[crafty2002]

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.

 

[susieM]

Please marry me.

 

[crafty2002]

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

 

[michiganfarmer]

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.

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

 

[Ross]

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

 

[SolarGary]

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

 

[sammyd]

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.

 

[MELOC]

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)?

 

[crafty2002]

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

 

[clamjane]

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

 

[Country Doc]

Great idea.

 

[farmergirl]

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!

 

[michiganfarmer]

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

 

[michiganfarmer]

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.

 

[SolarGary]

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

 

[Sher]

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?

 

[MELOC]

that is a swamp cooler.

 

[pixelphotograph]

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.

 

[crafty2002]

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.

 

[Dahc]

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..