# Cheap air conditioning



## crafty2002 (Aug 23, 2006)

We had 3 window unit airconditioners this spring. The one in my daughters room went out first. Then the living room went out just after I replaced hers, with a used one of course. That one lasted about two weeks. 
I had an old one in the basement and started taking the fan out of it to cool us down as best I could, when an idea came to me. 
Here I have 4 AC units that the compressors have went out on it. I went to looking through all the copper fittings I have accumulated over the years and had all but 8 - 1/4" fittings I needed. I took the cases off all of them and built a rack and stacked them one above the other against the wall in the living room. 
Before doing that I cut the lines so I could sweat fittings together ( and yes, sorry but I just allowed the gas to excape,, If I take them to the recycleing center they do it too) where water goes in one side of all 8 coils from a single hose pipe and left the coils via hose pipe going to the garden sprinkler system I have set up. 
Now any time I water the garden, which will be whenever it gets too hot in the house, LOL. the water going to the garden runs through the coils and cools the air conciderably. 
It was 82* in the liveing room yesterday at about 6 PM. I started the water to the garden and by 7:15 it was down to 71 in there. 
Thats how much heat it removed from the house. 
There is a 6 foot wide arched opening going into the dining room and my daughters room door was open also, with both coming out of the living room. So it made the whole house cooler. 

The way I made this is like two manifolds. One going to all eight coils on one side and the other going to the other side of all 8 coils. All the compressors were out but the fans still works so with the whole units in the house all the air flow, from the fans is drawn through the coils, which are cooled by the water I am watering the garden with, and then passed into the room. 

I am looking at plumbing it into the house plumbing where any water used in the house, (other than the kitchen sink, where we get drinking water at) will go through the system. Shouln't be hard to do since the kitchen is the first coming off the trunk line. Just cut out a 6" section of pipe after this point, and reroute the water to the coils. 

I just though some of you may be interested in this thingamagig.


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## susieM (Apr 23, 2006)

Please marry me.


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## crafty2002 (Aug 23, 2006)

susieM said:


> Please marry me.


My wife might not like that, and she is the only woman I have ever found that would put up with me, LOL. 
Dennis


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## michiganfarmer (Oct 15, 2005)

crafty2002 said:


> We had 3 window unit airconditioners this spring. The one in my daughters room went out first. Then the living room went out just after I replaced hers, with a used one of course. That one lasted about two weeks.
> I had an old one in the basement and started taking the fan out of it to cool us down as best I could, when an idea came to me.
> Here I have 4 AC units that the compressors have went out on it. I went to looking through all the copper fittings I have accumulated over the years and had all but 8 - 1/4" fittings I needed. I took the cases off all of them and built a rack and stacked them one above the other against the wall in the living room.
> Before doing that I cut the lines so I could sweat fittings together ( and yes, sorry but I just allowed the gas to excape,, If I take them to the recycleing center they do it too) where water goes in one side of all 8 coils from a single hose pipe and left the coils via hose pipe going to the garden sprinkler system I have set up.
> ...


I have seen something similar used. We call it a "pump, and dump"


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## Ross (May 9, 2002)

I've seen a large walk in cooler evaporator used in a similar manner. The warmed water is better for the garden anyhow.


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## SolarGary (Sep 8, 2005)

Hi,

Nice idea.

If you could measure the temperature of your cold water, and measure the temperature of the water going to the lawn, and measure the flow rate, we could figure out how much cooling you are actually getting. 

You can measure the water temps with any old thermometer -- just hold the bulb in the water stream. Use the same thermometer for both measurements. You can measure the flow rate by just timing how long it takes to fill a 5 gallon bucket (the 5 gallons is usually about an inch from the top of the bucket).

The cooling is then:

Qcooling = (Twater out - Twater in)(flow in gpm)(8.3 lb/gal)(60 min/hr) (1 BTU/lb-F) 

So, IF (for example) your flow was 5 gpm, and the water in was 55F and the water out was 75F, then the cooling would be:

(75F - 55F)(5 gpm)(8.3)(60) = 50000 BTU/hr -- pretty darn respectable -- equivalent to about 4 tons of AC.

How about a picture?

Do you get condensation on the lines? 
Maybe you are dehumidifying as well as cooling? An added benefit.


