$100 Homemade Air Conditioner - DIY

Well as an HVAC tech I have to say this would work in theory. Not sure exactly what the delta T would be infront and behind the fan. It would certainly be better with some form of aluminum finned type copper tubing. There's also the law of thermodynamics that energy cannot be created or destroyed... Which means the heat energy that exists within that room is simply being transferred into the cooler. Heat is energy that moves to something cooler... So the real question is how long will it take this contraption to cool the garage before the cooler itself has absorbed too much heat and the water is now just as warm as the room? It realistically cannot change that heat energy into something cooler. it can only be transferred from one place to another.

A few years ago I built an AC based on the same principle as this one. I uead a 1 sq foot solid block of Ice in my chest then filled it with cool water. It cooled great for about 12 minutes, then the heat was transfered to the water. The Ice block completely melted and the water heated up. In less than 45 minutes, my Ice Chest AC unit was pumping out air that was just as hot as the room air. It is very impracticle. If you can transfer the Heated water away from your room, this would work. For example, get rid of the Ice Chest and Draw your water from a pond or stream that has cool water during hot days. Have the system return the water to the source, then you have successfully removed the heat from your space. This kind of system would work.

I once had a similar situation. First and most importantly you must insulate the garage door. In my case, I was able to use 1/2 inch thick Styrofoam sheets that dramatically cut down on the heat transfer. I then utilized a portable air conditioner that only required a small opening to vent out the hot air. My method cost about $300 but on a 100° day I could cool this garage down to 75°.

I used to have a shop next to an ice plant. It had two big ice machines that ran all day long and expelled about 5 gal a minute of very cold water (about 38 to 42 usually) with all the minerals left over that didn't freeze into ice. I ran it into a igloo cooler and pumped it into the building and through a a/c cooling coil with 4 rows of tubes. It got clogged with scale after a few months and started leaking. I built a cage of stainless tube and ran a 4 tube manifold system that worked pretty well. It wasn't like ac but it was cheap and it got the temp down to 76 some mornings in my 2000 sf shop. As for a cooler full of Ice I don't think it would effectively cool a small closet with a 20 pound bag of ice and a few feet of copper tube. You don't have enough cold (BTUs) and you don't have enough coil to move any cold. The ice will work great for the first few minutes but if you are in a hot place you would do better to put wet rags on your head and arms and keep beer cold as you can in the cooler. I also used to get hundreds of pounds of ice that I would do into my cooler cage and run the fan with that. I have melted tons of ice with a box fan in my days. A cooler full of ice is a few dozen BTUs an hour. The cooling is psychological.

You could also insulate your garage doors with rigid foam sheets. I did this and it brought the garage temp down by about 20 degrees.

Purchased: August 2023 - still works GREAT!I youtube.com/post/UgkxxsUnXhGsSJLim_XnMHyQK0u3XVaW-… live in a studio and during the summer it gets scorching hot - really old building with no ac units. I can’t express how EASY it was to install. This unit has been a life savior during the summer and some days during other seasons where it can still be a bit warm at night. In this small place is my friend, a husky, poodle mix and myself. We need AC - lolI don’t use the dehumidifier option - I’m not sure if it will leak in my house, since I did not install the small draining hose that came with it. May look into it late but I don’t worry about much humidity in the apartment. I don’t understand why the negative reviews since all things mentioned, I personally did not find issues with. Definitely worth it!

Just for the fact that you put some thought and effort into this build I give you a thumbs up young man!

It would have been nice to see the comparison between the before and after on the fan. It will surely be cooler after the fan contraption is built. What I like is you could at the end of the day take the melted water in the cooler and freeze it over night. Moreover, yo might actually be able to bury the cooler somewhere and pump the water from there. The ground typically keeps a natural temp of about 50 degrees. It is a cool project and is meant to keep things cool for a short amoutn of time.. Maybe insulate your garage door as well.

I built one for less than $50 basically the same but used items I had on hand. I used a fish tank pump. The pump was about $11. The most expensive item for me was the copper tubing. Worked great.

Great video! I'd like to know the ambient temp as well. Also how well it works with just water as water has a good heat absorption threshold. Also I'd be curious to know how much energy it uses over all as this is a great build! Thanks for the video! We appreciate you!

I'm in the New Orleans. It gets insanely hot here and humid. I made one of these earlier for about $80. I think I got a smaller pump but perfect for this. It's made for 3 foot fountains. It may be from the humidity but my copper line condensates like crazy. I had to make a hole for it to drip into.

I'm curious the temperature difference with this, would have liked to see that digital thermometer do a before and after

Put some styrofoam insulation in your garage door and this will help reduce the heat transfer into your garage.

we wanna seethe temperature testing after your homemade ac unit runs in the garage

This concept works. I did a similar thing (but not as fancy) with contained ice packs in front of my fan. It definitely does feel cool and adds cooling to the room. What people don't get is that A/Cs cost $ to run compared to fans. The dehumidifier mode of the A/C drops temps like a stone in humidity, though, and it's always good for that cold hit for a few minutes. Still thinking about an A/C. First was my awesome box fan to suck in the cold evening air.

I did this with a smaller cooler. One thing I will say is that you don't need a lot of water. Just enough for the pump to recycle it through. You have to really pack it with ice. Otherwise it will melt really fast and the water going through the tubing will start to get warm. That's the key. PACK IT with plenty of ice.

Great project! At 2:58, my dad would refer to those as "coping saws" rather than hacksaws.

How well did it cool off the garage itself? I know it would feel amazing on a hot day standing right next to it, but if I'm working on the garage in different positions (above the engine, under the engine, under the back of the car etc) it would be kind of a nuisance to move the fan and cooler around. I'd like to do something like this but wall mounted.

This is a great tutorial! I want to make this for next summer. It would be around $50 to $60 now, which is way less than the $200+ used air conditioners and $100+ EVAP coolers I saw this past summer.

You can also connect the high pressure parts of an old fridge to it, just have to find a way to route the hot air from the condenser to the outside.