DIY Air Conditioner

Over a year ago I was introduced to the concept of building your own air conditioner by a friend of mine. Since then, I've wanted to make it for those few, but very miserable Seattle summer nights when it doesn't cool off. Finally, I was able to purchase the parts and piece it together.

It was recommended that I post the instructions on how I did it, so that's what I'm doing. Before I begin, I have to give credit to two other sites that I based my construction on:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Hollis-homemade-AC/
http://www.instructables.com/id/Homemade-air-conditioner/

Ok, now on to the instructions...

Materials

- Fan (I chose to use a box fan, but you can use any fan)
- Styrofoam cooler (you can use plastic, by stryofoam is easier)
- Copper Tubing (1/4" outer diameter, 20' long)
- Clear Vinyl Tubing (3/8" outer diameter, 1/4" inner diameter) (I only used 1', but couldn't buy it in anything smaller than 20')
- Tube/hose clamps (1/4" - 5/8" clamping range)- Small Fountain Pump (mine is 130 gallons per hour)
- Tape Measure
- Box Cutter
- Zip ties
- Screw Driver (philips & flat head)
- Sharpie

The Fan


1. Take your copper tubing and begin to uncoil it on your fan. Leave a length of tubing descending below the bottom of the fan (this will go into the cooler through the lid). The exact length to leave below your fan will depend on the cooler you purchase.

2. Take your zip ties and fasten the copper tubing to the grill of the fan to hold the tubing in place. 

Note: the copper tubing is fairly ridged and will hold it's shape relatively well, but it can also bend easily, so be careful not to put any kinks in the tubing or water won't flow through it!

3. Continue to coil the copper tubing around the outside of the fan, fastening with zip ties as you go. Again, be careful as you bend the tubing so as not to kink it and slow/prevent water flow.

Tip: before deciding where to place your tubing, turn on the fan and feel where the air blows through and where there are "dead spots" with now air blowing. Only place the tubing over areas that has air blowing over it! I didn't think about this until after I attached all my tubing...

4. Continue to wrap the tubing around the front of the fan, attaching with zip ties as you go, coiling inward towards the center of the fan. (I feel kinda' silly mentioning this step, as it seems pretty intuitive)

5. As you get closer to the center, you might find it easier to coil the remaining copper tubing upward. Otherwise the tubing gets caught on itself as you continue inwards!

6. Once you get to the center, you'll reach a point where you can't really coil the tubing any further without risking kinking it (it'll also be in an area where no air blows).

Once you reach this part, take the remaining tubing and bend it downward past the bottom of the fan to mirror the start of the tube.

7. I left a gap between the originally coiled copper tubing and the last bit of tubing running to the bottom of the fan. While this probably doesn't make a huge difference, I made sure the tubing didn't touch so heat does't get transferred between the different parts of the tubing (copper is a good conductor of heat, so if they don't touch, they won't conduct).

8. Now cut the extra ends of the zip ties off so they aren't sticking out. I recommend pushing the ends down into the fan (left) and not pointing out away from the fan (right) to prevent getting scratched/cut on the ends of the remaining zip ties.

9. Next, use sand paper to dull down the edges of the copper tubing (the tubing I purchased came with pastic caps on the ends that I left on until after coiling. You could also do the sanding before coiling). Because I was doing this in my family room on carpet, I sanded over a phone book (I didn't have any newspaper).

Measuring 
May I recommend that you have another person with you while you do the rest of this? I did it by myself, but it would have been MUCH easier with 2 extra hands!

10. Measure the width of your fan and the width of your cooler lid. I'm visual, so I had to draw myself a diagram. The fan was 21" wide and my lid was only 17" wide. This means when I measured the location of the tubes coming off the bottom of the fan, I had to take that extra 2" per side into account.

11. On the right side of the fan, the copper tube is about 5 1/4".

12. Now I place the tape measure up to the lid of the cooler, being sure to line up the right side of the lid with the 2" mark to account for the wider fan, then I used a sharpie to make a dot on the lid where the copper tube should be.

13. Repeat the same process for the left side of the fan/lid. (Had I been thinking in the beginning, I would have centered the tubes in the lid as I coiled the tubing on the fan. I didn't, and it's not super important)

14. I did one additional measurement for the depth of the fan, since the fan has to sit on top of the lid and the tubes come out the front of the fan. I then took that measurement and wrote an additional dot on the lid for the exact location of the tube (the X to the right in the picture).

15. Now use a philips head screwdriver to poke a hole into the lid of the styrofoam cooler in the positions you made your final marks (if you are using a plastic cooler, you'll have to use a drill or something).

16. Take the lid and pass the copper tubes through the holes you made. If you measured correctly, it should fit (because the copper is flexible, there is some give in the tubing to fit even if your measurements aren't exact). I took the extra tubing and looped it around so it wouldn't run into the bottom of the ice chest. You could also cut it off with a hacksaw or something.

