Thanks to the power of evaporative cooling, it is possible to bring the temperature in your room down. It is also possible to make your very own home made air conditioner using ice water placed inside a cooler.
Essentially, you will need to have a box fan, a cooler (a Styrofoam cooler would be fine), a strong pond or aquarium pump, tubing made of copper coil, vinyl tubing, fittings and reducers, wood for the outriggers of the box fan and zip ties which you can use to attach the tubing onto the fan.
1. The first thing you need to do is to assemble the air conditioner by laying out the copper tubing and arranging your fittings.
Then, you need to attach together the copper tubing and the fittings. You can do so by soldering the copper tubing joints onto the fittings.
TIP: Do try to look for compression type fittings which require no soldering.
2. Once the fittings are all in place, you can now screw the adapters for the vinyl hose after finishing applying Teflon tape onto the threads. In order to secure the tubing, you can use a screw clamp.
3. After which, you can now test it for leaks by filling the cooler with water. Then, the pump should be submerged and the tubing must be connected onto the pump. The other tubing should then be run back into the cooler. Power it on and ensure that it works the way it should.
4. The next step is to attach the fan screen onto the copper tubing. All you need to do is know where tubing will enter and exit. Then, you can begin connecting it with the zip ties.
5. Once you are through connecting the tubing onto the screen, you can build outriggers for the fan. After which, you can re-attach the fan screen using the original screws.
6. Your next goal is to insert the vinyl tubing in the cooler. You basically need to have 3 holes. One is for the inlet onto the copper tubing, another is for the outlet as well as another hole for the power cord pump.
7. The next step is to operate the air conditioner. But first, do place a pan or any container under the fan in order to capture any condensation that will come from the coil.
8. Then, fill the cooler with water that is enough to envelope the pump. After which, place a bunch of ice inside – 2 or 3 bags of ice will do. Power on the pump and make your desired adjustments on the fan speed.
TIP: Besides bags of ice, you could similarly freeze water inside containers of paint buckets in order to make large ice blocks. You could also make salt water ice to make it last long than conventional ice.
Viola! You now have your very own home made air conditioner. The effort may be tiring but the result would save you tons of money in the long term.
