Homebrew Air Conditioning for Under $25

inkey string writes "Summer has arrived, and I've been busy slowly overheating in my student house without central air. I decided to put my thermodynamics classes to work however, and produced this ~24$ homebrew air conditioner. It'll cool a room to a comfortable level in 15-20 mins, and will run for a few hours on a garbage pail full of water. It's cheap, environmentally friendly (just fire the waste water off to your garden), and makes a good one hour project for a quiet evening."

Its going to be hot soon

[Anonymous Coward]

I hope his server isn't in his room, because all the thermodynamics courses in the world wont teach you about slashdotting.

And you can place it...

[peter_gzowski]

...right next to your webserver.

Air Conditioning for $1500/month

[Geekboy(Wizard)]

Move to San Francisco.

Today it hit 70F, and the news stations are talking about "the heatwave of 2005".

Siphoning

[sxltrex]

It certainly does suck!

sorry...

Canada

[Geekboy(Wizard)]

Dude, you're in Canada. Open the window.

Now you just have to figure out how to keep the snow off of the carpet.

Re:And you can place it...

[Tackhead]

> ...right next to your webserver.

By placing the garbage pail full of water in your garden, you ensure that within five minutes of the link going live on Slashdot, you'll have several gallons of piping-hot vegetable soup!

Beer

[supe]

I think that his garbage can full of ice water should at least have a few cold beers. I mean really, he's in college!

Re:Air Conditioning for $1500/month

[failure-man]

Whiny bastard Californians . . . .

I repeat my assertion that since 31 Octobher, 1995 (the last Oingo Boingo show) the state has had no redeeming value.

Re:And you can place it...

[Seumas]

And with the money he saved, he can finally afford a maid.

thermodynamics?

[csimicah]

Wait... this retard thinks that using his fridge, inside his house, to produce ice... then cooling with the ice... is going to make his house cooler? He could accomplish the exact same thing by just opening his freezer door, right? I hope this kid's Thermo professor sees this and kicks him out of school.

Re:Air Conditioning for $1500/month

[MrAnnoyanceToYou]

Californians buy our water, we don't mind.
Californians raise our power rates by buying ours, we don't mind.
Californians make more money, we don't mind.
Californians drive up here and buy houses at HUGE prices, we don't mind.
Californians steal our nice Oregon springs leaving us more drenched than usual, we want better environmental laws or blood.

Re:Air Conditioning for $1500/month

[kfg]

Mark Twain once famously noted that the worst winter he ever spent was his summer in San Francisco.

KFG

Re:Canada

[KillerBob]

I'd do that, but it'd make running the air conditionner even more expensive.... It hit 35'C with 70% humidity today, making it feel like 42'C (107'F).

Can't wait until August, when it really gets hot. :)

Re:Minor nit

[v1]

If he's into thermodynamics he should realize the reason this is appearing to be a cheap way to AC is he's ignoring the need for the supply of cold water. (ice) Wouldn't he cut out the middleman here (and thus, theoretically increase efficiency of the system) by simply leaving his freezer door open with a fan in front of it?

I suppose it might still work running on cold tap-water, but then that could make for an expensive water bill. Although not nearly as much as running your freezer with its compressor all day long...

Re:Air Conditioning for $1500/month

[Anonymous Coward]

I repeat my assertion that since 31 Octobher, 1995 (the last Oingo Boingo show) the state has had no redeeming value.

Hey! California has amazing redeeming value. Without it, all those idiots would be living with the rest of us!

Re:thermodynamics?

[Anonymous Coward]

Wehere does it say he is using _his_ fridge?

Re:Canada

[caferace]

We make snow at 28 degrees all the time.

Where did you say you were from again?

Re:To be pedantic...

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't know whats worse, the idiot parent poster who doesn't RTFA (or knows what he is talking about) or seemingly endless replies saying the same damned thing one after the other as if they were the first to point out the error and should get some sort of brownie points.

Re:Minor nit

[tomhudson]

It's not a minor nit-pick. Its a major flaw. His setup is so much more inefficient than even a cheap ($100) AC.

