Air con chiller project

Sam__ · May 28, 2008

Hey all, got an air con that i bought off fleabay for £54 yesterdy, its a little larger than I expected but hey, that cant be a bad thing. Im not sure what BTU rating it is but im pretty sure its something over 5k.

having a little problem though.

I've been playing with it all afternoon and got it down to -13.5 via messing around with the control board and temp sensors, not too bad but i want better.

I was thinking about trying to stop the board having controll of it, cutting out the relay which is the only part i can see that controls the compressor, this is shown if you follow the blue,yellow and red wires from the compressor to the board. Thered and yellow go into a cap first (what is it there for?) and the the blue goes to mains,then the red goes through a relay to the mains. What is the yellow wire for?, it stops at the cap.
So could i just take the mains input to the relay and put it in place of the red wire on the cap to make the compressor on all the time?

Heres a circuit diagram if it helps.

thanks in advance.

Sam__ · May 28, 2008

I know y'all like ur frosty shots so heres one i made erlier.

Ichelo351 · May 28, 2008

The cap is there to provide extra starting power for the compressor, and the yellow line just looks like another connection to the compressor. It would look like from the diagram, that you could bypass the relay, I would check it with a multimeter first.
Good Luck!

Anubis_386 · May 28, 2008

Ooooo pretty .. You could try cutting out the relay, strip the wires down and cut them so if it don't work (or explodes or something .. lol) then you can just reconnect them ..

(side note .. what part of the UK are u frm??)

Sam__ · May 28, 2008

Ichelo351 said:
The cap is there to provide extra starting power for the compressor, and the yellow line just looks like another connection to the compressor. It would look like from the diagram, that you could bypass the relay, I would check it with a multimeter first.
Good Luck!

thanks for the quick reply. I just checked it and tried it and it worked

also had to do the same with the fan.

now waiting to see how low it goes. how long should it take to get as low as it can?

Sam__ · May 28, 2008

Anubis_386 said:
Ooooo pretty .. You could try cutting out the relay, strip the wires down and cut them so if it don't work (or explodes or something .. lol) then you can just reconnect them ..

(side note .. what part of the UK are u frm??)

luckily its all done with connectors that clip on and off so no stripping involved

. im in Cirencester,gloucestershire.

Sam__ · May 28, 2008

Had it on for 10-15 mins and it settled at around -11.5... how can i get it lower???

JamesXP · May 28, 2008

there would be a yhermostat, you need to bypass it.

Sam__ · May 28, 2008

JamesXP said:
there would be a yhermostat, you need to bypass it.

done that. compressors running straight off the mains now.

heres some more pics:

I'll try n get the specs of the compressor soon.

Sam__ · May 28, 2008

This is what was on the compressor. Gunna google the model to see if i can find any specs.

Google only gave me two answers and they were links to tri stage units, niiiiice. One gives the compressor 13k btu and the other says its 10k btu, wierd thing is its the same guy posting lol. Either way it should be pretty powerfull.

Ichelo351 · May 28, 2008

I don't know a whole lot about phase change, but how is the cooling on the condenser? I'm guessing the cooler you get the condenser, the colder the evaporator.

Sam__ · May 28, 2008

Ichelo351 said:
I don't know a whole lot about phase change, but how is the cooling on the condenser? I'm guessing the cooler you get the condenser, the colder the evaporator.

I dont know anything about phase/chiller stuff, this is my first go. I presume that the condenser is the compressor? if not please tell me what it is. The compressor is insulated, can i get better temps by taking the insulation off?

the hot radiator is cooled by a fan like the ones you get on graphics cards, cooles sideways, if u get what i mean. I think i might replace it with one of a car rad or something if i can get one cheap. good idea?

Ichelo351 · May 28, 2008

the condenser is the hot side of the coils, if you are running like in the pic, try putting some fans to blow some air through the coils on the bottom.
also some further reading
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refrigeration

Ichelo351 · May 28, 2008

Is the fan not in those pics? because i'm not sure i understand what you are saying about the fan?

Sam__ · May 28, 2008

Ichelo351 said:
the condenser is the hot side of the coils, if you are running like in the pic, try putting some fans to blow some air through the coils on the bottom.
also some further reading
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refrigeration

ah yeah, that does get some air flow its just the fan isnt on in the pics. As i said erlier its not a great fan and id like to replace it if i can and if its worth it. The current one keeps the condenser barely warm to the touch when running.

Sam__ · May 28, 2008

Ichelo351 said:
Is the fan not in those pics? because i'm not sure i understand what you are saying about the fan?

blows sideways compared to a conventional fan.

Sam__ · May 28, 2008

OoozeSheep said:
The compressor is insulated to keep whatever is inside it, cool

And no, the compressor is not the condensor

Compressed gas flows through a condensor to cool it down

When the gas gets to the CPU it ev

aporates taking away vast amounts of heat leaving subzero temperatures

The gas returns to the compressor and the cycle starts again

Image from Hard OCP

thanks a lot for clearing that up.

JamesXP · May 28, 2008

That's a blower sam, how's the noise on it?

Sam__ · May 28, 2008

JamesXP said:
That's a blower sam, how's the noise on it?

its reasonably loud hence why i want to replace it. Are they louder or quieter than normal fans per cfm?

edit: I think the temp only getting down to -13.5 at best is due to the condenser not being coolled enough. would some car radiator fans do the job better?

Sam__ · May 28, 2008

Been looking for better ways to cool the condenser. You think something like this on it would work better? a car radiator fan. I can run it of my PSU which is a plus.

its 10" and my condenser is abut 11 1/2 so it would fit perfectly.

Air con chiller project

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