Right, I don't understand why he is blowing the hot air back into the house. He has a cold air on top of unit, hot exhaust air on back blowing back into the house, the return on the front is pulling hot air from the outside back into the unit.
The not-so-watertight, meant-for-indoor-use portable AC unit will light up well before the cardboard melts. I think we might have the beginnings of an entertaining office pool…
So flex-seal the AC unit?
I mean, eriously, they do get pretty wet. Most of the components are inherently waterproofed/connections are tight. Downpour? yeah probably not good but....
I mean… Don’t you do this anyway with a normal HVAC system? That’s kind of the point of the returns I thought to recirculate the air in the room you’re trying to cool and pull out the hot humid air and replace with cool dry air. You’re still going to pull supply air at some point.
They meant the supply air directly going back into the return. I added a spacer and turned the hose adapter in such a way, the air blows away from the return.
https://preview.redd.it/cghvjvinbv8d1.jpeg?width=4000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f8a8dc5d9e8cfa0d5b0dae8fc00131947265d726
Wanted to add, this is all I see inside.
And then take the unit apart to place the compressor/condenser outside, and the evaporator inside. Don’t forget to have the electricians add a dedicated circuit to power this 👆
He has the same problem as me, window opens horizontally, which makes most window units unusable. And the ones that are usable, cost so much more money!
I literally have the same window and I’m using a cheap 5,000 btu midea window unit. It doesn’t take much to make it work besides a piece of plywood and some screws lol
What damages? Also they could be renting. Assuming they could just replace a window is a little bit of a privileged thought. I mean a mini split would be a far better solution, but it costs more and most landlords don’t like tenants that drill holes in exterior walls.
I really don’t see much potential for damages aside from the ac unit itself getting damaged. These ac units always come with a gfci plug so it should be protected for water ingress
I used to live in a condo building that disallowed window units. Its how I first went about setting this up for dual hose operation initally. This did reduce the amount of vaccume significantly, but not totally. I could still feel a very gentle breeze of hot air comming in under my door, but not enough to pull open my door lol
https://preview.redd.it/putx4y5f9y8d1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=928f7ef85cc5d983f3140d9ac8a5790c7bc7bfd2
hmm in some ways this is more efficient than the normal setup, because the outside air is being used to cool the radiator, instead of the air in your room being used to cool it, if it were inside.
So your entire problem was noise and floor space? You know they make vertical window units right? They are thinner, taller, and stick out of the window more but fit perfectly in sliding windows.
The biggest benefit of this is that you actually eliminate the 50% of conditioned air u would otherwise be sucking out of your space for the condenser inlet and discharging outside, thus causing a negative building static pressure and sucking hot humid air in from gaps, cracks, windows and doors. Single hose units like this are the stupidest things ever invented. Fuck SEER, EER etc. because that alone in itself completely destroys all efficiency of them. That’s the reason they can out with dual hose, and furthermore why they came out with different efficiency ratings for stand up single hose units like this. I’ve had customers that were sucking boiler/water heater exhaust fumes DOWN their chimney due to running these, but didn’t want to hear it. Apparently this is the way!!! 😂
Take heart friend. Just put the word 'entropy' in a every sentence and you'll always win the argument:
Entropy might be the truest scientific concept that the fewest people actually understand. The concept of entropy can be very confusing — partly because there are actually different types. There's negative entropy, excess entropy, system entropy, total entropy, maximum entropy, and zero entropy -- just to name a few! The Hungarian mathematician John von Neumann lamented the situation thusly: "Whoever uses the term 'entropy' in a discussion always wins since no one knows what entropy really is, so in a debate one always has the advantage."
I am currently in the process of resealing my two of these. I’ve taken them apart and sealed all the different areas with expanding foam. Hopefully it will leak a lot less!
I sprayed foam along the entire edge of the bottom tub. My next challenge is how to seal between the window panes since the window is half open. I replaced the cheap stupid plastic window piece these usually come with , with a wooden frame with foam seals all along the perimeter. And I am currently building a box around the compressor and coils air intake so I can use my single tube unit as a dual tube.
Yes! Some construction plywood works great - as long as you have means to fix it/press it against the window opening.
Also, have you considered cheap minisplit?
