Building your own Air Conditioner, is it effective?

Question

I am sure some of you have seen the websites that show people building there own A/C for only about 40-50 dollars. It invoves a Cooler, Fan, Water Pump and some copper tubing. But the real question is, is it really effective?

I live in a house with my parents, but this year the A/C is broken. My room is upstairs and we all know heat rises. It gets too hot in there and i get so sticky, one of the most annoying things ever. So i am looking to try to give a go at making this homemade Air conditioner, but first i want to know if its the real deal.

My room is 10 feet By 8 feet. Its a dark room, so i can avoid the sunlight heat. But it still gets 27-30 Celsius, which is not bearable. So people who have made this or seen it in action or simply want to give their opinion. Is this really worth it, do you think this can keep my whole room cool? And if so at what temperature?

My goal is to get the core temp to about 18 Celsius, is it possible?

Answer 1

i have an upstairs room too, if you have 2 windows and 2 of those large fans, put one in each window, but have one pushing air in, and one pushing air out, and it creates an awesome current.

here is air conditioner basics:

http://home.howstuffworks.com/ac1.htm

maybe you can fix your broken a/c if you learn enough.

Answer 2

That is an evaporative cooler (aka 'Swamp Cooler'), not A/C.  It will only work in very dry areas, like the Nevada desert and the Middle East.  Since you said that you're "hot and sticky", you are definitely not in a dry area and a swamp cooler will only make you stickier.

Luckily for you, your room is small.  Buy the smallest (and cheapest) window unit you can get.  A new one will run you $100 or so, or you can check the classifieds for used ones.

Answer 3

Sounds like a swamp cooler to me. Running air through a curtain of water to remove a little heat in the air.

This is a waste of time unless you live in a dry area.

For twice the money you can buy a cheap window unit that will do a great job in your room.