For those of us in the northern hemisphere, as well as many Hackaday readers, it’s now entering the hot summer, which means it’s time to take the old window air conditioner out of the warehouse and drag it back to its original position. But what if you want to cool down a space without convenient windows? In this case, the clever conversion proposed by [infrared] to keep the garage cool may arouse people's interest.

Basically, he took a classic window air conditioner and turned it into an impromptu ductless unit. By rotating the evaporator coil to a vertical position and lengthening the compressor wire, he was able to make the center of the air conditioner thin enough that he could close the garage door on it. The back of the device looks basically unaffected, but the front exudes a real Mad Max vibe; it’s well put in with metal plates, bare wires, and a few fans. Suitable for garages or work areas, but may not be a good choice for children's rooms.

[Infrared] said that the removed air conditioner could make his garage 18 degrees cooler than the current outdoor temperature, but he hopes that adding some high-CFM computer fans will not only improve performance, but also make his new front panel look neater . Although even in its current form, this is far from the most absurd DIY AC project we have seen in recent memory.

It would be even better if he converts the equipment to a water cooler, and then the water/glycol cooling circuit can easily be made into almost any configuration, including multiple fan coils from a single compressor. Except for aquarium cooling, I can't find any examples of people making coolers in this way, and coolers for air conditioners are very expensive, so a DIY solution should make sense.

That's because it will not remove moisture from the air. It will only be cold and wet.

Yes, it will. If the coil is below the dew point in the room, the surrounding water will condense on the coil regardless of whether the coil is full of refrigerant or water/glycol.

If the coil is cold enough, the humidity will condense. The split device has a dedicated "condensation" pipe leading to the outside. Similarly, fan coils need to collect or guide condensate.

Or, the best solution I have seen recently is to use frozen water from an indoor "water wall" waterfall or fountain. The condensed water is collected directly on the frozen water.

Is it just the cold water flowing in the waterfall to cool the room? Or a fan blowing air at it? Or also through the coil with a fan?

Link? I like this idea

Home Brewers has long converted air conditioning units into glycol coolers. The cooled ethylene glycol is pumped into the fermentation vessel to control the temperature.

I have seen something similar that is used in cooking glycol to control the fermentation temperature. https://youtu.be/ChK6RQXxWI4

This is the basis of the hydraulic cooling system, with many commercial installations and an increasing number of residential installations. They can be used with air handlers and other radiant cooling systems (including cooling plates). One benefit (in addition to greatly improving efficiency from the high heat capacity of water and air) is the ability to include heat storage for power transfer during use. The ice storage can be charged during off-peak hours and used instead of chillers during high-cost peak hours. The chiller condenser can also be used for preheating domestic hot water.

Want to know if you just immerse the evaporative radiator in water, use reflux to agitate it and pump it into a cycle, how efficient the heat exchange will be. High surface area air-to-water heat exchanger? Guess you have to run it through the radiator again wherever you want to be cool. Want to know whether inefficiency will accumulate with each transition to an unworthy degree.

This is almost a DIY mini split (no heating), but *much cheaper*. In other words, if you own a property, installing window units on the wall may be a better choice. The condenser will eventually fail due to corrosion (Al and Cu do not work well with H2O). I have a pair of 24,000 BTU window installations, which have lost refrigerant due to corrosion after only a few years of use. I might take down the compressor and throw away the rest, although I'm not sure what I will do with the compressor. Tough decisions.

You can use a compressor as a vacuum pump for the desoldering iron.

Or make it a smoke evacuator! https://www.instructables.com/Super-cheap-efficient-and-quiet-smoke-extractor/

Use an empty barbecue propane tank to make an air compressor. Just add a regulator, pressure switch, line filter (optional) and a pressure gauge.

Every garage workshop needs an air compressor. Put an inline fuel filter at the air intake, it can also reduce noise.

Hmm... There is a gap under the door, and the air-conditioning is heavier than the fighting air, so the air-conditioning squeezes in through this gap. He can add some foam or soft things to seal it.

Incorrect. Travel in warm and humid air.

Only the temperature difference makes the air move. It is physics.

AC warms the earth

The earth warms me! If you can't accept it, the earth don't throw it out!

No, they just transfer heat from one place to another. 🙄

Electricity still seems too cheap.

Or, like me, operate with solar power.

Why? If it is too hot, we need to cool it down. Let's be happy, electricity is not more expensive.

"Let's be happy, electricity is not more expensive."

Politicians are working hard for this...

I respect this simple hacker. Although it may not be complicated and beautiful, it can use what is on hand to get the job done. I bet the OP would prefer to have a commercial air conditioning unit in his garage, but there are some impossible reasons. Therefore, instead of giving up and sitting on the sofa, he grabbed what he had and solved the problem he was satisfied with. I like. Great, infrared! !

If this is the case, I will go out in person. However, in the Midwest of America, we often see 40c and 90% humidity. This is why you often see AC power in garages or workshops.

Winter is from 0 to – 20 c

The weather here is fluctuating

I want to live and work comfortably is just a thing in the U.S.

I don't think you are conceited and condescending. Try to be more insulting in the future, it will help.

Working in the garage is almost a thing in every country in the world. I do not know what you're talking about.

In addition, eventually the garage heats up to adapt to the environment. So what you really mean is that the average 24-hour temperature around the garage will not exceed 30 degrees Celsius. good for you! Great, this is a very comfortable environment. But in some places, it actually becomes very hot.

For most parts of the United States, 30 degrees Celsius is not hot during the day. In all. Coincidentally, my highest temperature today is exactly 30 degrees Celsius. This is the lowest point in the forecast. I suspect that the house will be over 22 years old at any time during the day, partly because the attic and concrete walls have one meter of insulation. So the air conditioner will not operate. Because this is used when the weather is hot.

I cannot comment on the characteristic garage, but the dew point in inclement weather here will be close to the typical maximum temperature of the garage. I run the window-installed garage air conditioner not for temperature control, but to remove moisture when I am working on the project.

This is exactly why I did it. Today's dew point is 79. Egggh! But even if there is nothing blocking the gap under the door, it works well. I think just like others have suggested, use noodles to close the gap, maybe some foam board can enter the door part. In addition, I also made some pipes from the flexible dryer vents to help guide the coolness of the place where I work.

As a test last summer, I took an old window fixture and some foam boards, and then discharged the hot air from the compressor, that is, the part that protrudes from the window, and merged it into the attic passage of the garage. It works very well in the morning and evening, but not very well at noon. I did this to test possible portable air conditioners in the garage, but I ended up saving a real air separator.

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