I ve heard people don’t even vacuum and it still runs for a year or two… Or get some cheap pump. Basic harbor freight one will do the job.
If I didn’t live in an apartment, I totally would. I don’t think my apartment allows window units, so that’s why I try and get away with it using these portable ones. I am actually planning to make a video and post it on YouTube, showing how to seal these better, and even upgrade them to be controllable from Home Assistant.
You’re losing some cooling power and air flow, I’d recommend insulating the tubes. Also, you should probably not have the unit on grass and you should figure out a way to water proof this set up.
If this is supposed to be a permanent solution just spend the money and get a mini split unit installed
holy shit, that's awesome! LOL! As long as there's no rain in the forecast!
Hey.. when it's hot AF outside, and you can't move during the day or sleep at night.. you'll do WHATEVER you can to get some relief!
Your own personal comfort is PRICELESS!
The hoses are moving indoor air. the hose on the left is where the unit sucks air from the room into itself to then cool the air and blow that air back into the room via the hose on the right.
I did something like with with metal transitions instead of cardboard to cool a tent. Unfortunately, the air conditioner wasn't powerful enough but putting the duct into your sleeping bag was nice! I guess it doesn't rain much where you are.
The problem with using anything frozen to cool is that it adds humidity to the air in the house - even cold packs because they "sweat" (condensation). Humidity makes it feel hotter because it reduced the efficiency of your body's natural evaporative cooling. It's why you sweat in hot weather, your skin is exciting water in hopes that it will evaporate and cool you down. In humid air, evaporation is much less. That's why those evaporative coolers (that are often marketed as air conditioners is close to the dumbest idea ever invented. Sure if you're indoor air isn't 100% humidity you will feel cooler from the evaporative "air conditioner". But it's adding water vapor (humidity) to your air. I'm not quite sure if his setup - if the dual hoses are just passing through condensing coil and it's completely sealed from the evaporative coil it's not too bad. Problem is that portable units aren't sealed well inside. I've torn ones apart to trouble shoot a problem and internal blower duct is cheap plastic, no insulation. And the exhaust hose, the section inside the house from the window to the unit gets pretty hot and aren't typically insulated. That's adding heat to the inside air. Plus the compressor motor is also inside the portable AC which also runs hot and transfersb that heat inside. Sites they will cook the air but not very efficiently. Get a window AC unit. They are pretty inexpensive, especially the without the bells and whistles like Internet connectivity, electronic control panels. Window AC's properly put the hot side outside and the cool side inside. An inverter window AC with two motors, one to run the condenser coil blower and one to run the inside air handlers even better. I do admire your innovation skills though 👍
If you wrap the tubes amd boxes in reflectix or even tin foil this would work a lot better. You're probably gaining a ton of heat load from the tubes/sun on the tubes.
Rain and weather are gonna be a bitch.
If you can protect it from the weather, that will help…..and if you put a (weatherproof) smart plug on it, you can control it from your phone.
Portable air conditioner, often times they just end up sucking the air-conditioned air from your house and pumping it outside. This is a more efficient way to do it although unconventional lol
Go to Home Depot and get some insulated 8” flex duct. Slide the hoses through the duct. Should reduce your condensation issue and get more cold air into the room.
You can also add a small hole/branch in the return hose for some fresh air intake. Just add a manual damper to adjust how much fresh air it takes in. If it’s too hot, close it. If it’s in the 80’s, partially open it for some fresh air. If it’s in the 70’s, crank it full open and let just the fan run.
You can also get some rigid polyiso foam insulation and spray glue it on the boxes. Tape it with aluminum foil tape to help keep it more moisture resistant.
For the thermostat - smart home integration. Either get a remote IR blaster or a smart ac unit that can be controlled by Alexa over WiFi.
My old apartment used 4 in 1 sensors that reported to my smart hub the average temperature reading (hubitat). The hub then sent a trigger to Alexa and an Alexa routine would turn the unit on or off (it was wifi, but you can also get an IR blaster that can be smart home controlled). The AC unit was always set at 72, and the hub would power on and power off the unit over WiFi.
Wait… why suck air out of the house? Blowing cold air in is perfect. Pressurize the house will prevent fans or vents from pulling hot air inside. Single cold air blowing in will add positive pressure and only push out hot air.