Gary


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## sammyd (Mar 11, 2007)

A swamp cooler....
We put one in where I used to work cuz management was too cheap to buy an A/C for the new break room.
They work pretty good and well water is usually a decent temp for it.

If you pipe it to the whole house, make sure to put bypass valves in so you can shut it down and route the water normally without a big hassle.


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## MELOC (Sep 26, 2005)

i have gravity fed spring water that is usually plentiful. i decided to "hang out" in a shed one summer when my brother lived here at home with his young children (lol...i needed space). anyhow, i used an automobile radiator and a fan behind it and had a constant flow of cool spring water running through the radiator. it worked, but it was damp. the humid air condensed on the radiator coils and even though the moisture came from the room i was in, it felt rather damp whenever i used it. maybe if i had a more air tight room, it would have removed enough of that moisture and eventually dried the air. maybe i am mistaken, but don't systems like this commonly use "air drying technology" (for lack of better informed terminology)?


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## crafty2002 (Aug 23, 2006)

Gary I checked it the first hour and a halve I used it. I didn't post it because it seems no one ever understands what my stupid numbers mean, lol. It worked best then as far as removing heat because it was starting out when it was really hot in the front of the house. The water going in was 61 degrees and coming out it was 84 degrees. But it was only running 2.3 gallons per minute. I guess the tubes are just too small to get it up to 5 gallons a minute. That is what I was hoping for. Plus, I guess the sprinklers restrick the flow also. I just stuck the whole sprinkler head in the bucket to check it so I could get a true reading on it. But this is how I figured it and what I came up with.
2.3 GPM x 8.34 Lbs. per gallon x 60 minutes x 23 BTU's per Lb. of water. 
It came out to be 26,471 BTU's per hour, or 33,706 for the hour and a half I kept an eye on it, which I was quite happy with. I thought it was definitely worth the little bit of money the fittings cost and my time. The compressors as I said was toast already, and all the fans still worked, so why not. Like I said, I already had most of the fittings and they wouldn't have cost that much anyway. 
But with the heat wave we are having now the water temp has gotten a little warmer. 64 degrees. I guess the huge tank it comes from is taking on heat setting in the sun. :shrug: and the water coming out has cooled down to 78*. So now I am only getting on average, 14 BTU's per Lb of water. But that is because it has already took care of the big amount of heat in the front of the house. 
I am cutting the water on for about 1/2 to 1 hour at a time and then going to the garden and changeing which sprinkler is on. 
I have got 8 sprinklers down there set up so I don't have to keep moving them. I have the one hose going down to a Y that has valves in it. Those two hoses goes to another Y with two more hoses. And then they split again so I have the 8 cheap sprinklers ready at a turn of two valves. Just turn one off and another one on. It works great, but I'll tell you, you need a clock. I use the clock on the range. If you don't, you will forget it and leave it running.

MELOC, I have had to raise it up and set it on bricks and make a pan to catch the condensation too. I still have an eight thousand BTU window unit in the kichen that sticks out over the back porch and I have to catch the condensation in a bucket to keep it off the porch. I have to dump the 5 gallon bucket sometimes twice a day so that is up to about 7 or 8 gallons it gets rid of for me but the thing I rigged up still catches about a gallon a day. I guess because the coils aren't nearly as cold as they are on the window unit it just doesn't condensate as much. If we are going in and out the front door much it gets a little worse but we are trying to just use the back door so the air in the front of the house isn't as humid. 

Like a dummy I went to sleep in my chair in the living room last night and forgot to turn the sprinkler off. I woke up about 4 am and it had gotten cold in there, the garden was water logged, and the kitchen ac was frooze up, LOL. :nono: 

Gary, I am good at building things but the only way I can get a picture on here is to get my little "sis" to stop by with her didgital camera and take the pictures and then download them on her computor and then email them to me. And then I have to get my wife to post them for me. 
And she works in an office for Culumbia Flooring and they have her doing 3 girls work and letting her get all the OT she needs to get it all done. Not only is she short on time, but she is short on nerves also. :baby04: I can't blame her because they are driveing her crazy, but my BIL just had his back operated on so he is out of work and she needs the money. 
And she won't let her camera get out of her reach and I don't have the money to play with to buy me one. I could have bought 2 more ac's for what one of them cost. 
Any way, if she goes back on a regular 5-8 I'll post some. I wanted to get some pictures of my garden, the chicken tractor and the chickens, and the compostors I built. But I don't dare ask her now. I like my head right where it is. LOL. 

