Do DIY Air Conditioners Really Work?

Whether climate change will end all life on this planet is an open question (I hope), but in reality, wherever you live, at least some time to deal with high temperatures. Will be.If you have air conditioning in your home, that means Come up with a way to make it work better and more efficiently.. But in the absence of AC at all, desperate times lead to desperate thinking. And there are lots of “DIY” instructional videos aimed at showing how to build a working air conditioner from some relatively inexpensive components. But does any of them really work?

For a typical DIY AC setup, Foam cooler, ice, PVC pipe, electric fan.. The idea is that if you are reasonably convenient, you can throw a survival cooling solution together without spending a lot of money. After all, ice is cheap and electricity is high, but I don’t use a lot of small fans. However, these projects rely on water evaporation, not heat pumps. Simply cool the air and then blow it into the room. Therefore, the answer to “do they work” is a frustrating “kind”.

Your DIY option

There are many ways to make a DIY air conditioner. Fun milk carton A model that acts as a personal cooler to more complex models, including Small water pump.. Some of these require a small understanding of engineering or the ability to solder wires without damaging yourself. For those of us who regularly spend a few minutes confused about how to insert a USB cable, one of the easier approaches is the concept of a foam cooler and a small AC power fan (a large bucket works as well). ). Some power tools have no real expertise other than plugging things into the wall.

All of these DIY ACs rely on the same principles. Use ice to cool the air and blow it into some tube. In theory, you can see how this works. If you pack a cooler full of ice and beer and head to the beach, the air in that cooler will be significantly colder each time you open it, even if the sun is burning. Of course, if the cool air can be pumped out of the cooler into the room, it will have at least some effect on the ambient temperature.

Do such contradictions create noticeable dents at room temperature? Not much one.. For a well-built DIY AC unit made of a cooler or a large bucket, a very 1-2 degree cooling can be obtained. very A short time. One of the reasons beer coolers work is that they have a small air-sealing space for cooling. The constant movement of cold air from the cooler means that the ice must melt and transfer more heat energy to itself, leaving a puddle and perhaps a less cool room immediately. Sometimes it seems to work just because you can feel the cold air coming out, but if you don’t move the thermostat, it’s just an illusion.

On the other hand, as a close-up personal cooler? These work.There Will With a stable stream of cold air concentrated in the tube and blown in your direction, DIY AC can reduce the temperature in its immediate vicinity by 10-20 degrees, which is significantly colder. In other words, having one relatively close will give you some relief from the heat. Basically, you’re building a kind of super fan that blows a little cold air. It doesn’t change the overall temperature of your room, but it may make it a little more acceptable to sit in that sweatbox.

The reason window air conditioners and central air systems are so expensive is that they require a lot of power to transfer heat from one space (a terribly hot bedroom) to another (a natural problem outdoors). Some ice and small fans never do the same job, but they may help to grab the frayed edge of sanity the next time a heat wave drags the area. Given that it can be built for less than $ 50, it may be a worthwhile experiment.