The Pump

17. Take the pump and place it in the cooler with the electrical cable draping over one side.

18. Use a box cutter to cut a notch in the side of the cooler so the lid will sit flat on the top of the cooler.

19. Next, figure out how much vinyl tubing you will need to get from the pump at the bottom of the cooler to the copper tubing coming from the fan. Measure how far from the top of the cooler (the place on the lid that comes in contact w/ the cooler top) to the bottom of the tubing. Then measure the distance from the top of the pump connector to the top of the cooler. The difference should be the length of tuber you need. I drew another amazing (not at all to scale) diagram to help me figure out how much tubing I would need. Note: you only need to attach one end of the tubing to the pump. The other end will simply let the water back into the cooler.

 20. I added an additional 6" to the 4" I needed to help give some flexibility in the cooler and hopefully to prevent the tubing from knocking the pump over. Use your tape measure and mark on the tubing with a sharpie where to cut.

21. Use a box cutter to cut the vinyl tubing at the mark.

22. Take one end of the vinyl tubing and place it over the copper tube coming out of the bottom of the fan (through the lid). Take one of the tube clamps and place it over both tubes. This will seal the connection between the two tubes and prevent water from leaking at this junction. Use a flathead screwdriver to tighten the clamp around the two tubes.

23. Then take the other end of the vinyl tube and attach it to your pump. Each pump is different. Mine came with a connector that just barely lets the vinyl tube fit around it. The connection was tight enough that I didn't think an additional tube clamp was necessary. Depending on your pump connection, you might want an additional tube clamp at this junction as well.

Putting it All Together

24. Fill the cooler with cold water; the colder the better job your AC will do of cooling the room! Be sure to leave room in the cooler for the displaced water when you add the pump and ice. You don't want water overflowing out of your cooler!

25. I freeze ziploc bags with water in them so I can reuse them after they're melted. You can also use old water bottles as well. You could even use those "blue ice" containers used in lunch boxes and coolers. Its up to you, but I figure it's easier to have something you can re-use (and it uses less water that way!).

26. Now put the pump into the cooler with the lid and fan and...Viola! You've got yourself an air conditioner! (this is really hard to do yourself, so get someone to help you if you can)

I have not had a chance to really test mine yet, but it looks cool, right? :)

The Science


For those of you who are interested, here's the basics behind why this should work. As I mentioned before, copper is a good conductor. Usually people think about electricity when talking about conductors (or trains or orchestras...but now I'm really off track), but heat (thermal energy) is also conducted between objects when they touch each other. For some visuals, check out this page.

Anyway, copper is a good conductor, which means it can transfer thermal energy (heat) pretty well and quickly. So in essence, when we're pumping the cold water through the copper tube, we're using the copper's conductivity to transfer heat FROM the air and INTO the water (via the copper). We're pulling heat out of the air!

That's great, but what about the fan? Well, the fan adds another type of thermal energy transfer: convection. Convection is transferring thermal energy (heat) by moving some sort of fluid, in this case, air. By moving the air across the copper tubing, we are allowing more air to come in contact with the copper, thus also allowing more heat to be pulled from the air as a whole. Convection is the same thing that makes you feel colder when its windy than when it's not (most of the time), as well as one of the reasons we sweat to cool off.

Basically, the fan forces convection, which allows more air to conduct it's heat into the copper tubing and into the water, therefore cooling the air and making it much more comfortable to sleep at night! : )

Disclaimer: I am over simplifying the science behind how this DIY: AC works. The whole process is more complicated and involves more things, but this is enough to understand the basics.

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Ending & Beginning

Ok, so I've really done a lousy job keeping up with this blog. I'll admit it. My attention's been divided too, so that's partially to blame. During the season, I blog weekly on my LOST blog, so at least I'm going something. For now, though, I'm going to give a brief update on the end of the school year and what this summer has in store for me.

This last school year was lame. I was talking about it to a friend at lunch today and no, it wasn't as bad as my 1st half year when I took over mid-year, but it was definitely not good. Granted, it wasn't horrible, but I wasn't really enjoying myself all that much, had WAY too much work to do, and felt like I was battling the students nearly all year, which I really hate. This last week (Friday was the last day of the year) ended just about how the year started: I was frustrated, over committed, discouraged, and not really wanting to be a teacher.

Amidst all this, God has confirmed that I'm exactly where He wants me to be, so at least I know that, hard though it may be. I don't know for sure why I'm supposed to be at KiJH, but I know I am and that's going to have to be enough.

And with that ending, its now on to a new beginning: summer & youth ministry! I hit the ground running yesterday with a morning/early afternoon meeting for my trip to Slovenia and then a senior/freshman overnight at the house of one of the senior guys. Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep last night. Tomorrow holds a meeting w/ one of the other leaders for the Slovenia trip to try and get some last minute details pounded out, then I need to run some errands and start packing 'cause I leave on Tuesday!

If you're interested, I'm the officiall team blogger and will be blogging as often as is practical while in Slovenia at: http://slovenia2009.blogspot.com, so feel free to follow along with my trip via that blog (I know, yet another blog I update more often than this one).

