouldn’t last longer and have colder temperatures

Would this work better in a suv for camping. How many hours could it last with one fill of ice?

@RightOnJonCrane

Жыл бұрын

That could work?! An air conditioner might be cheaper! 😄❄️❄️❄️

Can you do a video on how a refrigeration unit pulls heat out from the small cubic feet enclosure???

Would have been more effective with the copper coils starting at the outside working inward. And with slightly more space between coils. And he should consider a swamp fan using the same water cooling method. I dont think anyone has ever done an ice water swamp fan

@darkshadowsx5949

2 жыл бұрын

swamp fans arent great.... they just make your room muggy and humid. if you dont clean them well and they grow mold that's a big health hazard.

this is especially good if you make ice with fridge in same house or room :)

My teo only suggestion would be to remove the fans grills and place the copper tubing on the back of the fan, not the front.

I have a 30 in industrial fan that cranks out a lot of air. (1800 rpm max) I am thinking of putting three 12" x 7" transmission coolers on it.

Nice Video - I actually built one of these about 3 years ago - only I used a small and cheapest heater core as the heat exchanger between the water from the ice chest and the fan. For the fan I found a small quiet bathroom exhaust fan that fit the heater core perfectly. The heat exchanger (mounted above where the ice chest is) sits in a small plastic box near the ceiling of the shop that collects the condensation and returns it back to the Ice Chest which is several feet away out of the way. The output from the bathroom exhaust feeds the cold air right over my work area in a 4" duct blowing right on the area I am working in my shop. I use about 15 frozen water bottles every 2 hours - so similar to your burn rates - depending on my pump duty cycles. The ice is much better and colder but the air temp coming from the water bottle set up cools the output air to abut 68 degrees air temp out, water temp ~ 38 degrees during the 2 hours. The Ice will get much colder - down to about 64 air temp out, 33 degree water temp but it warms up much faster as it melts faster. The ice has much more surface area than the water bottles. I know its not as efficient as a phase change chiller but I only use it during the warmer months while in my shop area working on electronics / writing code much as you have set up. Would an AC using be better - yes but I have to vent the exhaust air. I use 3 sets of water bottles that I rotate as needed from the freezer in the garage. When I know it will be real warm - I end up buying a 25 bag or two of ice from Sam's Club for $2.50 a bag - a good deal! One nice thing I have done is that it is a heater in the cold months in the shop. I have put in an electric water heater element into the water bath by building a heater element encasement allowing the element to submerge into the water but keeping the electricity away(Be careful and know what you are doing here!!!! mixing water and electricity is no joke!!! ). You could use a submersible heater element for outdoor water baths for livestock etc... just as easily. I was cheap and impatient, and will probably be switching out my heater core for one this next year. During Winter the water temp gets up to 120 degrees and the air coming out is a nice 72 degrees. I built a small controller from a uC (though any cheap PID controller i.e. ~$20 + relay would work too) to cycle the heater element, pump and blower speeds depending on the modes. I also have a simple set up of temp sensors with readouts to know water temp, air temp etc.... When in AC Mode, if the pump is not on - you will extend your chill time since you are not extracting heat from the room. Does it work - yes. But understand its limitations. All money spent on the build with the water pump, heat exchanger and bath room exhaust vent was about $60. To make it a heater too - add in $20+ The ice chest, plumbing pipes and hoses I had on hand. The electronics aren't too much if you want to go that way. Would a TEC (or a lot of TECs) work to chill the water? Sure, but they aren't very efficient and you will generate a lot of waste heat that needs to be vented somehow away from the room - otherwise you are only adding heat to the room in the end. Am I spending money on ice and chilling my water bottles - yes - but most portable AC units cost about $250+ and only last a few years. I am 3 years into my build and it is still going strong and is also a heater... I would call it a win - just know your expectations

@ldero9520

2 жыл бұрын

That s a LOT of work for not much result...I m not sure the too many people would be ready to do the same

@ninetomorrows42

2 жыл бұрын

@@ldero9520 yes and no ... for the basic set up actually 4 years now, it cost $60 and a few hours to put together. Over the 4 years I have maybe spent about 10 hrs tinkering with and adding to it with maybe $20 more. So that's only $20 a year and a few hours. I use the cooling part about 2 to 3 months a year about 3 to 4 days a week depending on weather. With 100+ degrees outside I am sitting under 65 on average cold air. It takes about 2 mins every couple of hours to switch out the water bottles. Yeah a little bit of work, but out was cheap. Sure we could calculate the BTUs to freeze the water bottles etc... and their cost... but like I said the portable or room AC units only generally last 4 years or so at about $300 each time. So $20 vs $75 and I get heat in the cold months about 2 to 3 months of the year too... so overall not bad with a little bit of effort.

