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."

Comments

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.

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:Its going to be hot soon

[Kujila]

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

And you can place it...

[peter_gzowski]

...right next to your webserver.

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!

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".

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: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: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:Air Conditioning for $1500/month

[Anonymous Coward]

You misspelled Texas

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...

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:Canada

[caferace]

We make snow at 28 degrees all the time.

Where did you say you were from again?

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!

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: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.