Gary, how did you come up with the 4 tons. I can't find anyone that can tell me how to figure it out. Everyone just says "Well, it just moves so many tons of cold air but can't tell me how many BTU's a ton is. :shrug: 
Dennis


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## clamjane (Sep 5, 2005)

That's cool, (sorry I couldn't help myself)


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## Country Doc (Oct 26, 2005)

Great idea.


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## farmergirl (Aug 2, 2005)

Anyone know anything about a contraption that would literally pull the hot air out of the house and replace it with outside air? Some kind of air exchanger? It cools down considerably outside after dark, but our MH stays hot until much later in the evening. If there were a way for me to pump out the hot air, that would save us from ever needing the air conditioner!


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## michiganfarmer (Oct 15, 2005)

farmergirl said:


> Anyone know anything about a contraption that would literally pull the hot air out of the house and replace it with outside air? Some kind of air exchanger? It cools down considerably outside after dark, but our MH stays hot until much later in the evening. If there were a way for me to pump out the hot air, that would save us from ever needing the air conditioner!


A dairy barn size exhaust fan installed in a second story wall, or window. THey cost around $500


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## michiganfarmer (Oct 15, 2005)

MELOC said:


> i have gravity fed spring water that is usually plentiful. i decided to "hang out" in a shed one summer when my brother lived here at home with his young children (lol...i needed space). anyhow, i used an automobile radiator and a fan behind it and had a constant flow of cool spring water running through the radiator. it worked, but it was damp. the humid air condensed on the radiator coils and even though the moisture came from the room i was in, it felt rather damp whenever i used it. maybe if i had a more air tight room, it would have removed enough of that moisture and eventually dried the air. maybe i am mistaken, but don't systems like this commonly use "air drying technology" (for lack of better informed terminology)?


I think the "air drying technology" comes from using a cold surface likr you had to pull the moisture from the air, then dispose of the moisture outside of the room, or building.


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## SolarGary (Sep 8, 2005)

Hi Dennis,

Thanks for taking the measurements.

Still pretty good cooling even with the higher temps considering its free 
It interesting that you were able to get the water all the way up to 84F -- your are getting most of the "coolth" out of it.

The ton of AC is 12000 BTU/hr. I think this goes back to the days when cooling was based on ice. If you melt a ton of ice you get 288000 btu of cooling, and if you divide that by 24 hours in a day you get the 12000 BTU -- still not to clear to me how this was derived -- maybe Ross or someone else knows the history?

Gary


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## Sher (May 10, 2002)

This is really interesting! Sounds like a couple of hog confinements I worked in. I never paid a whole lot of attention to them..just knew I loved being in the buildings they were in. They were like a water trickle system. One end of the building almost looked like a radiator. Water trickled down over the radiator looking stuff..and fans were blowing the cooled air from one end to the other. It really worked great. LOL..anyone know what I'm talking about?


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## MELOC (Sep 26, 2005)

that is a swamp cooler.


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## pixelphotograph (Apr 8, 2007)

we have simply watered the house when it got tooooo hot.
I would put a sprinkler on the roof and turn it on and let it go the water pulls some of the heat off the roof and out of the attic and cools things off quite a bit.
I will also take a hose sprayer and spray the south facing brick wall to cool it off as well.
It does make a difference.


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## crafty2002 (Aug 23, 2006)