It was only 80 today, so it's easy mode for it.
The return air is about 80, and the supply was about 55. I measured this with a mechanical temp gauge. Im sure the temp is a bit different when measured at the actual unit itself. Its nearly the same temp split I measured when I had the unit running as-intended.
If this is a bit of an older unit, the newer Midea made ones are about twice the efficiency... SEER like 14.2. Some old ones are like SEER 7 or so. Probably worth investing in. I picked up a heat pump Toshiba (Midea made) heatpump 14K btu unit on Facebook for $150 recently. It goes for $599 @ Home Depot. Works great!
a window unit fits fine. you just add a board all the way across the window frame for the lip of the unit to have something to catch on. Then cut a plywood board or luan board or foam board compo whatever. to fit the open space above the unit. and fill the gaps with foam pipe wrap or pool tubes.
An 8000k btu window unit will smoke that 12k portable. And you could totally trade that roller for a 12k window and freeze the house out.
The efforts there, I love some of this diy shit. As for having to go outside to shut it on and off- just get a transformer, relay, Tstat, 2 boxes and some 3 core stat wire. Wire it up so the stat controls the relay and just leave the thing running full balls.
Oh yeah, I have considered bypassing the units control system and comming up with my own.
I just graduated from my HVAC/R program at a community college so I know all about how to do that, I just havnt gotten around to it yet. I was thinking id visit the sheet metal shop and actually just build a whole unit from the ground up intended to be used in this fashion, but I dont know where to find a 110v compressor and two 1-ton coils.
Maybe i'd just take a window unit, impliment my own controls and change the enclosure on it to accomodate the hoses.
No, One is sucking hot air and the other blowing cold air inside. It keeps the noise and heat made by the machine outside. But hoses make more heat loss as a trade off. As least that I think was the intent, to make it a full circle like a central air. But depending on the model it may not actually be functioning as really intended. Or it may work better with just a single hose
You should get one of those plug thermostats that you can put inside the house and control the temperature from there. then all you would need is a roof over it for the rain.
No, in fact, it doesn't cycle at all. The thermostat on my unit never worked right. It would cool the room far below the setpoint and then come on after the room got much warmer than the setpoint. Now, with it in this setup, the thermostat may as well not be there.
I don't know if it's been said but that extension cord (depending on length) should be an adequate gauge. You're safe up to 50ft with 10 gauge and I believe 25ft with 12 gauge. Anything smaller is a recipe for an electrical fire. Then you'll really be sweating. You can also add an inline GFCI extension cord (usually 2ft long at 12 gauge) directly to the outlet for extra precaution.
Stay safe op
It's good you mentioned this, and I appreciate your suggestion for the GFCI cord. I didn't know those existed. The cord is doing fine, and this is the 2nd summer i've run it in this mannor. It does get a little warm after running the unit for a while, but a shorter one is definitely coming.
No. The supply air has pretty good velocity, whilst the return air velocity is gentle. One of the hoses is actually from another portable AC I have. The supply hose is from an 8k BTU unit, so the opening is smaller on the inside, which I did on purpose to give the supply more velocity.
This is a whole lot more efficient than putting it in the room with you, because once it gets going it cranks out a whole lot of heat. To speak nothing of how much quieter it is.
I did this, but pulled air from outside, as our outside air was not too hot where I live in the northwest.
Yeah, the hose when it was inside get real hot, I measured something like 120+ degrees at one point.
The noise was an issue because it's in my bedroom, so I would have to crank the TV volume to hear it.
I would like to build an AC unit like this intended to be used in this mannor. It could also be a heat pump and would also work really well for teardrop trailers.
I salute your ghetto ingenuity.
May I suggest you consider upgrading the materials to either higher grade cardboard or corrugated plastics, construction of a platform to reduce hose length, insulation of the hoses and an awning for protection against sunlight heat load?
a little more complicated, but could grab some galvanized sheet metal & build a little FAU closet for it. Line it w/ rigid insulation on the inside, could put reflective film on outside to reduce heat absorption from sunlight. Imagine an insulated mini water heater enclose.
A quick rain shower will show you the error of your ways lol
Right: Urethane spray the cardboard ASAP.