@mirwaishimmat8578

Жыл бұрын

Great work can you make video from your work

Dude, ... a would love to see that analog! And maybe use a auto-siphon pump to eliminate the grid draw if not solar power battery bank powered setups!

Very cool. I did the exact opposite after a hurricane to make hot water for the shower....my bbq grill just barely warmed the water up even with 40' of 3/8 copper. Cheers

@RightOnJonCrane

2 жыл бұрын

Right On Joe! That’s cool to hear! When building this I was thinking that if I could put a coil like this in my wood stove?!? 🔥🔥🔥

Great work, your experiment is a success, from the perspective of 'finding things out' as R. Feynman would say. Obviously, a person is better off buying an air conditioner but it would have been fun for any DIY'er to try this. 1) the cost of the parts would be similar to a small a/c unit 2) you still need 120 volt power for the fan and the ice source 3) the compressor in your frig or freezer, which is making the ice is consuming more electricity now and producing heat 4) the heat from inside your frig or freezer, unlike an air conditioner, is transferred to the interior of the home, so the total heat transfer is nil or worse. 4) then of course is the refilling of the ice and the sopping up of the towel which requires human energy input. Nevertheless, I love that you tried this and tested it. That's how science and engineering works and now , I don't have to try it. PS - check out the old Harrison Ford movie, 'The Mosquito Coast' for an interesting scene involving air conditioning.

I wonder if spacing out the coils more to allow better airflow would reduce condensation and reduce room temp as more air can flow through. Also curious about coils on both sides of fan

I like the music . Did you make it ? Thanks for the video .

i use the same fan, same brand cooler but i add salt to the water, it lowers the freezing point down to the teens. No tubing, just a cardboard box with some right angles to funnel and keep most of the air 'trapped' around the 19 degree water for as long as possible until it escapes and chills the room. As far as getting the temp even lower is to put as much copper tubing as you can through the cooler to make the most of the temp difference. If you place the fan near and celing and have it pointed at a downward angle with a drip pan to catch the condensate it works more efficiently. (cold air drops, hot air rises.

Great job on simply explainig the build and how it works and even great understandable aproach on the science and the mathmatics showing its over all efficiency. I do have a question ....in this style of ac, i keep seeing the sugestions of adding salt. I have some chemistry and other science classes both high school and college but i cant recall the basis for this. I do know the traditional style of making ice cream uses large amounts of rock salts as it helps with ice formation of the ice cream . is there a valid use of salt and what is going on there? if their is advantages of using salt? PS i have watched a video same principal ice used to chill pumped liquid in front of fan and coil but varient this person did was take alarge plastic cooler and used thick styrofoam/polystyrene sheets to custom fit a divider in the cooler so on the bottom was his ice and then a layer of snug fit insulation polystyrene that only ha cutouts for his tubing to come through that ran through a radiator, he used an automotive oil line cooler which is small version of coolant radiator which just copper tubing ran back forth with alluminum fins as heat sinks to beter radiate or conduct heat . so ice below chils liquids pumps to radiator then radiatior gets cold in its own sealed chamber and the air used a fan to blow air into uper chamber and pvc pipe as a exaust for the air fan blew got hot air from room over radiator chilled by the ice bath below the polystyerene layer . his thinking was that by doing so, reduced the melt of the ice as it only blew over the radiator. I know that ice has x amt of energy and the radiator still pulling the heat out the air and as liquid returns warmer to ice bath below it is still melting it but i think it may have small advantage in .i guess be not melting ice as fast perhps buying u mor time but the melt will occur the same and imagine u wouldnt get as cold in short time this way where that guys method may last longer , not chlll as cool which u see as a gain in the time ur ice would be usefal but not chill as low as a non baffled system . Ur thoughts on that? you cant cheat the laws of entropy..u can manipulate them i feel and all he may gain is time at a a cost of the amt of cool . instead of 75 deg for four hours perhaps he get 82 degrees for six hours ....curious ur thoghts there. andy gains, if any i imagine are small and not greatly significant . but the ice concept need ur input on please ...thanks