If he wants to be cheap, why not just take an old fridge ($20), remove the doors, and use the fridge to block the door to his room? Leave the coils facing out into the hallway, and his room becomes cooler - plus the light will always be on, so he can see wtf he's doing.

Re:Environmentally friendly?

[LurkerXXX]

So, if it is environmentally friendly, just where did the "ice water" come from?

Ice Pixies magic it up, so he doesn't have to run a refridgerator/freezer to make the ice. Because, you know, those actually produce heat inside the house, which he is trying to get rid of... Pixies. Yeah, that's it.

Re:Minor nit

[Skye16]

Things can go horribly awry when putting AC units in... [ctrlaltdel-online.com]

Re:Minor nit

[Anonymous Coward]

If he wants to be cheap, why not just take an old fridge ($20), remove the doors, and use the fridge to block the door to his room? Leave the coils facing out into the hallway, and his room becomes cooler - plus the light will always be on, so he can see wtf he's doing.

Redneck Airconditioning!

Re:Minor nit

[Infinityis]

Wait, but you haven't heard the best part--if you get some firewood, a match, and a fan, you too can have a really cheap heater for the winter weather!

First person to do it and put up a website about it will win the rights to a blurb on the front page of Slashdot!

Re:thermodynamics?

[csimicah]

Huh... does U-Waterloo water also come with ice chunks and frozen bottles of water in it, as pictured on the site? That must be hell on the pipes!

Re:Air Conditioning for $1500/month

[Anonymous Coward]

You misspelled Texas

Re:Its going to be hot soon

[Anonymous Coward]

This article is so ignorant I almost took the time to create a Slashdot account to complain about it.

Re:Canada

[Anonymous Coward]

I guess you mean 28 degrees celsius/centigrade? At 28 degrees fahrenheit I think it would be quite easy to make snow.

I am impressed with your intellectual acumen and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

Re:Environmentally friendly?

[LurkerXXX]

Ottawa? Don't the OpenBSD folks hang out there occasionally? You might not have any penguins, but maybe there are some blowfish. :)

Re:Air Conditioning for $1500/month

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, it has a major redeeming value. It gives us a place to live away from envious losers.

Is that any way to talk about the French?

Does it run Lennox?

[XpirateX]

Yeah, but does it run Lennox [lennox.com]?

Re:Its going to be hot soon

[Kujila]

How can this story be slashdot-worthy if the fan isn't even running Linux!

Re:Canada

[pipingguy]

We were driving through Brossard Sunday looking for Pont Victoria (most people in the Montreal area end up looking for this stealth bridge at one time or another) and passed one of those digital readout advertising signs that was flashing time and temp. It said -11 degrees C.

The guy is a moron

[tangledweb]

I think my way is much more efficient and more environmentally friendly. I just hooked my freezer up to my perpetual motion machine and leave the door open. Infinite cold air, and no puddle of wasted ice water outside my window.

Low hanging fruit...

[Anonymous Coward]

Isn't there some irony in that Waterloo has met its waterloo? No, I suppose its perfectly apt.

Re:Air Conditioning for $1500/month

[kfg]

"I'm not dead yet. . .I'm getting better." -- Mark Twain

KFG

Re:Canada

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, but we've already established that everywhere ELSE is unimportant in comparison to the States.

Re:addressing all the flames/legitimate concerns..

[Anonymous Coward]

Perhaps you meant "I suggest that you start with capital letters" or "I suggest starting with capital letters"... It might be a good idea to choose a single qualifier, as well. Beginning one clause with "if" and the following with "perhaps" just doesn't read nicely.

Clumsy grammar is not terribly persuasive. Perhaps you can join him in his English studies - that'd likely help with the quality assurance needed for your technical writing. ;)

Re:Canada

[Barlo_Mung_42]

Holy crap, you're right!
How do you keep your igloos standing at that temp?

Re:Air Conditioning for $1500/month

[harkabeeparolyn]

"A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man."
--- Mark Twain

Re:Air Conditioning for $1500/month

[lostchicken]

Shit. As a native Texan living in California, I feel I must object to one of these insults. Unfortunately, I can't quite decide which one isn't true...