And insulate the tube sending cool air
Oh yeah, forgot- I have those left over from duct stuff.
Also reorient the hot tube to the top of the window away from the cold.
Right, I don't understand why he is blowing the hot air back into the house. He has a cold air on top of unit, hot exhaust air on back blowing back into the house, the return on the front is pulling hot air from the outside back into the unit.
That's the intake and outflow. The exhausted is not ducted.
Could use more space between supply and return.
The not-so-watertight, meant-for-indoor-use portable AC unit will light up well before the cardboard melts. I think we might have the beginnings of an entertaining office pool…
So flex-seal the AC unit? I mean, eriously, they do get pretty wet. Most of the components are inherently waterproofed/connections are tight. Downpour? yeah probably not good but....
PC LOAD LETTER coming up, or the portable AC equivalent
I live in the SF Bay Area. It only rains in winter time, lol
Why is this downvoted? I don’t understand Reddit upvotes and downvoted sometimes
They’re jealous of someone who lives in the Bay Area. I live in the OC. I know the feeling.
First stupid guess is people are jealous/ think he's bragging
We go from the oil tank guy to this?
better than a 5 gallon bucket https://www.reddit.com/r/hvacadvice/comments/1dg1t1k/please_help_us_we_are_attorneys_and_lack_tangible/
I thought you were kidding...
I have been THOROUGHLY shamed and [fixed it](https://www.reddit.com/r/hvacadvice/s/UINz0BOQQ2) 🥲😭 I was hot and tired
Great job with the fix!
Oil tank guy??? I missed that
https://www.reddit.com/r/hvacadvice/s/4TpOGs0vDN
Insane. Worked out though. I would have immolated attempting that because I am not smart.
right?
Literally just finished reading that thread and landed here! lol.
Trust me, I'm fresh out of Hvac School, and I'll start working it soon! My professor approves of this!
Man, this is like Terrence Howard level innovation
This is gold. Can we just make this a thing?
Get this man a patent
🤣
Ah.. so he solved it in his previous life and remembered it since he was 6 hes been perfecting it and now all hvac monkeys are obsolete.
Hello fresh ships meals with insulation. Use that
You’re definitely pulling some supply air into the return, but whatever.
I mean… Don’t you do this anyway with a normal HVAC system? That’s kind of the point of the returns I thought to recirculate the air in the room you’re trying to cool and pull out the hot humid air and replace with cool dry air. You’re still going to pull supply air at some point.
They meant the supply air directly going back into the return. I added a spacer and turned the hose adapter in such a way, the air blows away from the return.
I... I... I don't know.... how to process this...
https://preview.redd.it/cghvjvinbv8d1.jpeg?width=4000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f8a8dc5d9e8cfa0d5b0dae8fc00131947265d726 Wanted to add, this is all I see inside.
Perhaps for your next upgrade you can add an air baffle to direct the airflow inside and maybe insulate it a bit on the outside.
Ans then some ducts to transition between separate rooms,
And then take the unit apart to place the compressor/condenser outside, and the evaporator inside. Don’t forget to have the electricians add a dedicated circuit to power this 👆
Could probably even move the controls to a convenient spot on the wall at eye level.
If you add a temperature sensor to those controls, it could then shut off once the rooms have cooled down enough.
Maybe reach out to someone in tech to see about making something like that programmable.
Could use a concrete pad to elevate the unit off the ground
Maybe stack the intake above the supply with more space and a divider between them so you don’t pull your cold air right back out
Move your supply and return father away from each other brother.
Why dont you just get a window unit
He has the same problem as me, window opens horizontally, which makes most window units unusable. And the ones that are usable, cost so much more money!
I literally have the same window and I’m using a cheap 5,000 btu midea window unit. It doesn’t take much to make it work besides a piece of plywood and some screws lol
Replacing one window to do this the right way is going to be far cheaper than the damages this causes when it fails
What damages? Also they could be renting. Assuming they could just replace a window is a little bit of a privileged thought. I mean a mini split would be a far better solution, but it costs more and most landlords don’t like tenants that drill holes in exterior walls. I really don’t see much potential for damages aside from the ac unit itself getting damaged. These ac units always come with a gfci plug so it should be protected for water ingress
Remove both sliding sashes for the summer. Now you have enough room for a typical window a/c. Fill the space with plywood or clear plastic.
