Cheap ($20-$30) home-made air conditioning - Instructables

[Thjoth]

...well, sort of.

I just realized the thread title makes this look like spam...lol

I thought that this might be of help to those of us who are currently boiling to death and for whom a window air conditioner is impractical. I know a couple of people who keep these in their dorms and it can get the dorm down to a positively frigid temperature. To increase the effectiveness of the cooling, it should be paired with a dehumidifier, as that's what makes a real air conditioner work so well. You can also salt the container of icewater to lower the effective freezing point of the water and thus make it even colder.

[volcaniclastic]

Re: Cheap ($20-$30) home-made air conditioning - Instructables

This amuses me because I'm in the arctic.

[DanieMarie]

Re: Cheap ($20-$30) home-made air conditioning - Instructables

I don't believe in air conditioning, and yes, it gets hot here (over 100*F in July a lot of the time, and humid)....I just do hot yoga in my upstairs sun room (which can get hotter than outside)....free hot yoga!

It's just not common here (kind of like how people here rarely have dryers), and some people have AC back home but since it's rarely above 30*C there I think it's kind of silly when they do!

Good idea though...maybe if my parents get whiney enough about the heat when they visit I'll give it a try

[LiadanWillows]

Re: Cheap ($20-$30) home-made air conditioning - Instructables

Very cool! Last year I bought a window air conditioner. I figured if I get out of the shower and by the time I get my clothes on I am already sweaty that its too damn hot!

[Ophidia]

Re: Cheap ($20-$30) home-made air conditioning - Instructables

That's a pretty 'cool' idea - I may make it a supplement to our existing a/c if it heats up enough this year. So far, by the blessings of La Nina, we've been having lower-than-average temps this year.

It's kind of nice to be in June & still in the 90s.

[Dez]

Re: Cheap ($20-$30) home-made air conditioning - Instructables

Love that idea...it would not be safe in my home with inventive, curious rug rats, however.

[Taiga Pagan]

Re: Cheap ($20-$30) home-made air conditioning - Instructables

Yep, north feels great in the summer... no need for AC here... P.S. why not using old fridge parts for AC? Recycle!

[Tylluan Penry]

Re: Cheap ($20-$30) home-made air conditioning - Instructables

Sorry.... what is a window air conditioner?

[LiadanWillows]

Re: Cheap ($20-$30) home-made air conditioning - Instructables



This is an example. Ours can cool up to 1,300 square feet and only cost $120 (US). However if you want central air installed in your home around here costs usually $3,000. My home is only 1,100 square feet so this works fine. It also does not cost much to run.

This is what it looks like from outside the home

[Tylluan Penry]

Re: Cheap ($20-$30) home-made air conditioning - Instructables

Good grief, I've never seen one of those before. Thank you for posting the pictures. How big are they? (It's hard to tell without knowing the size of the window!)

We use a de-humidifier in our house because of all the rain we get but they are quite expensive to run - or possib;ly it's just the exorbitant cost of electricity here in the UK!

[DanieMarie]

Re: Cheap ($20-$30) home-made air conditioning - Instructables

^^^
It's probably the exorbitant cost of electricity! I know that if I were to run AC or a dehumidifier here, it would also cost a fortune.

I always find people who have AC cool their homes too much. Overcompensation! I got sick in Las Vegas too because all the buildings were far too cold inside and I caught a chill! Or maybe I'm just naturally supposed to be in heat....all my friends back home used to joke that I was really a California girl, and when I went to Germany they were all like, really? Not Spain? Haha.

That being said, though it's cool enough (only 20 degrees....if it were drier I'd be wearing a sweater!) it's HUMID AS HELL here today! I feel like I'm in the tropics! I kinda wish I had a dehumidifier right now, but sadly I only have a humidifier (we get stupidly dry winters).

[LiadanWillows]

Re: Cheap ($20-$30) home-made air conditioning - Instructables

My consumers(electric and gas) monthly bill is only $60 per month in the summer. In winter with the furnace it goes up to $200. When we bought the window AC we bought an energy efficient one and keep it in energy saver mode I noticed only a $5 increase in my monthly bill which is worth it to me.

As for size they range in all sizes. Mine is about 18 inches long 12 inches tall and maybe 20 inches deep. Sorry Mrs. Penry you probably use the metric system and I'm bad at converting.

[Tylluan Penry]

Re: Cheap ($20-$30) home-made air conditioning - Instructables

My consumers(electric and gas) monthly bill is only $60 per month in the summer. In winter with the furnace it goes up to $200. When we bought the window AC we bought an energy efficient one and keep it in energy saver mode I noticed only a $5 increase in my monthly bill which is worth it to me.

As for size they range in all sizes. Mine is about 18 inches long 12 inches tall and maybe 20 inches deep. Sorry Mrs. Penry you probably use the metric system and I'm bad at converting.

No, I was brought up with feet and inches.... never really got the hang of the metric system, so that's fine. It's quite small then.
But your fuel bills! Oh, if only it was like that here. I pay every month so that I don't have to get a huge bill every quarter, and using an online calculator have worked out that I pay over 200$ a month, every month of the year for that. So anything extra is a real killer. We just have to go cold and shiver in the winter. *BTW it was great fun finding the dollar sign for this post.... I kept hitting % for ages! *

[DanieMarie]

Re: Cheap ($20-$30) home-made air conditioning - Instructables

My consumers(electric and gas) monthly bill is only $60 per month in the summer. In winter with the furnace it goes up to $200. When we bought the window AC we bought an energy efficient one and keep it in energy saver mode I noticed only a $5 increase in my monthly bill which is worth it to me.

As for size they range in all sizes. Mine is about 18 inches long 12 inches tall and maybe 20 inches deep. Sorry Mrs. Penry you probably use the metric system and I'm bad at converting.

DUDE when I lived in Canada, my electric (and I had electric heat and hot water as well) didn't go above $50....it only got to $100 once or twice when I went through a phase of having extra long showers.

[LiadanWillows]

Re: Cheap ($20-$30) home-made air conditioning - Instructables

DUDE when I lived in Canada, my electric (and I had electric heat and hot water as well) didn't go above $50....it only got to $100 once or twice when I went through a phase of having extra long showers.

Well considering my parents electric bill (they only live 20 mins away from me) ranges from $200-$400 a month I think I am doing rather well.