Redneck AC on the cheap

[BIGDAMBUD1]

Over the past few years I've done several of these in various configurations saving tons of money, and they work very well if funds are limited, for lots of things, from cooling your room, lights, for example...it's not Rocket science AC, but you need to have some creativity...sorta....kinda like making Chicken Salad out of Chicken Shit with a little time and effort here...to share the idea, I'll just pic 1 I done, and give you some ideas on how to cool your area, lights, or rez...etc on the cheap, and somewhat stealth side of things...this set-up I'm gonna show cost about 50 bucs and cools like hell in a 10 x 10 room....I'm gonna compile some pics and we'll get started if anyone's interested...no offense with the term REDNECK...I'm one if it matters...now lets get started...anyone?...B

 

[Mr_GreenGenes]

Hell yeah... some of that Redneck ingenuity. Always like to see what ya got up your sleeve bro. MGG

 

[woodsmaneh]

Sure here hold my beer, watch this ....lol

 

[BIGDAMBUD1]

Ok...so we start with a 5000btu ac from the pawn shop...20.00...foam duct board from H depot...10.00...tape...7.00...now lets look at the ac design first, and imagine it in a window as designed....the part inside the room consist of a filter...(intake)...and a set of louvers...(where the cool air exits)...the outside part of the unit consist of the same...kinda...it draws air from the top and sides of the case to cool the compressor and coil.....what makes this mod so good is it needs no window...it can be put inside incognito on the floor...under the house....in a closet...etc...there's a lot of ways to make this thing work for all sorts of jobs other than for use as a std window unit..I recently put one in a place that needed the cool air where there was no window....we simply built a duct box and attached it to the unit and transferred the intake and exhaust air where we wanted...this was really simple...we started this last set-up by placing the Charcoal filter on the floor first....the next photo shows the filter attached to the bottom of the duct box we built onto the unit...the next one shows the box we built on the frt of unit...you can see we carried this box up the wall into a distribution box...we then piped it into the 2 separate rooms for growing....with me so far...B

 

[Green Giant]

Any reason you use a filter for the cold air exit side? Do you use a filter on the intake side just to clean it before going into your rooms?

 

[BIGDAMBUD1]

There is no filter on the exit side...the only filter in the system is the Can charcoal filter...it filters all air into the ac...where the stock filter is/was at...I remove it...this particular ac design has its cooling air exit thru the top...look at photo 3 and you see how we ducted it up the wall to a distribution box to plumb to the 2 rooms...each room also has a 10in x 8in return grille for the air to get back to the unit, just like a home central design...I'll get up some more pics to show how that's done...this may appear like it's complicated, but it is simple once understood and highly effective...very cheap too...I've even cut one of these units in half and made a split unit as well...again...it was fairly easy and cheap compared to the cost of a split unit or portable and works just as good if not better....it is for sure better than a portable of any brand...you'll be amazed at how well this works...I'll get up some more pics to clarify...you can also cool the hell out of lights...rezs...etc with this same set-up...I'll show this as well..another good thing about this set-up is it filters out all smell in the rooms and cools all at the same time with the same fan....stay tuned...B

 

[Green Giant]

OK I think I get it now. I would like to see more pics if you would please.

Nice work!!!

Could you explain the cutting one in half and making it a mini split? With pics if you have them..
Thanks

GG

 

[BIGDAMBUD1]

OK I think I get it now. I would like to see more pics if you would please.

Nice work!!!

Could you explain the cutting one in half and making it a mini split? With pics if you have them..
Thanks

GG

Yes...I'll do that for you..my time is somewhat limited, so it my seem a little slow,but yea..I'll put together some things and show some of the crazy shit we've made with these mods to cheap window units...you can use any size you want...and never need a window...I like the newer ones with the ozone friendly freon...and digital therm...you can dial them right in with that...and gas them back up without having to be licensed HVAC...another plus...if you look at the design of most all window units...you can almost cut them all in half...attach the length of copper line between the 2 halfs at what-ever distance needed...extend a few wires the same length...add a cheap fan to the rear half you removed...done...I leave the mounted factory fan on the frt half for the air going into the room or fixture...and just add 1 for the rear coil now that it's seperate...a cheap mini box fan...approx 10.00...will suffice...the rest is just tape and duct board..I'm putting one now in a boat of mine and will show you how it's done...again it's simple and requires a little creation...but it saves lots of cash and will do the same thing as any mini-spit...you'll like this once you see how it's done...B

 

[stonestacker]

Hell yes I'm in for the show. I'm a nob Trying to plan for the summer. thinking about trying to use ground water to cool. seems cheaper than buying a chiller. excavating is cheap for me but this sounds very interesting.

 

[Don Peppy]

I love rednecks brother, but kiss my grits.. Get your tool box, and come help your yankee brother out.. I'll mop the ribs and keep um moist, keep the beverages chilled.. pack some bowls.. All joking aside, good stuff for the handyman and the do it yourselfers .. Thanks for sharing..

 

[ttystikk]

Hell yes I'm in for the show. I'm a nob Trying to plan for the summer. thinking about trying to use ground water to cool. seems cheaper than buying a chiller. excavating is cheap for me but this sounds very interesting.

You can install a heat exchanger to put excess heat into your groundwater, and this will give you cheap cooling. You'll need to use water to cool things with, but that's an efficiency improvement as well.

Never fear; MacGuyver is here!

 

[stonestacker]

You can install a heat exchanger to put excess heat into your groundwater, and this will give you cheap cooling. You'll need to use water to cool things with, but that's an efficiency improvement as well.