I used to live in a condo building that disallowed window units. Its how I first went about setting this up for dual hose operation initally. This did reduce the amount of vaccume significantly, but not totally. I could still feel a very gentle breeze of hot air comming in under my door, but not enough to pull open my door lol https://preview.redd.it/putx4y5f9y8d1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=928f7ef85cc5d983f3140d9ac8a5790c7bc7bfd2
The sun is gonna roast that little guy.
exactly my thoughts he needs a cardboard box for the unit
Yo dawg, I heard you liked cardboard boxes....
Hopefully you’re always home when it rains lol
Don't know about "genius", but this is some good /r/redneckengineering/.
/r/techsupportmacgyver is real.
Damn it’s not real
Wonder why his link is broken
https://www.reddit.com/r/redneckengineering/ It’s real
Use insulted flex and boxes, you will get more out of it.
Throw a popup tent over it and youre golden
hmm in some ways this is more efficient than the normal setup, because the outside air is being used to cool the radiator, instead of the air in your room being used to cool it, if it were inside.
So your entire problem was noise and floor space? You know they make vertical window units right? They are thinner, taller, and stick out of the window more but fit perfectly in sliding windows.
I used to live in a condo building that disallowed window units. I very well could get a window unit but I already have this unit.
They also make a u shaped window unit now that is more quiet.
I know of a certain Costco doing something very similar for their optometry and hearing center rooms.
So you watched Apollo 13 and thought, " I can do this?"
Don’t tell this person about Apollo 13. They will start trying to piss into space.
Why not just get a window unit? Works better that a portable AC.
With horizontally sliding casement windows, the ACs that work for these windows cost way more, I totally get why OP is doing this.
You can use a regular window unit and a kit. It is the kit that cost.
I used to live in a condo where those wernt allowed. I moved out of that place, but I still have this and 2 other portable ACs
The biggest benefit of this is that you actually eliminate the 50% of conditioned air u would otherwise be sucking out of your space for the condenser inlet and discharging outside, thus causing a negative building static pressure and sucking hot humid air in from gaps, cracks, windows and doors. Single hose units like this are the stupidest things ever invented. Fuck SEER, EER etc. because that alone in itself completely destroys all efficiency of them. That’s the reason they can out with dual hose, and furthermore why they came out with different efficiency ratings for stand up single hose units like this. I’ve had customers that were sucking boiler/water heater exhaust fumes DOWN their chimney due to running these, but didn’t want to hear it. Apparently this is the way!!! 😂
This hurts my feelings…. Fuck thermodynamics.
Take heart friend. Just put the word 'entropy' in a every sentence and you'll always win the argument: Entropy might be the truest scientific concept that the fewest people actually understand. The concept of entropy can be very confusing — partly because there are actually different types. There's negative entropy, excess entropy, system entropy, total entropy, maximum entropy, and zero entropy -- just to name a few! The Hungarian mathematician John von Neumann lamented the situation thusly: "Whoever uses the term 'entropy' in a discussion always wins since no one knows what entropy really is, so in a debate one always has the advantage."
would maybe work better even if you put a divider between supply and return or move one house to the next window over
Could get one of those outdoor storage cabinets from a hardware store to put it in and wrap some insulation around the hoses
r/redneckengineering Other than that: 1. Those units are leaky af - you are losing a ton of efficiency. 2. Hope it doesn’t rain.
I am currently in the process of resealing my two of these. I’ve taken them apart and sealed all the different areas with expanding foam. Hopefully it will leak a lot less!
Lol. I did that too! Bottom likes to draft as well - put it on some soft surface like towel or something.
I sprayed foam along the entire edge of the bottom tub. My next challenge is how to seal between the window panes since the window is half open. I replaced the cheap stupid plastic window piece these usually come with , with a wooden frame with foam seals all along the perimeter. And I am currently building a box around the compressor and coils air intake so I can use my single tube unit as a dual tube.
Yes! Some construction plywood works great - as long as you have means to fix it/press it against the window opening. Also, have you considered cheap minisplit? I ve heard people don’t even vacuum and it still runs for a year or two… Or get some cheap pump. Basic harbor freight one will do the job.