@commoq3764

Жыл бұрын

Salt increases the melting point of ice, so the temperature will increase slower and melts slower

This is essentially a deconstructed version of hydronic AC with ice storage. Ice storage is used for peak shaving, either by having enough storage to completely shut off the chillers during the peak times, or supplement usage with a smaller rated system that runs longer. There are a number of bonuses that come with such a system, such as moving water is more effective than air at moving heat around, the ability to offload generation to the night where it is cooler and chillers can run more efficiently, and making use of Time of Use rates to save money for the same cooling potential. I wish there was a better used market for hydronic air handler units, because they have built in condensation traps and the coils are designed to deal with it. I have used a number of different water to air heat exchangers with ice water and they pretty much all have issues dealing with condensation. Transmission coolers and heater cores work well for a bit, but they hold onto the condensation via surface tension and end up getting clogged up without intervention. Coils work well, but they suffer from a smaller surface area than a finned solution. The condensation should ideally not be routed into the ice water, as it melts it even faster than if it's separated, but it's often the simplest solution to dealing with the excess fluid. The latent heat from the condensation also takes the lions share of the cooling potential of the ice water. It can be much more effective at cooling if the latent portion can be taken care of separately, and the phase change material (ice) is used up for sensible cooling instead.

Hi are you using true copper tubing?

@RightOnJonCrane

Жыл бұрын

Hi, yes this is solid copper tubing. Thanks for watching! 🙌✨

Salt. Use salt water. (Freezing point depression) I have gotten things below -11°C (12°F) while the water remained liquid and flowing. You could also try acetone with dry ice but you need a pump that has parts that won't react with acetone.

Since I've been hearing about swamp cooler bans in the mid west, I've been wanting to make a sealed closed loop evaporative cooling system. You would have a dehumidifer at the tail end of the system to pump the air through the system and feed the condensed water back into the the swamp cooler. You see some design concepts coming out of India on the net every now and then. You would want to find a way to have a lower PSI on the Evaporative end and a higher psi on the condenser end. You may have to find a way to remove excess heat from your dehumidifier.

@versag3776

Жыл бұрын

Is the dehumidifier also called the evaporator? Sounds like you might need a pressure relief valve and expansion chamber and some way to regulate pressure to the pump. What kind of gas would you choose for the whole thing? Water would be awesome but it has the potential to freeze. Maybe low pressure water/cold steam and like a Tesla turbine to lower Temp to the condenser.

@versag3776

Жыл бұрын

Or are you being facetious and describing a traditional AC unit 🤣.

@samuelschneider9067

Жыл бұрын

LOL! You're right. I didn't realize I was basically describing a convoluted traditional AC unit. The goal was to create a contained swamp cooler system that uses a household dehumidifier to recycle the water back into the system. Instead of using solely pressure to phase change your heat exchanging medium, the concept involved more of a passive evaporative system like you get in swamp coolers. The condensing side would use a house-hold dehumidifier. The pressure change would be much less extreme than your typical AC unit. The purpose was to gain efficiency since a dehumidifier uses close to the same amount of electricity as a typical AC. You're right on the water freezing issue. I never considered it working "Too well" LOL.

@versag3776

Жыл бұрын

@@samuelschneider9067 check out cold steam though for real. Water definitely has potential that way. It's used in heat exchange tubes the ones you can use to cut through ice using only body heat. The heat exchange is more rapid from one side to the other. 2 orders of magnitude faster heat transfer from traditional copper.(actionlab) It's just water sealed as steam in a cooper vacuum tube. You could boil it at room temp if you lower the pressure enough, remove all air so it's only water vapor have a hot side and a cold side. The cooling effect would come from transfer of thermal energy into kinetic energy as ∆P in the Tesla turbine like how a hurricane or tornado works the inverted cyclone it's really like Maxwell's demon. The colder molecules move to the center increasing acceleration of the rotor further cooling the exhaust port steam in a constant positive feedback loop. I have never worked on an AC unit or built one but... Adam Savage had a really cool one made for his space suit. He was Using a bad a$$ silent micro-compressor and R134A transfered to vodka pumped through the suit. They didn't mention price but it sounded like it was the impression of something that was machined so precisely it would likely be extremely out of my willing price range. Plus I like making things from garbage or things that people wouldn't think of using them for now...it feels more fun for some reason possibly due to money saved working around obstetric price hikes due to a conglomeration of artificial shortage price inflation and or politically upped tariffs for use of slave labor along with the lack of local production, decreased purchasing power from attempting wealth distribution with stimulus, power grabs, artificially created/comercialized high demand, exploited third world economies and now they want to increase taxes and turn the IRS into a mafia and armed with shotguns and new Cadillacs the same ones who say they want guns off the streets lol they don't want guns off the streets, they just want your guns off the streets 😆 I digressed, sorry things were getting heated 🥵 climate is changing naturally or artificially. I think the key to fix it is simple painting all the roofs white. Just reflect the thermal energy back into space like sand there's like this certain window of IR that don't get absorbed by the atmosphere, We will use that technology and were good it will be used as a passive air conditioning also 👍

