DIY air conditioners may seem like a cheap way to beat the heat, but they aren’t perfect. This video puts two homemade versions to the test and compares them to real AC units.
In this video from the Consumer Reports YouTube channel, air conditioning specialist Chris Regan built two homemade AC units that cost around $US30 ($41) to see how they actually perform. Over the span of an hour, both DIY units were only able to bring the testing room’s temperature down about three degrees. And half an hour of running, the temp began to rise back up. When they tested spot cooling with the DIY units, however, they found the air to be about 15 degrees cooler. So, best case scenario, you have to sit right next to your DIY AC to get any sort of benefit from it. A homemade unit is better than nothing, but you’ll be much better off with a real AC unit that can cool entire rooms and maintain the temperature.
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3 responses to “Two DIY Air Conditioners Put To The Test”
The fan is too small to really have a lot of cooling power and it’d work much better if it was passing the air over the ice rather than onto it and out. Also this isn’t AC, it’s crappy evaporative cooling. It won’t work if the air is humid and it won’t work if you’re not allowing the cold air from the unit to displace the hot air in the room.
Convective, not evaporative.
We have no aircon (renters) but we foil the windows and find that can make a 10C difference.