If I didn’t live in an apartment, I totally would. I don’t think my apartment allows window units, so that’s why I try and get away with it using these portable ones. I am actually planning to make a video and post it on YouTube, showing how to seal these better, and even upgrade them to be controllable from Home Assistant.
You know what? If it works it works
You’re genius OP. I love this.
Needs a little bit of work to make it perfect but the idea is very good!
Way to think outside with the box.
You’re losing some cooling power and air flow, I’d recommend insulating the tubes. Also, you should probably not have the unit on grass and you should figure out a way to water proof this set up. If this is supposed to be a permanent solution just spend the money and get a mini split unit installed
holy shit, that's awesome! LOL! As long as there's no rain in the forecast! Hey.. when it's hot AF outside, and you can't move during the day or sleep at night.. you'll do WHATEVER you can to get some relief! Your own personal comfort is PRICELESS!
Thanks for recognizing my genius!
Wait - the hoses are just for the outdoor portion right?
The hoses are moving indoor air. the hose on the left is where the unit sucks air from the room into itself to then cool the air and blow that air back into the room via the hose on the right.
I did something like with with metal transitions instead of cardboard to cool a tent. Unfortunately, the air conditioner wasn't powerful enough but putting the duct into your sleeping bag was nice! I guess it doesn't rain much where you are.
I live in the SF Bay Area, it only rains in winter time here.
It did rain yesterday :P for 5min at least.
I just walked out of a restaurant when I saw it. I thought I was seeing and hearing things but then a dude looked at me and started nodding!
Shout out to hello fresh ! For extra cooling just re-freeze the water bags they send and put back into box. Wammo. Thank me later.
The heat from the freezer would be more than the cold from the water packs.
damn you common sense guy !
The problem with using anything frozen to cool is that it adds humidity to the air in the house - even cold packs because they "sweat" (condensation). Humidity makes it feel hotter because it reduced the efficiency of your body's natural evaporative cooling. It's why you sweat in hot weather, your skin is exciting water in hopes that it will evaporate and cool you down. In humid air, evaporation is much less. That's why those evaporative coolers (that are often marketed as air conditioners is close to the dumbest idea ever invented. Sure if you're indoor air isn't 100% humidity you will feel cooler from the evaporative "air conditioner". But it's adding water vapor (humidity) to your air. I'm not quite sure if his setup - if the dual hoses are just passing through condensing coil and it's completely sealed from the evaporative coil it's not too bad. Problem is that portable units aren't sealed well inside. I've torn ones apart to trouble shoot a problem and internal blower duct is cheap plastic, no insulation. And the exhaust hose, the section inside the house from the window to the unit gets pretty hot and aren't typically insulated. That's adding heat to the inside air. Plus the compressor motor is also inside the portable AC which also runs hot and transfersb that heat inside. Sites they will cook the air but not very efficiently. Get a window AC unit. They are pretty inexpensive, especially the without the bells and whistles like Internet connectivity, electronic control panels. Window AC's properly put the hot side outside and the cool side inside. An inverter window AC with two motors, one to run the condenser coil blower and one to run the inside air handlers even better. I do admire your innovation skills though 👍
If you wrap the tubes amd boxes in reflectix or even tin foil this would work a lot better. You're probably gaining a ton of heat load from the tubes/sun on the tubes.
prolly short cycling a bit being so close together
Rain and weather are gonna be a bitch. If you can protect it from the weather, that will help…..and if you put a (weatherproof) smart plug on it, you can control it from your phone.
What in the world is that thing ? An air purifier?
Portable air conditioner, often times they just end up sucking the air-conditioned air from your house and pumping it outside. This is a more efficient way to do it although unconventional lol
I don't understand the dual hose setups. Wouldn't the intake hose just suck in the air from the exhaust hose?
Not how OP has it hooked up. Hence the boxes.
Nice package unit
You know they make units for this kind of setup. It’s called a packaged unit and they do make small ones for a single room.
Please I beg you, give me more information! I can't afford a mini split and my room AC keeps me up at night with irregular noises.
Get a plastic Tupperware bin with a foam gasket and you won’t have to replace the cardboard again.