Thanks Gary. I have asked more people than I have fingers and toes, THAT INSTALLS heat and air, and no one could answer that for me. 
The trick to get the water that warm is to have the out going water as close to the ceiling as it can be. That way the hotest air going through the system is hitting it and the coldest water is catching the air after it has already been cooled somewhat. 
Ultimately, with the money and time to fool with it, and a large enough coil, the water should leave the unit nearly as hot as the air on the ceiling is and the air coming from the unit should be nearly as cool as the water going into the coil, but I'm just a po boy, lol. 
I tried to talk to the man that owned Dan River Mills a few years ago about building some units for the mill, but like I said. I just a po boy. Stupid A double s. I had figured it could have saved him between 30 and 60 million a year on AC cost, but noooooo. I'm just a dum welder.  
The lay of the land where the mill "WAS AT" ( It's bankrupt, and sold to some country across the water now and they are tearing it down and selling the wood and brick from it) but it was about 200 feet difference in the elevation, from the front of the land to the back. He could have drilled 30 wells at the top and 30 at the rear, and had the water sypon (spelling??) through the pipe, coils, and even a small turbine to turn the fans for free colling power once it was running. 
I worked putting up the ac ducts in the weave rooms. I carried a 120 degree thermometer up on a lift and it busted in about 15 minutes. Just popped the bulb it was so hot up there. So I bought a 130 degree thermometer about a week later, and it also busted.
Just think about it for a second. The whole weave room had 15 to 30 HP motors making heat 24/7's. You know what I am talking about. Heat. A Bunch of Heat. 18 foot cielings so the weavers and fixers and doffers could stand it on the floor. 
What is the average well water temp.? 56* ? 
130* + - 56 = better than 70 BTU's per LB of water. 
My idea was to drill the wells 200' apart. One at the top of the hill and one at the bottom of the hill. The water would just free flow to the one in the bottom after the pipe was full. Graveity would have ran the whole system. 
I grew up drilling wells and I know this area. We could have got 20 gallons a minute from each well. 
Please forgive. Here I go with my math again.
20 GPM X 8.34 x 60 Min., X 70 BTU's = 700,560 BTU's per hour. 
The mill was running 24/7's for an average of 49 weeks per year so you can only wonder if the jerk had of listened to me, if the mill would still be running or not. 
That is 16 million 813 thousand BTU's in a day he was paying to get rid of that two wells would have done for free and it was up and running. :shrug: 
He spent 140 million dollars (according to what was in the papers) putting in AC units so the fine machines he bought would run the cloth. 
What can I say. :shrug: I really believe if he has of met with me and listened to me, the mill would still be running today. It would have been enough saveings to make up for the labor cost. :shrug: And then again, I could be wrong. 


That's a great idea too pixel. I know my attic gets so hot you don't want to go up there. Most attics do. I used to work as an electrician on and off, and the Good Lord knows I hated attic work. I did all of that I could at night, well after the sun went down, when the owners would agree to it. I would give them a price for the job and give them a cut on it if I could work at night. 
You can't stay up there long when the sun is beating the roof. 
I could do an all day job in two hours at night. 

Well, my back has eased off. I'm going back to bed. 
Dennis.


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## Dahc (Feb 14, 2006)

farmergirl said:


> Anyone know anything about a contraption that would literally pull the hot air out of the house and replace it with outside air? Some kind of air exchanger? It cools down considerably outside after dark, but our MH stays hot until much later in the evening. If there were a way for me to pump out the hot air, that would save us from ever needing the air conditioner!


I live in a mobile home also and have the same problem. I have central H/A so I just turn the fan on and open a window. The ac fan sucks a great deal of fresh air into the house. We incubate eggs and sometimes there are "smells" that come with the territory. If we have a "smell", we can normally completely remove it in less than an hour with the ac fan (no ac running, just the fan). I think our unit is either 2.5 ton or 3 ton so if you don't have central H/A, thats the size fan you would want, placed in a window on the coolest side of the house pointing in and then open a window somewhere else in the house. It could be opposite too. Point it outwards on the hottest side and open a window on the coolest side..


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## Dahc (Feb 14, 2006)

Crafty, now you got me looking for old AC parts. Shame on you.

You have outdone yourself though. My hat is off to you for building your own system. You should still try and get pics for us do-nothing wannabe's though. lol.


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

i am planning on putting in a hole house attic fan my dad put one in his garage moves a lot of air taking the hot from the cieling pushing it into the attic and cooling that to witch leads to less radiant heat from the attic warming the house back up


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## MELOC (Sep 26, 2005)

crafty, that reminds me of a discussion i had with the logger 1/4 of a mile down the street. he chips poor quality trees and limbs and makes mulch. he has about an acre of huge piles of mulch steaming away throughout the winter. i gently suggested that i plan to build a small compost water heater someday and that his piles of mulch produce enough heat to heat the entire neighborhood, or at least his mill buildings. all he would have to do is install pipes under the piles and circulate the water. obviously he couldn't coil pipe through the piles, but he could capture a fraction of the massive amount of heat just at the bottom of the piles of mulch and easily heat his facility. will it ever happen? not a chance, lol. that little bit of pipe might cost him a thousand bucks!


