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Thread: Home made Air Con

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    Default Home made Air Con

    Hi all,

    It's 42 degrees Celsius in here at 8:30 am.

    I have just made an Air Con cooler consisting of an old fan blowing onto a bucket of water with a small towel hanging out of it suspended on a wire frame above the bucket.

    One end of the towel is in constant contact with the water in the bucket. The other end is suspended by the wire on the frame with clothes pegs.

    The fan is blowing on the towel. I am experiencing a temp drop of about 2 degrees.

    Does anyone here know of a better FREE way of increasing the efficiency of this system ??



Look Here ->
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    Senior Member Moof's Avatar
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    put ice blocks in the bucket of water

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    Yeah ill save you more money.

    Switch off your fan and go to a shopping center and enjoy real airconditioning for free.

    8.30am and 42 degrees.....fill the bath tub with water and sit there all day.

    Where abouts are you? Thats enough heat to drive anyone around the bend.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Ma_Baker View Post
    Hi all,

    It's 42 degrees Celsius in here at 8:30 am.

    I have just made an Air Con cooler consisting of an old fan blowing onto a bucket of water with a small towel hanging out of it suspended on a wire frame above the bucket.

    One end of the towel is in constant contact with the water in the bucket. The other end is suspended by the wire on the frame with clothes pegs.

    The fan is blowing on the towel. I am experiencing a temp drop of about 2 degrees.

    Does anyone here know of a better FREE way of increasing the efficiency of this system ??
    MAGYVER where have you been??? I thought you were trapped in Betamax land.
    Great tip mate.... also, try adding some salt in the water with the ice, it raises the freezing point, thus your ice will last longer and feel colder
    Although on a 42 degree day, ice isn't going to live very long at all

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    You could try blowing air through a radiator that has ice cold water running through it. You would need some copper tubing, or a second radiator in an esky full of ice and water, some sort of aquarium pump connected to another radiator that has a fan blowing through it. For a radiator any sort of cooler or heat exchanger could be used ie car oil cooler or car aircon heat exchanger and of course the usual engine radiator.

    You could just use a lot of copper tubing instead of a radiator, but it would be less efficient.

    Adding salt to the icy water lowers its temperature to.

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    Have a look here

    Google shows similar setups.

    With your existing setup do you reckon cutting the towel into strips would make it more efficient by allowing more air to blow through/past?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Ma_Baker View Post
    Hi all,

    It's 42 degrees Celsius in here at 8:30 am.

    I have just made an Air Con cooler consisting of an old fan blowing onto a bucket of water with a small towel hanging out of it suspended on a wire frame above the bucket.

    One end of the towel is in constant contact with the water in the bucket. The other end is suspended by the wire on the frame with clothes pegs.

    The fan is blowing on the towel. I am experiencing a temp drop of about 2 degrees.

    Does anyone here know of a better FREE way of increasing the efficiency of this system ??
    This idea is very old tried it about twenty years ago, to make it work better cut two inch strips into the towel for better air flow and the water will draw up the towel better.

    Tagg

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    PFFFT 8.30am and 42 degrees
    Now when I was a kid I lived in the desert and at 8:30pm it was 45 degrees

    LOL

    But Serious Godzilla is right get your arse to the shopping center and catch a movie or 2 and have a relax in the real air con
    When you do things right, people won't be sure that you have done anything at all

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    I am in rental accommodation.

    1 room Unit with windows on 3 sides. East gets the first early morning sun at 5:30 am by 9:00 I get the sun through the South and East, its constant until about 15:00 when I get the benefit of the late afternoon sun until it sets.

    I have hung a tarp outside the western window, and put flattened cardboard boxes in most the others. Landlord does not want to put up blockout screens as this will cost money.

    ( Cockroaches do appreciate the cardboard - catch 50 to 60 per night in my banana traps - before you ask - I do NOT use chemicals )

    Q/ If I cut the toweling into thin a strip as I can will this make the cooling effect better or does the law of 'diminishing returns come into effect ?' - in other words if I used single strands of string/wool/material would I get a better result ??

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    Quote Originally Posted by Ma_Baker View Post
    Q/ If I cut the toweling into thin a strip as I can will this make the cooling effect better or does the law of 'diminishing returns come into effect ?' - in other words if I used single strands of string/wool/material would I get a better result ??

    A/ No two inch strips is the smallest and if any smaller they will dry out to fast.



    Tagg

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    get yourself a small wall rattler and stick it in the window.

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    Talking Cool as a Cucumber.

