gmilburn.ca

Several people have asked me if I have managed to quantify the performance of this system. I ran a few quick numbers – accuracy is not going to be great due to measurement error. In terms of rough numbers though, I’m pretty happy.

At a flow rate of 2 L/min (taken as the upper range of performance) inlet temperature is 16 degrees Celcius (C), and outlet temperature is 20 deg C. This corresponds roughly to 2000 BTU/h.

At a flow rate of 1 L/min (what I use for a hour before bed to cool the room off) inlet temperature is 16 deg C and outlet temperature is 21 deg C. This corresponds roughly to 1200 BTU/h.

At a flow rate of 0.5 L/min (what I would use for “maintenance” after cooling the room off if it’s a hot night) inlet temperature is 16 deg C and outlet temperature is 23 deg C. This corresponds roughly to 800
BTU/h.

In terms of BTU/$, I can’t complain. If I’ve made any errors in my calculations, feel free to chastise me.

UPDATE: My school requires me to write a “work report” for every term of outside work experience during the coop program. I felt the only logical choice was to do it on the infamous homemade air conditioner. Hopefully referencing yourself in your work report (PDF) is looked upon kindly by admin…