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## crafty2002 (Aug 23, 2006)

Dahc said:


> Crafty, now you got me looking for old AC parts. Shame on you.
> 
> You have outdone yourself though. My hat is off to you for building your own system. You should still try and get pics for us do-nothing wannabe's though. lol.


Hey, don't fool with ac parts. You can probably pick up some old ac's that don't work, because the compressor is out on them for free. Most of the time the fans still work and the coils are fine for water. Even if it was leaking freon more than likely it wont leak water because of the big difference in the pressure. Ant that's all you need. The fans are already positioned according to the coils so all you need to do is cut into the lines going and coming from the compressor. Just take the compressor out and junk it. That way is isn't nearly as heavey for the rack you build. 
And I am always out doing myself, LOL. I had a wore out tire on my wore out riding mower, ( actually it is still a pretty good mower. Just old and the rear tires have dry rotted) The tires for it around here are $53 + each, and I really wanted tractor lugged tires for it anyway, and they were over a hundred each, but I ran across ATV AG tires for $24.95 each at Surplus Center. I have done worked about 9 or 10 hours grinding the hubs loose from the old wheels and have them tack welded to the new 4 bolt wheels now. I can't weld to much at a time because the tires are already mounted, but I will have them On the mower before the wife leaves for work at a quarter after 6 which is just a little over 3 hours from now. OK, I know. Breaks over, LOL. 
I'm gone.
Dennis


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## crafty2002 (Aug 23, 2006)

MELOC said:


> crafty, that reminds me of a discussion i had with the logger 1/4 of a mile down the street. he chips poor quality trees and limbs and makes mulch. he has about an acre of huge piles of mulch steaming away throughout the winter. i gently suggested that i plan to build a small compost water heater someday and that his piles of mulch produce enough heat to heat the entire neighborhood, or at least his mill buildings. all he would have to do is install pipes under the piles and circulate the water. obviously he couldn't coil pipe through the piles, but he could capture a fraction of the massive amount of heat just at the bottom of the piles of mulch and easily heat his facility. will it ever happen? not a chance, lol. that little bit of pipe might cost him a thousand bucks!


I know what you are saying. You may as well talk to a brick wall as talk to some people. If you have enough room on your land, maybe you might should think about building the unit for yourself and just let him store some of his compost on a corner of your land. I have no idea how much land it would take, ( I'm dum as a door knob on this one) but it may be worth your time. 
Like the man said. A penny saved is a penny earned. 
I got to get back to work but I will PM you later this morning. If I get the time. I swear, I work more now trying to make ends meet than I did before I became disabled. Lord I wish I could go back to work on a regular job again. 
Latter
Dennis


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## Windy in Kansas (Jun 16, 2002)

farmergirl said:


> Anyone know anything about a contraption that would literally pull the hot air out of the house and replace it with outside air? Some kind of air exchanger? It cools down considerably outside after dark, but our MH stays hot until much later in the evening. If there were a way for me to pump out the hot air, that would save us from ever needing the air conditioner!


A link is too long to post so use this URL and then search for "whole house attic fan".
http://www.homedepot.com

It is best to get a belt driven fan as it runs at slower speed than a fan mounted directly on the driving motor.

Get the largest one rather than one rated for your size of home.

For best use open windows in the far points of the house just two inches and pull the hot stale air from all directions into the attic fan. It is basically a huge exhaust fan. For the most part I pull in outside air from the north side of my house only as the north side is cooler than elsewhere, hence cooler incoming air.

During rains I have to shut my fan off or it pulls rain in through the windows. I have thought about building a box to place over at least one window with an open bottom to pull air through during such time so that rain can't come in with it. Slanted fixed shutters on a window might also work to keep rain out.


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## wy_white_wolf (Oct 14, 2004)

Windy in Kansas said:


> ...During rains I have to shut my fan off or it pulls rain in through the windows. ...


If you have double hung windows, you can open the top window instead of the bottom. Being higher they are usually procted by your eaves from having rain come in.


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## artificer (Feb 26, 2007)

farmergirl said:


> Anyone know anything about a contraption that would literally pull the hot air out of the house and replace it with outside air? Some kind of air exchanger? It cools down considerably outside after dark, but our MH stays hot until much later in the evening. If there were a way for me to pump out the hot air, that would save us from ever needing the air conditioner!


