not exactly a PC cooling question but...

[Red Squirrel]

Can't find anywhere else this would go. I have a 1 Ton portable air conditioner, I've been wondering if I was to duct the cool air directly into the furnace return, then run the blower, think that would work? There would be a mix of normal air and cool air (I can't block the other returns as there would not be enough return space). While it would not be as effective as central air, think I would at least notice a difference? I could even add a booster fan to the vents in the rooms I really want cool.

I've been told this would cause the heat exchanger to condensate and corrode, but I'm not quite sure how this is so different then central air where the coil is above the heat exchanger, the condensate goes into a drain pan and that same cold air eventually gets sucked back into the return again as the cycle continues. The portable unit also drains the condensate so the air that comes out of it is cold and dry.

 

[BillParrish]

Interesting.
Off hand I agree with your idea. The heat exchanger in my gas pack (outdoor central air and gas furnace in one "box") has the heat exchanger in the same air path as the AC unit. its stainless steel however. As you mentioned you are pulling the moisture out of the air before it enters the duct system and while the other returns are pulling moist air I just dont see it as a big problem.

As to how effective, all you can do it give it a try. My question is where does the hot exhaust from the portable AC go ? Out a window ? (yeah guick google answered that, hose/duct exhaust to window).

Its going to take the moisture out of the air which will help with comfort and over night it should do ok. During a hot day I just dont know if the structure will absorb more heat (despite the insulation) than the AC can get rid of. If the ducts are not well insulated etc. of course that will not help.

Give it a go and see, I dont see how it could hurt anything and it is going to take a while to see the effects/cool down the structure if its a large space. Take a thermometer and watch the temp in a remote room and check again in 3 hours and see if you can get the temp down.

It has to help, how much and if it works better than just cooling one larger room and sleeping there, /shrug.

Its going to be hard on the portable unit, likely it will run 100% of the time. Not sure its designed to hold up at 100% duty cycle for hours and hours on end until you get the temps down.

Keeping cooking down (use microwave) not leaving doors open long, close drapes, etc. do everything else you can to keep/prevent heat in the living area


Just another thought, as a kid we just had one big AC window unit and just blew it around the house with fans, not great and that room with the AC was by far the coolest but it helped.

 

[Jesse B]

Somebody on the Tom's Hardware forum did something similar to this. He had a small AC unit, just for a small house or w/e, and he rigged it up to cool his CPU. He just took the standard procedures to waterproof his motherboard that you would if you were using Liquid Nitrogen; It worked quite well

Note there will probably be a thermistor or something to sense the temperature and tell the unit when to turn on/off. He just placed this thermistor on the compressor motor, so that it'd always seem too hot

 

[Red Squirrel]

Yeah there is an exhaust tube. There is no intake, and I think this is what really makes these units inefficient. If there's no outside intake then it needs to use indoor air. I will rig up an intake as well and have two tubes going outside. If this works then I will have to figure a way to make it turn on/off using a relay instead of the controls on it so I can use the upstairs thermostat to control it. Idealy I'd like to just cool half the house but without major changes to the ductwork that would be tricky.

What I may do though is build some kind of air blower/sucker that sits perfectly on an air vent, so there would be more air going through that vent. I would just bring this in the room I actively want to cool. I could also shut most of the downstairs vent. I've thought of putting a damper on the downstairs duct, but blocking an entire duct like that will probably be hard on the blower.

Heck if this does seem to work I can maybe get a window unit too so I can make it add up to about 2 tons worth of AC. Central air on the cheap lol.