I return from Slovenia on July 7th, am home for a week, then leave for high school camp, home for another week, then off for a high school mission camp w/ the junior high students, then its August and I head back to work a week or 2 later. That's summer. Somewhere in there I'm going to try to have a Star Wars Party and a LOST party, but we'll see how those go.

That's about all for now. Hope you all (whoever still actually reads this thing) are doing well!

Goodbye WASL!

Ok, I know its been 2 months since I last updated, but I thought it might be interesting for you to read about the new replacement(s) for the WASL, if you're interested.

http://www.k12.wa.us/WCAP/default.aspx

Also, as LOST starts up again tonight, I will be blogging again tonight on my LOST blog, The LOST Book Club.

Enjoy!

Avoidance Master!

I have gotten lots of things done this Thanksgiving weekend! It actually suprises me a bit, as I'm not usually that good at making myself do things, like balance my checkbook (it's been staking up over the last 3 months). However, I did it. And this morning I've taken the trash out, RSVPed for a wedding, gone through mail I've been avoiding for weeks, continued to run laundry (including the ever dreaded folding).

You may be thinking, "Wow, you're very focused and dedicated!" You'd be wrong, however. I am, in fact, avoiding the thing I need to do most: grade papers. I hate doing it so much that I'm willing to do all these other things instead of actually doing the grading. I'm really good at finding these things to prevent me from actually starting my grading.

For example, I was just over at my file box that has all the papers I need to grade in it. I had just opened it for the first time this weekend when I was hit with the idea for this blog entry, hence the entry in the blog I very rarely update.

The next avoidance thing I can see coming is food. Its now 12:30 an I'm getting hungry. I obviously can't grade on an empty stomach, so I might as well make something and eat first, then I'll get to the grading.

I think grading is in my top 2 things I hate most about teaching. The other being classroom management (having to deal w/ jerk students).

I suppose the good thing coming out of all this is that I'm actually getting stuff done around home that I usually put off. So at least I'm not just avoiding by sitting and watching movies/TV, I'm actually getting something accomplished, even if its not the work that needs to be done.

Ok, enough of this avoidance method. I want a Wii.

Why Not to Play with Handcuffs

Funny story. We had an overnight for the junior guys at church Friday night. We did X-Bowling then crashed at Paul's place. Late night, little sleep, the usual (Side Note: hardwood floors are just that - hard!).

Some of the guys there are a part of Paul's C-Group (small group, discipleship group, whatever you want to call it), and they goof around alot. One of the things they like to do is use Paul's 2 pair of handcuffs to handcuff each other to things/people. This event was taking place late this morning and was about to come to an end when an unexpected twist occured.

I had the key and was trying to unlock Paul's wrist, which was cuffed to another guy's wrist, when one of the other students came at me with the other pair of cuffs. I instinctively recoiled, protecting myself from being cuffed. However, since I was the one holding the key at the time, this was not a good move. While pulling my arms in to myself, somehow the key snapped off inside the cuff I was trying to unlock, and while it would make sense that if Paul has 2 cuffs he would have 2 keys, that just isn't the case.

And let me now just say, these are real police-grade handcuffs. I don't fully understand how Paul got them, but trust me when I say theses we're the toy cuffs you might have played with as a child. No, without the now broken key, there was no getting them off.

This left Paul and Eliot (the other student) cuffed together and no way of fixing the problem. I really felt like I was in an episode of I Love Lucy or something.

So from there, Paul decides that we need to head up to Snohomish where his roommate works at an autobody shop. This was also an adventure, as he proced to cut the cuffs off (which is really not easy at all).

I'll spare you the details, but we were there for 1.5 - 2 hours to get the cuffs off both Paul and Eliot, and it was quite involved. Eliot may have a scar from the heat from the saw to cut it off. Cool, huh?

Yes, this was my Saturday. Not quite what I planned, but interresting none the less. Let that be a lesson to you: don't goof around when trying to unlock handcuffs, unless you want to stay in them for good.

Hi Ho

Its back to work I go! The busy summer has finished and I was back at work (for the first time since school was out) yesterday. In good Ryan fasion, I didn't leave until about 7:15pm. Ah, back in the swing of things.

I'm not fully back to the regular busy schedule yet, thankfully, but I am working all week this week. Today I'm headed to a tech training in the morning, then helping with a web training in the afternoon. The rest of the week consists of science and web trainings, as well as some collaboration w/ teammates at school.

Just to wrap up summer stuff, JH Ranch was amazing. Last year was really rough for us as a staff, and God blessed us this year with a super trip. The Holy Spirit was working in the lives of students and staff alike this past week, and some great things happened within the junior class (which I focus on). We'll see how much lasts after the high from camp wears off, but I'm hopefull.

With that, this Friday we're doing a junior guys bolwing night & sleepover which should be fun. The sad thing is it'll probably be the last social event I do for at least a month, as the start of school is rapidly approaching. Chances are good that this will be my last post for a while; its back to the norm.