I live in Pittsburgh where it rarely gets above 85 in the summer, so if I can get the temperature down just 10 degrees, it's worth it. But I'd go a level cheaper and just put a couple of 2 liter bottles of ice in front of a box fan and have another cooler across the room creating cross circulation. Still cheaper than using a window AC.

What if you ran the copper tube through a mini fridge to cool the copper pipe. Would that make it last longer?

The nice side effect of this system pulling water out of the air, adding a catchment basin, and with a solar panel, you have an emergency water collector that a good prepper would like.

Wow nice aircondition

@RightOnJonCrane

2 жыл бұрын

Right On Fred! 👍 Thanks 😃

I try that diy aircon the ice is melting so fast becoz of continiously circulating in the copper tube and fan blower its not advisable every our you add ice on the cooler.

What will happen if water inside the tube freezes?

works better than my rm unit...

@RightOnJonCrane

2 жыл бұрын

Ha! 🤣😄 It got pretty hot here!!

can you add salt to the water to make the water cooler?

does it cools the room temperature?

@RightOnJonCrane

2 жыл бұрын

It did make the room feel cool. I never got it to lower the temperature but rather keep it steady as it got hotter outside. It did seem to work in a way! 👍😃

Wrap the Copper Tube around your head and run the system, you'll feel much cooler :) Seriously, you could make a shirt and pants with plastic tubing and run the cold water through it. Rather than cool the entire room, just cool yourself.

@RightOnJonCrane

2 жыл бұрын

That’s actually a good idea 👍 🧊 🥶

I wonder if you could cool the water enough by running the lines through a freezer of a refrigerator rather than the cooler? The pump should keep the water from freezing but you could circulate RV (pink) antifreeze if it was??? Varying the pump speed might also help.

@latemanparodius5133

2 жыл бұрын

All that would do in the end is move the heat to the room the refrigerator is in. Water (or other fluid medium) goes through pipes to fan unit, soaks up heat, goes back to fridge, dumps off heat, repeat. The fridge cools off the inside by dumping the heat outside the unit and into the room. At this point, you might as well just leave the door of the fridge open for all the good it would do, unless you put the fridge outside and ran the pipes through a wall or window. At that point, it's not exactly a simple affair.

You can set the fan on top of the cooler and make a condensate trap that evacuates down into the cooler

If you set the fan up on top of the cooler and setup a drain into the cooler might be a perk

a regular ac unit will only cool the inside air roughly 20 degrees below outside ambient temperature, just basic ac stuff. If your outside air is 100f then you can't get much cooler than 80f inside. It all depends on home insulation and whether your attic is climate controlled or not (if your ac evaporative coil is located there). Your system actually works well considering the fan should be in a condensation pan which should be piped back into the cooler. Dry air is easier to cool than humid air.

@RickJamesBitch369freeyourmind

11 ай бұрын

That's not true I used to keep my house at 67° in Vegas. And I run a mini split heat pump in my truck now which is a 14-foot box truck and you have to have sweats on otherwise you will get cold so I guarantee you in Arizona it's mostly 100° or more and I get my temperature well below 80 degrees

You should also put a window fan in positioned to pull the hit air out of the room youre in then do the test

Coil the tubing MORE in the bottom of cooler and raised slightly off the bottom

The problem is the tubing. you need more surface area to remove the heat better and more efficiently a car heater core or and ac core inside the cooler and closed loop it to another radiator enclosed inside a box to build air pressure and you will use way way less ice. in fact you can do an evaporative swamp cooler type thing outside under house or in shaded concrete box and not use ice at all. and just use a simple water pump on one solar panel and one battery