    Quote Originally Posted by Ma_Baker View Post
    Hi all,
    It's 42 degrees Celsius in here at 8:30 am.
    I have just made an Air Con cooler consisting of an old fan blowing onto a bucket of water with a small towel hanging out of it suspended on a wire frame above the bucket.
    One end of the towel is in constant contact with the water in the bucket. The other end is suspended by the wire on the frame with clothes pegs.
    The fan is blowing on the towel. I am experiencing a temp drop of about 2 degrees.
    Does anyone here know of a better FREE way of increasing the efficiency of this system ??
    G'Day Cobber,
    This is a bit of ausie nostalgia. Might give you some ideas.



    Nota Bene: The water tray is at the top.

    Have been looking for an evaporative air conditioner that I've seen many years ago.
    A rough description is that it consisted of an open frame drum, covered in hessian, slowly revolving in a water tray, set up against a wall opening, with a fan drawing the air into the room.
    A suggestion for your simple one would be to put it across a window opening, with the fan drawing in instead of blowing. Hessian is far more effective than a towel. Not synthetic fibres.

    In the meantime, I'm enjoying my split system heat pump. Even get to shivering...........
    Kindest Regards, " The Druid ".

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    Quote Originally Posted by bss904 View Post
    get yourself a small wall rattler and stick it in the window.
    Wot is this ?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Ma_Baker View Post
    Wot is this ?

    A Air con ?


    Tagg

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    i wish more people had the same idea as you
    the over use of air con (most likely) in my neigbourhood has knocked out 1 or 2 phases of our power supply and the circurts associated with it including the aircon.

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    Cool Cooling from the colonial days in India.

    Evaporative Air Conditioning from India adapted in Australia.
    A wealth of information and ideas.
    Kindest Regards, " The Druid "........

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    Cool Swamp Cooler.

    The cooler sits on the roof, with an air duct leading down into the house. The cooler is essentially a large box, four sides of which are removeable panels. These panels have vents in them to let air flow through. On the inside of each panel is attached a “cooler pad” which looks a little bit like a matt of hay. The pads are about 2-3 inches thick and about 3 feet square. They are made of a material which absorbes water.

    Swamp Cooler – diagram 2
    At the bottom of the box is a reservoir of water [3], with a tube running down into it. At the top is the other end of the tube, with a “spider” attachment of hoses. These spread across the top of the box to the sides. The ends of the hoses are above the top edges of the pads. A pump runs a continuous trickle of water over the pads, keeping them wet. The water runs through them and collects again in the reservoir.
    At the entrance to the duct is a large fan [5] which sucks hot air from the outside [1] in through the wet pads [2], where they are cooled by evaporation [4]. The air is then blown down into the house [6].



    Instead of the water pump, you could use a mist sprayer or micro irrigation drippers hooked to water supply with filter and pressure reducer.


    Kindest Regards, " The Druid "......

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    What's your relative humidity? Tropics? Desert? The cheapest way is to sit under a ceiling fan. But I assume you don't have one. Definitely block out the windows, wet some aluminium foil with water and stick it flat to the glass on the inside. It should stick for good and wont fall off (serious). As long as there is sufficient and constant air flow you can feel cool except for the sub-tropical and tropical areas with extremely high humidity (averaging over 70% relative humidity) like where I live then the air con becomes your best friend.

    Something interesting is termites know all about this

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    Quote Originally Posted by PostScriptum View Post
    What's your relative humidity? Tropics? Desert? The cheapest way is to sit under a ceiling fan. But I assume you don't have one. Definitely block out the windows, wet some aluminium foil with water and stick it flat to the glass on the inside. It should stick for good and wont fall off (serious). As long as there is sufficient and constant air flow you can feel cool except for the sub-tropical and tropical areas with extremely high humidity (averaging over 70% relative humidity) like where I live then the air con becomes your best friend.

    Something interesting is termites know all about this
    I like your suggestion a lot. Assuming it works it will kill my roach infestation (due to the cardboard boxes I am using to block out the sun) and also cool the room down.

    I have a question or two.

    How do I wet aluminum foil when it is non-absorbent ? Wet the window first and then just strip the foil from the roll maybe ?

    - Newcastle area for location -

    Humidity is average for Sydney basin area.

    Is this the same technique they used in the old Facom Building in North Sydney where all the windows over 20 floors up started popping out due to heat expansion inflicted on the glass ?

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    G'day I've never tried it but it's what all the shift workers do up here in north QLD. Not sure of the technique I'd say try and wet the glass first maybe. I've seen it and the foil is stuck very flat and has been for years in some cases.

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