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Comment on I don't have AC but my apartment lease covers unlimited water usage and the water is very cold. How can I best use this to cool my home?

ironsoap@lemmy.one ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

As a kid I used tubes, a box fan, a cooler, and bucket with a siphon to cool me down.

You could easily set that up with just the water from a sink and some hardware store parts.

Search for ‘diy fan cooling tub copper coils’ as a start.

As an example: Homemade AC - The “Copper Coil” Air Cooler! - (Simple "Box Fan …

Copper coils have the best thermal efficiency, but plastic tubing would also work.

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db2@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Get an actual radiator instead of making coils and attach a box fan to it. It’s something I was always going to do but never got around to.

Also give consideration to saving at least some of the water to use as “gray water”. If you’re not familiar with that, it means water you can use for many things but not for eating or drinking.

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- Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Pretty sure this guy is an engeneer.
  
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- ironsoap@lemmy.one ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Feasible if you found one at a junk yard, but copper tubing is $20-30 and some fittings makes a tubing idea sub-$100 probably. An AC is about $300, a new radiator without fittings starts at $70 and are built for cars not box fans so it might be more challenging to get to work.
  
  With that being said, environmental, energy, and other contextual concerns might out weigh the cost. A mini-split heat pump is probably the most sane thing to actually install, but that’s a big ask.
  
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  - db2@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    You don’t need copper tubing, any tubing that’ll hold water will work. There aren’t going to be high temperatures or pressures. The supply won’t be able to go full blast with poly and hose clamps but it wouldn’t need to. I had a whole plan for this in my head then moved somewhere I didn’t need it and never made it happen.
    
    As for a mini spit, that’s the easiest option if the central is shot, if the layout isn’t complicated. But the place isn’t owned by OP so it’s probably a non starter. They don’t even want to fix what’s there it sounds like.
    
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- null@slrpnk.net ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  
  Get an actual radiator instead of making coils and attach a box fan to it.
  
  Or, get an AC unit at that point.
  
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  - db2@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    This is at least 3 times cheaper than any window AC worth having: a.co/d/03Jkt3tN
    
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