I picked up a used squirrel cage fan from a household furnace, and placed it in an upstairs window. Ugly as sin, but it pulls air all the way from the opposite end of the first floor. Just make sure its sealed tight to the window opening, so it will suck the air from the rest of the house, not just around the window.

A little window fan would take hours or all night to cool the bedroom. 15-20 min. with this thing, and the rooms as cool as the outdoors.

Best part... it was free. A more attractive alternative is a whole house fan.

Michael


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## SolarGary (Sep 8, 2005)

farmergirl said:


> Anyone know anything about a contraption that would literally pull the hot air out of the house and replace it with outside air? Some kind of air exchanger? It cools down considerably outside after dark, but our MH stays hot until much later in the evening. If there were a way for me to pump out the hot air, that would save us from ever needing the air conditioner!


Hi,
As others have mentioned, you are probably thinking of a whole house fan. We have had one in our last two houses, and they work really well as long as it cools off at night. You can start running them in the evening as soon as the outside temp gets to right around inside temp -- the breeze they create makes it feel cooler even if the outside temperature is not any lower than inside. As it continues to get cooler outside, the house will cool off fast with the fan on.
When we know that the next day is going to be hot, we run the fan 2 or 3 hours starting very early in the morning. This cools the thermal mass of the house down to the coldest air temperature of the day, which slows the rate at which the house heats up during the day. They do not use a lot of power.

Whole house fans should move a lot of air. They recommend that the fan be able to change the whole house about every two minutes. If you have a 1000 sqft house, this works out to about 4000 cfm fan. Two speeds are really nice to have.

As mentioned, you control the airflow by opening windows where you want airflow. I'm not sure about opening the windows 2 inches mentioned above -- we open them all the way 

More stuff here:
http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/Cooling/passive_cooling.htm#Active

Gary


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## greg273 (Aug 5, 2003)

I'm working on a new idea for cheap air conditioning.... basically a radiator with a box fan behind it, and about 60feet of the black plastic water line (1"?), I would bury most of the line in the crawlspace, thereby putting all that surface area of the pipe in contact with the ground. (fortunately, I have a space next to the 1000 gallon cistern that is all soft fill dirt, and would be easy to re-excavate for this. And yes, I thought about using the cistern as the 'heat sink', but I dont want to warm up that water any more than ground temp). After filling the radiator and pipe with water, i would plumb in a small DC powered pump to circulate the water, and then the fan would blow air through the radiator.
Just an idea at this point, but it would seem I could cool off at least the bedroom pretty inexpensively, at least for a few hours at a time. (giving the earth time to 'recharge'...)


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## michelleIL (Aug 29, 2004)

would a whole house fan be effective on a mobile home too?
I have a little exhaust fan over my stove that i run with that in mind.
michelle


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## SolarGary (Sep 8, 2005)

Hi,
As long as you are in a climate where it cools off at night, I don't see why a whole house fan would not work for a mobile home. 
I think that your exhaust fan is probably too small to work well as a whole house fan. A whole house fan should be sized to change all the air every 2 or 4 minutes, so for a 800 sqft home, this would mean around a 2500 cfm fan.
I would guess the exhaust fan is more like 200 or 300 cfm.

Most whole house fans are mounted in the ceiling and exhaust air through the attic, but there is no reason it could not be in the sidewall or window. A high capacity window fan might work fine. Be sure that there is a good way to seal the fan opening well in the winter, or it will be a big heat loss.

Two speeds are really nice.

http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/Cooling/passive_cooling.htm#Active

Gary


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## crafty2002 (Aug 23, 2006)

OK. Talking about the whole house fan, my daughter and son both came up from Fla., last weekend and we had a BBQ and went swiming in thier above ground pool. It was in the 90's. Debra and Howard had one of the fans you are talking about put in the ceiling in the hall and I didn't know about it. I thought we had a tornado coming the first time I tried to open the back door. It opens outward because of the way the house is built with the stairwell straight in front of it, but the fan sucks so much air it is hard to pull the door open. 
They open the windows on which ever side the sun isn't on and closes them on the side where it is. At night they keep them all open and I thought to start with that thier AC just wasn't doing a great job. I don't guess so. They didn't have it on. Nothing but the fan and I am sure everyone knows how a human body creates heat. There were probably 30 or more people there and I am not saying it felt cool, but it was liveable, and it was well into the 90's. 
Howard went out and sprayed the brick wall down on the back of the house and you could feel the difference in the temp. really fast. I guess the brick had soaked up the heat from the sun and was heating the air coming into the windows. 
This is the first time I have ever been in a home cooled by one, and while I do like the AC, it did, as I said, make it liveable. It was sorta like the AC just wasn't quite getting the job done. Not really that big a difference. Maybe 5 to 10 degrees at most over an ac. 
I think my house is a bit cooler, but the air movement helped at her house. 
But I see they do work.