That 150 SF room… are all 4 walls and the ceiling and the floor insulated? If not, you were also partly cooling your barn. Also, the sun continued to try to heat up that room through the window beyond the outdoor ambient temperature while you were conducting your experiment.

i think if you add copper layer 5 times extra weather could pass more touch the copper and will be more efficient (such an air radiator effect)

Mr. Jon, very interesting... wonder if adding ice cream salt to the ice would had made it colder... I know we would add some to our cooler full of adult beverages and heck, sometime youd get a beer slushie 🤠👍 enjoyed it! Thank ya

@MrPhil1969

2 жыл бұрын

I was in the salt camp too but you would have to keep the salted ice separate from the circulating water as to not corrode the pump.

@bigvicsworkshop

2 жыл бұрын

@@MrPhil1969 Great Point, Mr. Phil! I didnt think about that..

@unwired1281

2 жыл бұрын

We salted our beer going to the drive in years ago the beer was rock hard when we got there and was still rock hard when the movie was over. LOL

@bigvicsworkshop

2 жыл бұрын

@@unwired1281 that's funny..must had been a very bumpy road to the drive in...haha! But it still is a head scratcher to me how it would freeze it.. but u let ice get on the steps down here and everyone is out there with their salt shakers..haha..

@RightOnJonCrane

2 жыл бұрын

Right I have heard about salt making the ice colder! Does the ice last long with the salt? I know calcium chloride is for melting ice on the roads. But ice cream salt would be interesting! I remember some old timers I knew that would shake some salt on their beer for every sip. Said it made the flavor come out! 🙌 🍺 🧂

Here is what you should have measured. The temperature drop across the fan. Typical AC unit has a 20 degree TD. Run it too cold and you will spend all your ice removing humidity out of the air. You need to measure the humidity in the room and shoot for a 50% humidity, again to save ice. 50% to 60% is the high comfortable range. To change your TD, change your fan speed and your pump speed, You need a bigger pump with a variable flow, clamp. Measure your water temperature in and out. You can add salt to the water to run a lower temperature. That you are doing is exactly what an AC does with a water cooling tower does. You could have your system sealed between the ice and the line. I was guessing you needed about a 6000 BTU/hr AC unit to cool a room. So your calcs are close. At 4000, that is a 4000/12000 = 1/3 tons of ice per day. Or (4000/12000)*2000/24=27.8 lbs of ice per hour. It appears your unit was not putting out 4000 BTU per hour. Bigger fan and pump and a lot more ice.

So, it's a dual dehumidifier and air conditioner. Not bad, for such a cobbled together thing.

I have not tried this. However what about getting a good used small freezer unit. Line it with freezer packs the type used for picnic boxes then make copper coil on a frame for inside the freezer unit. the longer the tubing coil the better , but not too much. ( could be a 12v car unit ) means drilling holes somehow for inlet and outlet. I would mount a water pump outside on the freezer unit The copper pipe then fitted to a fan spaced apart to allow freedom of airflow and fitted to the edge of the fan. diameter. this way there are no joins the pipe being all one length. I will try it.

Need a way to evacuate the hot air. Maybe an exhaust hole on top with a small fan exhausting out a tube outside

Awesome

Find old an refrigerator take it apart remove certain parts such as the compressor conderser capillary tube and filter drier braze everything that in that coil of the fan make sure to separate the condenser coil from the evaporator so that the room remains cool check for any leaks and then you can use propane or butane as refrigerant gas vacuum the system first before filling it wil refrigerant gasses especially if the gas is flammable

rather than pump water from the cooler, maybe use a closed system that is pumping a separate fluid, like antifreeze or just air and use a second coil in the cooler.

What if you did more than one?

Interesting and fun experiment Jon. Glad I watched but I will pass and just turn on my 5 ton AC unit.

@RightOnJonCrane

2 жыл бұрын

Exactly John!! It was fun to experiment. When I lived in Jersey I had a window unit I would put in for the summer. I guess I need one out here in the Northwest! 🥵

Will it still work with only the clear vinyl tubing instead of using the copper piping?

@ldero9520

2 жыл бұрын

@@boasgar Very true

Ad some dry ice and put a big coil in the cooler, the dry ice will keep the ice frozen much longer, or freeze your water if you use too much.

I'm hoping to make something for my single cab truck, it was built with no AC