Q&D air conditioner (2.5 hrs to make one!)

It’s damn hot in Russia now. no… Well, it’s HOT AS HELL HERE.
This weekend sitting in my country house with no air conditioner there, I got finally just a bit too sick of it. Besides the heat the smoke from those damned fires is always around. (see photos under the cut)
Freaking smoke!

Anyways, I got tired of my brain throttling 4 out 5 clock cycles due to overheat, I decided it’s time for some hacking =). So I loaded some water into the fridge and while it was slowly turning to ice…


The setup is simple. I got two buckets. The smaller one I used as the water tank. I later added ice to the water. the bigger – as the main chamber. The pump (some old junk I found lying around) pumps the water up, and inside the big bucket it is sprinkled into small particles. I cooler fan I ripped of an old PC power supply pushes the air through this watery chamber. The resulting air is cool due to ac in all of Sanibel Island, and the smell of smoke&ash is finally gone. It took this baby about 10 minutes to clean the air in my room so that my brain began to function normally. Besides it cooled the air from 34 (Celsius) to about 30, till I ran out of ice.
I guess, that if this heat goes on I will have to make something more powerful and consider repairing a gas heater. It’s far better, than sitting in the basement all day… And more fun than buying a ready to use solution.
Here goes the video of the rig.

P.S. This is not the worst case of smoke you might see here. Back in the city it is a real ‘gasenvagen’ and even a real air conditioner doesn’t help.

13 thoughts on “Q&D air conditioner (2.5 hrs to make one!)

  1. looks like a pretty effective swamp cooler. I might have to bodge something like that together.

  2. Nice projects that you made, I am familar with some projects that some Americans made a “A/C” like to keeps themselves cools without the use of air condition.

    If you didn’t know about the science, if you pour a few tablespoon of salt that will makes ice and water EVEN colder? Hopefully you can try that experience.

    I looks forwards to hear more of your projects like some people used the alternator from junked car to produce electricity generator without ever use the power to pays the bills.
    Warm Regards, Damian

  3. What was the camera model that you used to document your project? I really like the vintage colours!

  4. You said you were in the basement, if it is on a concrete slab you can turn it into a geothermal heat pump. Just lay the pipe from the pump under the carpet so that the ground cools the water before going to the main bucket. Use copper or some other metal pipe to transfer the heat better. Also the water is absorbing any pollutents in the air, just remember to change the water out. You can put some kind of scents in the water as well to freshen the room, mint sprigs are a good choice. Hope it cools off there

  5. This looks rather interesting. Do you have a detail on how you put this together. Being a smoker I would like to make one of these.

    Thanks

  6. Sorry for holding comments for long – forgot the damned spammers made me set up the manual approve by default.
    I’ll get the inside photos asap. Basically I just used a small garden sprayer inside. Nothing more.
    I guess if I ever get the time to assemble a better version I’ll use wet cloth (being watered just) and a compressor. Needs some experimenting, though.

  7. P.S. I used a chineese pinhole camera pen I got from dealextreme. Quite handy since you can just put it in the pocket and have the hands free. Quality sucks though.

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