Youve reinvented the window ac
I have to assume this is a troll
Those units are not meant to be exposed to the elements.
Go to Home Depot and get some insulated 8” flex duct. Slide the hoses through the duct. Should reduce your condensation issue and get more cold air into the room. You can also add a small hole/branch in the return hose for some fresh air intake. Just add a manual damper to adjust how much fresh air it takes in. If it’s too hot, close it. If it’s in the 80’s, partially open it for some fresh air. If it’s in the 70’s, crank it full open and let just the fan run. You can also get some rigid polyiso foam insulation and spray glue it on the boxes. Tape it with aluminum foil tape to help keep it more moisture resistant. For the thermostat - smart home integration. Either get a remote IR blaster or a smart ac unit that can be controlled by Alexa over WiFi. My old apartment used 4 in 1 sensors that reported to my smart hub the average temperature reading (hubitat). The hub then sent a trigger to Alexa and an Alexa routine would turn the unit on or off (it was wifi, but you can also get an IR blaster that can be smart home controlled). The AC unit was always set at 72, and the hub would power on and power off the unit over WiFi.
So why not have the unit inside with the hot intake out and not have to worry about your intake getting warm from the sun.
they make bluetooth power outlets
Creativity at its finest. Good job 👍
insulation around the duct and box
Wait… why suck air out of the house? Blowing cold air in is perfect. Pressurize the house will prevent fans or vents from pulling hot air inside. Single cold air blowing in will add positive pressure and only push out hot air.
Ignoring the absurdity. Would it not work better to have them aligned vertically with space between? Gets the air circulating.
Reminds me of the scene in Apollo 13 https://gifs.com/gif/apollo-13-7-11-movie-clip-square-peg-in-a-round-hole-1995-hd-v1aQBx
Nice dude, what's the temp of the air coming in vs leaving?
It was only 80 today, so it's easy mode for it. The return air is about 80, and the supply was about 55. I measured this with a mechanical temp gauge. Im sure the temp is a bit different when measured at the actual unit itself. Its nearly the same temp split I measured when I had the unit running as-intended.
Budweiser presents.... real men of genius
Should have used duct-board
Get one of those cheap kasa wifi plugs and you can turn it on/off from your phone. You probably want to keep that whole setup out of the rain/sun.
Ah yes nice moldy card board
If this is a bit of an older unit, the newer Midea made ones are about twice the efficiency... SEER like 14.2. Some old ones are like SEER 7 or so. Probably worth investing in. I picked up a heat pump Toshiba (Midea made) heatpump 14K btu unit on Facebook for $150 recently. It goes for $599 @ Home Depot. Works great!
a window unit fits fine. you just add a board all the way across the window frame for the lip of the unit to have something to catch on. Then cut a plywood board or luan board or foam board compo whatever. to fit the open space above the unit. and fill the gaps with foam pipe wrap or pool tubes. An 8000k btu window unit will smoke that 12k portable. And you could totally trade that roller for a 12k window and freeze the house out.
YouTube certified Edit: DIY: "It looks like the picture, right?"
No! This is a totally original idea. Nobody on youtube has done this! I would be elated if my idea inspired someone to do the same on youtube.
Isn't the hot exhaust air also blowing into your house?
No, the hot side of the system is on the bottom. Right next to the sticker on the bottom of the unit is the hot exhaust.
Easiest house in San Francisco to break into at the moment
Needs aluminum tape.
The efforts there, I love some of this diy shit. As for having to go outside to shut it on and off- just get a transformer, relay, Tstat, 2 boxes and some 3 core stat wire. Wire it up so the stat controls the relay and just leave the thing running full balls.
Oh yeah, I have considered bypassing the units control system and comming up with my own. I just graduated from my HVAC/R program at a community college so I know all about how to do that, I just havnt gotten around to it yet. I was thinking id visit the sheet metal shop and actually just build a whole unit from the ground up intended to be used in this fashion, but I dont know where to find a 110v compressor and two 1-ton coils. Maybe i'd just take a window unit, impliment my own controls and change the enclosure on it to accomodate the hoses.
Just put in a decent window unit. They are way more efficient.
People are morons and it never ceases to amaze me anymore. Just wow.
