DIY-Air Conditioner

I'm currently working on a design for a small shelter/storage for my backyard. Right at the moment I'm working on the air circulation.

I found a great DIY concept:Pete's DIY Air Conditioner

The basic idea is to have a styrofoam container to act as the resovoir and a houseold aquarium pump to pump the water to a fan that has copper tubing latched in front of it to act a radiator. The used water is then pumped back into the resovoir to end the cycle.

Its very cheap and simple but my only question is can freon be used in this? The cooling comes from the ice water inside the resovoir... so what happens when the ice melts?

What do you think?

If you are serious about a backyard shelter, look at ground source heating and cooling. If you would just bury some copper lines in 4 feet of earth, you would have a fairly constant temp of mid 50's available. Once again, if you are serious, a guy would look at the frost depth for his area and make sure 4 feet is deep enough.

If a person wanted to be inventive, you could use 4 to 6 inch drainage pipe, either flex or rigid, bury it and just use air in a continuous loop. You'd have cool but damp air. You may want to explore this on the internet.

The coil around the fan is a great idea on paper. Not enough coil to air for any decent cooling transfer. Look at a larger blower and car radiator. A squirrel cage fan in a blower housing with a radiator in front of it is something to look at.

For water flow, depends on the flow you need. There are literally hundreds of pumps to choose from. If you have a pump that pumps too much water, use a valve to throttle the flow.

Okay, you got your shelter, you got your A/C, what about power? What is the shelter for.

Good luck with your shelter....

BTW: Forget the freon idea. Your building a chiller basically at that point. Requires two units called an evaporator and a condenser. Then you need a cooling tower to remove heat and then you need a place for the chilled water you are making. Not impossible, but much more complicated than what you are looking for.