In the article we will talk about how to make an air conditioner with your own hands for your home or car. It is worth noting that home-made appliances can be an alternative to any modern split systems. With the help of appliances that create a comfortable microclimate in the house, you can save a lot of money. Split systems are expensive and difficult to install.
And so many home and car owners come up with a variety of installations that can cool the air in the room. In the article we will consider all design options that are most suitable for use. They can be used in both homes and cars. In order to understand how difficult the task of making a homemade air conditioner is, you need to consider the principle of its operation. You will also have to identify the advantages and disadvantages of designs that are available for repetition.
Is air conditioning easy
And now let's decide whether it's easy to dohome air conditioner by yourself. In order to maintain the temperature in the room at a certain level, it is necessary to carefully regulate the pressure of the refrigerant in the split system. For this, an electronic control unit is installed, which receives signals from various sensors. It is worth noting that the car air conditioner works in the same way. In it, the evaporator is installed in the interior heating system, and the condenser is mounted near the radiator, which is necessary for the normal operation of the engine cooling.
As you can imagine, making a homemade air conditioner of this design at home is quite difficult. As for the installation in cars, it is even more difficult to do. Of course, if you have the skills to work with refrigeration equipment, all manipulations can be carried out quite quickly and you can independently install the air conditioner in a car or house. There are many designs that anyone can repeat with minimal skills and using standard tools.
The design of the simplest air conditioner
This is a very simple design, in which a cold source must be installed inside a closed box. Consider how to make an air conditioner at home. An axial fan must be installed in one side wall of the box. On the reverse side, opposite the fan, it is necessary to make a hole through which the cooled air will exit. And now about what you can make this type of air conditioner from:
- Oldcar refrigerators with walls insulated with foam or foam plastic.
- Boxes made of plastic or cardboard.
- Plastic cans.
- Bottles of 5 liters or more.
You can use any small fans to supply air inside the box. Coolers that are used in computer technology are ideal.
Such a small air conditioner can be useful for cooling the car interior. It is only necessary to connect the cooler correctly so that the blades rotate in the right direction. It is also recommended to use special ice makers that can keep cool for a long time.
Pros and cons of design
This design has both disadvantages and advantages. First, among the advantages, one can single out the fact that the design is very simple. Secondly, it can be made from any materials, so the cost will be extremely low. Thirdly, such an air conditioner can really cool a small space. But there are also disadvantages that outweigh all the pros:
- At a very high temperature, no amount of ice is enough for the normal operation of such an air conditioner. If you plan to cool one room, the one where the ice is made will be warmed up due to the operation of the refrigerators. Consequently, the consumption of electrical energy will increase.
- If you use the unit in the car, then its operation time will depend on how much ice youtook with them.
- The downside is that the air will be humidified as it passes through the ice. In other words, after a certain period of time, the air in the room will be oversaturated with moisture, which will make it much worse than the heat.
Of course, if you use cold accumulators, the air will not be humidified.
Assembling the structure
Now let's look at how to make a homemade air conditioner for your home or car. In order to make a design, you will need to perform simple manipulations:
- Find a container that closes as tightly as possible. It is necessary to cut a hole in one wall on the side, which will correspond to the diameter of the fan.
- Then you need to screw the cooler to the case with self-tapping screws.
- Now make another hole, it should be opposite the first one. It is recommended to use a small piece of pipe for greater convenience.
- Many users of such devices claim that it is most convenient to use sealed boxes, the lid of which can be easily removed. Ideal food containers. It is very convenient to load ice or cold accumulators in them.
- And now you need to install the air conditioner and connect it to the power source. As for use in cars, you need to install it in a convenient place, and connect the cooler to the cigarette lighter.
Liquid plant
This design is efficient and easy to manufacture. A heat exchanger and a fan are installed in the room. Cold water passes throughthis heat exchanger, the fan blows it, the temperature in the room decreases. A well or well can be used as a source of water. As for the heat exchanger, a radiator from any car or an air conditioner that has become unusable is ideal. It is worth noting that this design can not only cool the air in the room, but also heat it. To do this, you just need to supply hot water to the radiator.
It consists of three components:
- Submersible or well pump.
- Heat exchanger with fan.
- Insulated pipelines for the supply and discharge of fluid.
How to make a liquid type air conditioner
Now let's look at how to assemble the system yourself. To do this, you need to perform the following manipulations:
- Place the radiator from the car in a convenient place in the room and install the fan.
- Mount the return and drop lines. In order to connect them with branch pipes, it is necessary to use adapters and clamps.
- Install a pump in a well or well, connect pipes to it, through which water will be supplied to the radiator.
- It is recommended that the section of the pipe through which cold water is supplied be wrapped with insulating material. This will allow the liquid not to heat up ahead of time. As for the return line, it does not need to be isolated.
Where to put the water?
Immediately decide where you will put the water after it passes through the radiator. It should also be noted that very often the fluid flow rate is much higher than necessary.
As for the problem of fluid discharge, it can be solved in the following ways:
- Collect liquid in any storage container (if you water your garden plot with water).
- Pour water into a nearby well.
- Establish a closed circuit with a second radiator that sinks to the bottom of the well.
Performance adjustment
As for the performance of the pump, it cannot be adjusted without the use of frequency converters. The acquisition of such a device will affect the cost of structures. Various kinds of autotransformers will not help in solving the problem.
In order not to purchase expensive equipment, you can solve the problem in the following ways:
- If the well is less than 10 m deep, it is allowed to use a circulation pump used in heating systems. It is only necessary to choose the necessary power.
- If desired, you can limit the flow of water to the radiator with a bypass valve. It will dump excess water back into the well.
Advantages and disadvantages of the system
It is worth immediately highlighting several advantages that the design of such an air conditioner has:
- With the help of the system, you can both cool the room and warm it uphim.
- The design is much simpler when compared with a split system.
- Even if you buy pipes and a pump, the total cost of assembling the structure will not be very high.
We have already partially talked about the shortcomings. These include difficulties in adjusting the water supply, as well as discharge. This system cannot be used in apartments, as you are unlikely to find a similar source of cold water. Of course, this type of system cannot be installed in a car either.
Refrigerator as base
The idea is very interesting, because there are no differences from the split system in the design of the refrigerator. A refrigerant is also used, which heats up on the one hand, and takes heat on the other. Few people have tried to make a standing structure out of refrigerators. But you can think a little and imagine how to make an air conditioner out of the refrigerator:
- First, you need to cut out two heat exchangers, while the compressor cannot be turned off. Otherwise, freon will leave the system and you will have to spend money on refueling.
- Next, you need to move the condenser and compressor outside the room that is planned to be cooled.
- The part that was previously a freezer needs to be mounted in the room.
- In order for cooling to be carried out much faster, install a fan that will blow around the heat exchanger. You can put a homemade compressor to increase power. From the truck air conditioning compressor, you canmake a good design that will allow you to cool a large area.
- Of course, you will not need a standard control unit and a sensor that are set to a certain temperature. Therefore, you will have to install a temperature controller. Otherwise, the compressor will simply break down, as it is not able to work smoothly for a long time.
Is there enough power?
It is worth noting that refrigerators have a maximum power of about 400 watts. Even with a rough calculation, you can understand that this capacity is enough for a maximum of 4 square meters.
And this is only in theory, but it will be much more difficult to implement everything in practice, since the area that such a design can cool is even smaller. Of course, a homemade air conditioner from the refrigerator can cool a small room, such as a closet. And in the summer it will be possible to store homemade preparations in it. But you will have to make high-quality thermal insulation.