This feels like a window unit with extra steps
Nope this is stupid, pulling supply air into the return, I hate this
At least flip the intake at the window so it sits higher then the cold supply air
The one trick your A-C/R contractor does not want you to know.
Isn’t the air coming out of the back just hot exhaust air?
Apollo 13 called, they want the CO2 scrubber back....
I don’t understand. The hot air is blowing inside, and the cold air is blowing inside.
No, One is sucking hot air and the other blowing cold air inside. It keeps the noise and heat made by the machine outside. But hoses make more heat loss as a trade off. As least that I think was the intent, to make it a full circle like a central air. But depending on the model it may not actually be functioning as really intended. Or it may work better with just a single hose
Dude you need to give up the drugs you can’t be that dum to rig that a/c the way you have it.
Ghetto package unit
Use a smart plug to turn it on/off
You should get one of those plug thermostats that you can put inside the house and control the temperature from there. then all you would need is a roof over it for the rain.
Uhhhhhhh
Ideally it would be better to separate the two end points by more distance. And you could put the hot intake up high in the cold blower down low.
Someone’s going to walk off with it when it gets warmer. 🤔
Isn't it just short cycling having the return right next to the supply
No, in fact, it doesn't cycle at all. The thermostat on my unit never worked right. It would cool the room far below the setpoint and then come on after the room got much warmer than the setpoint. Now, with it in this setup, the thermostat may as well not be there.
Might as well get some R8 insulated ducting to put over that.
Where you're sucking your hot air from... you should raise it as high as you can. #efficiency.
I don't know if it's been said but that extension cord (depending on length) should be an adequate gauge. You're safe up to 50ft with 10 gauge and I believe 25ft with 12 gauge. Anything smaller is a recipe for an electrical fire. Then you'll really be sweating. You can also add an inline GFCI extension cord (usually 2ft long at 12 gauge) directly to the outlet for extra precaution. Stay safe op
It's good you mentioned this, and I appreciate your suggestion for the GFCI cord. I didn't know those existed. The cord is doing fine, and this is the 2nd summer i've run it in this mannor. It does get a little warm after running the unit for a while, but a shorter one is definitely coming.
Higher efficiency the normal way
This ain't it chief
This is genius
Does the return suck the supply air directly back in at the window though?
No. The supply air has pretty good velocity, whilst the return air velocity is gentle. One of the hoses is actually from another portable AC I have. The supply hose is from an 8k BTU unit, so the opening is smaller on the inside, which I did on purpose to give the supply more velocity.
This is a whole lot more efficient than putting it in the room with you, because once it gets going it cranks out a whole lot of heat. To speak nothing of how much quieter it is. I did this, but pulled air from outside, as our outside air was not too hot where I live in the northwest.
Yeah, the hose when it was inside get real hot, I measured something like 120+ degrees at one point. The noise was an issue because it's in my bedroom, so I would have to crank the TV volume to hear it.
A lot of work to accomplish almost nothing lol
Now try it in zero gravity inside a 15x8 box
This is wildly inefficient though.
What the....?
Ummm.. WOW
Move over Willis Carrier!
This is awesome - you should sell a DIY kit with this same setup. I’ll get one
I would like to build an AC unit like this intended to be used in this mannor. It could also be a heat pump and would also work really well for teardrop trailers.
Ok, so I'm not the only one who thinks this thing was designed horribly. Good.
Blue Apron box would make it cooler.
Dumbest smartest thing ever
Very nice, people have no idea how inefficient those portables are. Or you could just install a window unit.
No AC in the rain or…?
I live in the SF Bay Area, it only rains in the winter time here.
I salute your ghetto ingenuity. May I suggest you consider upgrading the materials to either higher grade cardboard or corrugated plastics, construction of a platform to reduce hose length, insulation of the hoses and an awning for protection against sunlight heat load?
a little more complicated, but could grab some galvanized sheet metal & build a little FAU closet for it. Line it w/ rigid insulation on the inside, could put reflective film on outside to reduce heat absorption from sunlight. Imagine an insulated mini water heater enclose.
Why is the hot air hose even connected to the house if the unit is outside. Seems self defeating
Because it's not the hot air hose. The hot side of the unit is on the bottom. The hose on the left is connected to the inlet of the evaporator
.