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## crafty2002 (Aug 23, 2006)

I need to add a couple of things to my idea. 
Make dang sure that a couple of cats playing on top of it won't turn the whole thing over. 
It fell, and threw old AC's aross the living room and sprayed water all over the place today.
The weather on the computor said it was 98* but the thermometer on the porch said 102* just before I heard it hit the floor. Table. Couch and everything else in it's way. 
I don't really know how it got turned over but both cats ran for thier lives. That's all I can figure. They liked to climb up on it so I set a couple of boards on it so they could jump up..  :shrug: 
The computor says 91 now and we are cooking. Talking about our bodys. Not food. I only have one ac in the kitchen and it isn't doing much at all. 
Atleast it stayed pretty liveable while it worked. Only cost was the juice for the fans and the water I was already using for the garden. OK, I did drown my garden the last few days but the plants look better. 
I don't even want to see the water bill, but the ac bill would probably been a lot worse. 
Now we can't set on the couch or chairs because they are soaking wet. 
How do they say it?? Good try, but no cigar!!!!
But it does work, If it will stay put.
Talk about feeling like an idiot!!! I am getting real good at it lately.
Does any body else do any dum things like this thinking they are getting ahead??????

Dum Dum Dennis 

P.S. I did give the chickens some ice water.


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## greg273 (Aug 5, 2003)

Think of it as a learning process! Life, that is...


I've been revisiting the idea of the homemade geothermal loop, basically a few hundred feet of 1" water pipe buried, plumbed into a small pump, and running into the house where the coolness of the earth is extracted using a simple box fan and radiator. 
Anyone know the the math for the BTU capacity of earth and water? And how much water fits in a length of pipe?


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## crafty2002 (Aug 23, 2006)

greg273 said:


> Think of it as a learning process! Life, that is...
> 
> 
> I've been revisiting the idea of the homemade geothermal loop, basically a few hundred feet of 1" water pipe buried, plumbed into a small pump, and running into the house where the coolness of the earth is extracted using a simple box fan and radiator.
> Anyone know the the math for the BTU capacity of earth and water? And how much water fits in a length of pipe?



Greg I will try to look up the amount of water say a 1" pipe holds per feet. 
A for the btu's, one BTU is the amount of energy it takes to change one lb. of water one degree. 
A gallon of fresh water weighes 8.34 lbs.
AC BTU's are figured by the hour.
Say you were moving 5 gallons a minute that would be 41.7 lbs a minute x 60 = 2,502 lbs per hour. That is how many btu's you would get for every degree you changed the water from the time it entered your radiator until it left it. 
If it changes 5* it would be removing 12,510 btu's of heat per hour. 

I would expect it would take a lot more than just a few hundred feet for it to work, and as I found out after my contraption fell, the 4 ac's worked pretty good but two of them were tore up in the fall and the two I put back together just isn't getting it done. I had to break down and buy another window unit. These dog days of august are making me feel like a dog, LOL.

Good luck.
Dennis


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## MELOC (Sep 26, 2005)

what did i read recently? something like..."some folks learn from reading in books, some folks learn by doing and some of us actually have to pee on the electric fence.".


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## WayneR (Mar 26, 2007)

A lot of window A/C's get thrown away because the thermostatic switch goes bad on them. 

If you're comfortable around electricity, unplug the unit from the wall.
Take the unit apart to reach the thermostat. Connect the two wires from the 'stat together. Make sure all other wiring is insulated. Plug it in .The compressor should start immediately, if good. Get a new thermostat switch(cheaper than a new A/C) if needed. This fix does NOT apply to the new digital units. 

The other thing that usually gets window units tossed is dirt! A good cleaning every couple years improves efficiency and will prevent water from being thrown into the house. DO NOT drill holes to drain this water off. It helps cool the outside coils, hence the unit works better.

Oil the blower/fan motor while you have it apart, if you can. Some motors are 
sealed and won't let you.


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