Never fear; MacGuyver is here!

Heat exchanger? like a radiator with a fan blowing through it with a thermostat to control the fan. Tty can you recommend some good reference material to help me engineer this system? In your opinion would this be more economical than a chiller? I'v seen a lot of your posts and I respect your opinion.

Tanks stone.

 

[ttystikk]

Heat exchanger? like a radiator with a fan blowing through it with a thermostat to control the fan. Tty can you recommend some good reference material to help me engineer this system? In your opinion would this be more economical than a chiller? I'v seen a lot of your posts and I respect your opinion.

Tanks stone.

The air to water exchanger will be the one in your grow room. That water will stay in its own circuit, from grow room through a pump to something that cools it and on through a reservoir to the room again. The exchanger at the cooling end would be cooled by the groundwater, right? How do you get a constant flow of ground water across that exchanger? Solve that problem for free heating. Just sticking a radiator in the well and hoping for the best ain't gonna cut it, because there isn't enough active heat exchange going on. It will take awhile to get hot, but once it does it will stay that way because the heat can't escape very quickly.

If you can pump up a small amount of ground water to the surface and run it through a water to water exchanger before it goes to house, animal trough, garden barrel or whatnot... that would provide a very substantial heat sink at low cost.

 

[stonestacker]

The air to water exchanger will be the one in your grow room. That water will stay in its own circuit, from grow room through a pump to something that cools it and on through a reservoir to the room again. The exchanger at the cooling end would be cooled by the groundwater, right? How do you get a constant flow of ground water across that exchanger? Solve that problem for free heating. Just sticking a radiator in the well and hoping for the best ain't gonna cut it, because there isn't enough active heat exchange going on. It will take awhile to get hot, but once it does it will stay that way because the heat can't escape very quickly.

If you can pump up a small amount of ground water to the surface and run it through a water to water exchanger before it goes to house, animal trough, garden barrel or whatnot... that would provide a very substantial heat sink at low cost.

I was thinking more along the line of closed loop geothermal just for cooling. But if I ran the loop through my furnace in the winter win win. I already have closed loop geothermal furnace just don't want to mess it up. The bride would kill me.
want to design the cooling for the grow rooms and eventually rdwc on it's own system. I think i'm starting to understand. ground loop through reservoir reservoir water through a manifold for different loops. water to air exchanger, rdwc ect. Now how to size and control. sorry for post jacking.

 

[ttystikk]

I was thinking more along the line of closed loop geothermal just for cooling. But if I ran the loop through my furnace in the winter win win. I already have closed loop geothermal furnace just don't want to mess it up. The bride would kill me.
want to design the cooling for the grow rooms and eventually rdwc on it's own system. I think i'm starting to understand. ground loop through reservoir reservoir water through a manifold for different loops. water to air exchanger, rdwc ect. Now how to size and control. sorry for post jacking.

Running the water return through your geothermal heat pump may just get you your win-win, but be sure the needed temperatures are compatible; you want 60 degree water for RDWC, and between that and no warmer than 70 for room cooling and dehuey functions. If that's a temperature your heat pump can work with, you're in business!

In my case, I have a simplified system that does the same thing; my chiller cools my cold water system and reservoir down to about 59f. The hot air from the chiller keeps my house warm, because the chiller sits inside all winter. Since my setup needs two chillers in the summer, my second chiller sits out a window- they're both window mount units- and it provides cooling when I don't need heat for my house.

Thus, I don't pay a heat bill all winter- in Colorado- and that savings goes straight towards paying for the chillers which made the savings possible. This is in addition to the efficiency gains from cooling my grow op with water instead of minisplit AC.

 

[sensicloud]

Geothermal cooling for grow rooms? Umm someone help please lol

 

[BIGDAMBUD1]

We plumbed one of these cheap 5000's to a pair of HPS 600's today...calmed their hot azz right down...fellow was a little weary of me snapping shots round his grow, so I have none...sorry...but it was no more than a little tape and ducting...and no window was used...we set it on blocks in the room and built simple ducting to intake and exhaust both ends...left him grinning with a much cooler canopy temp..move them lights on down bro...less than 50.00...B

 

[stonestacker]

Geothermal cooling for grow rooms? Umm someone help please lol

Don't just laugh and run tell me more. I think it can work very efficiently just need to find a discreet hvac pro to help out .

 

[ogbluntdoc]

Im very interested in this and i think i understand it. Would it be possible for you to put up some sort of drawing or diagram to explain to us how this is done. This is what i understand and please correct if i am wrong. On the front side of the unit you will have an intake and an exhaust. The intake being on the lower front and the exhaust being on the top which is where the cold air will exit. You have attached your filter to a box that leads straight into the intake on the front of the unit. This way when the unit pulls air in, its pulling filtered air into the AC. That air is cooled and then exited thru the top front of the unit which is piped into your grow space.

My questions...

1. Are you pulling your hot exhaust air from the grow space into the room with the filter going into AC. Or does the exhaust air from the grow space have nothing to do with this.

2. Do you have anything attached to the back side of the unit. I understand the top and sides of the back of unit are intakes to cool the equipment itself?

3. Don't these units put out allot of heat from the back the part that is normally outside of the window. What do you do with this heat, if there is no window or other room to vent it too.

 

[Gamrstwin36]

Loving the ingenuity! !! For a former EM loving the set-up and COMMON SENSE configuration . Giving me idea's Keep the Inventions coming BDB...!!!!!