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Submitted by: cronos51101 via Submit a Kludge!
Favorite Comment: Fixer waldo says, “When the historical district authorities (condo police) say no window a/c’s, Draconian action is required to thwart the blue haired b***ches.”
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Dell and Windows appear to be bound by duct tape. Therefore, I would expect them to work better together.
Nah, After all the the window being left open all night to the elements the cardboard is soaking wet. No adhesion.
Yeah, but if the tape was already stuck to it, won’t it stay stuck?
I mean … duct tape is made for, well, ducts. Seemed to hold my smashed-up car bumper together OK in all weathers. Seemed to be winter salt that made it come unstuck more than anything.
Matt obviously doesn’t know the true power of Duct tape. Heat is the real enemy.
One window is for the outside air to come in, and the other is for the heated outside air to exit?
@#%^#^@ mechanical engineers!
You’d be surprised how well this actually works. There’s a lot of air out there. The stuff being exhausted goes rapidly upwards, over the colder air being drawn in, and what little does get recycled has negligble effect on the overall temperature. Plus, the action of the aircon box’s compressor itself is far more important – it’s basically (or indeed literally) a refrigeration unit for your living space, and a dehumidifier as a side effect. Does your fridge need an input of cold air for the cooling element to work? No. Just needs to be able to pump heat against the prevailing gradient, so the hot parts get hotter and the cold parts get colder. The A/C could work perfectly fine with no direct airway between the indoors and outdoors; the outside air inlet is just to prevent the indoors getting stale.
You’re kind of correct. An AC unit will always make more heat than cold… so you have to exhaust the heat.
“The A/C could work perfectly fine with no direct airway between the indoors and outdoors; the outside air inlet is just to prevent the indoors getting stale.”
I had to read that a couple of times before I stopped objecting. It is indeed correct for one special definition of “outside air inlet”.
In a window unit, the air over the condenser fins comes from the outside. Thus there is always a large inlet for the outside air to enter the cabinet, as well as a large outlet for the hotter exhaust. Some window units have a little louver to allow some small fraction of the inside air to flow out, or outside air to flow in (it depends on the exact model), so one might call this an “outside air inlet” at the risk of confusing it with the major inlet of outside air to the condenser. At any rate I don’t think I’ve ever seen this louver called an “outside air inlet” on the device itself, more likely something involving “fresh air”.
Actually it’s the other way around, but close. And in fact I am an ME student
That is, the one on the left is the exhaust.
Usually, the condenser air blows directly out the back and, and if there are side or top louvers on the “outside” part of the cabinet, they are inlets. That would make the right window condenser exhaust, asuming the ducting is routed as straightforwardly as possible (which may not be true).
On the other hand, a clever bloke could reverse the airflow on the hot side. This may have some advantage because it puts less “fan heat” into the condenser.
That depends on the unit. I’ve seen them work both ways and those that exhaust out through the back don’t last as long because debris builds up on the inside of the cooling vanes where most yahoos can’t get to it.
Ever get that boxed in feeling? Open a window!
I was promised that everything would work right out of the box. As you can see though, some assembly was required.
Gotta’ give this guy credit for thinking outside of the box.
Not to mention thinking about cutting up the box.
As well as bringing the outside into the box.
as well as re-forming the box into something that more duct than box.
I was going to say that it would be nice to paint the boxes so that they matched the room’s decor, but then I realized that they probably do already.
Geek chic
New, from Dell Home Decor, the Cardboard Window Vent! Dude, you’re getting a Kludge!
Tin knocker in training
Not bad… (Not great either, but expediency counts.)
What do you do when there’s a heat wave coming, the landlord won’t fix the Central Air, and won’t allow you to mount your window unit in the window “And damage it!”…
You get another landlord, ASAP.
This assembly baffles me…Air today, gone tomorrow?
What duct tape was meant for, apparently.
Whell this is sooooo Perfect!!!! XD
And the Title could not be better!
I am actually thinking of doing something like this to
my dell workstation because it is sooo f* noisy…. :s XD
This will probably be lot on a lot of you, but the air-duct this carboard has made resembles the plastic ducking Dell uses on some of their lower-end models to use one fan to both cool the heat-sink and exhaust air from the PC. They want to save money by only putting one fan in the PC instead of two: A bit of molded plastic is always cheaper then a case fan, but the designs are always noisier and less efficient than the standard two-fan solution.
This ends my non-funny comment of the day. We now return you to your regular scheduled inane chatter, already in progress.
Fans aren’t that expensive, especially considering that Dell buys them by the cargo load. The ducting (not ducking) is to focus air on specific parts, but in the process, it blocks ventilation to other parts. That is very old thinking. If you’re going to use ducts and fans, include a way of cooling the memory, Northbridge, and Southbridge chips. You may as well include cooling for the capacitors. Those get hot too.
This is what started case modding in the early 90s. Overclockers and those who didn’t want to settle for the basic beige box began putting extra fans in cases, painting them, etc.
On topic: I really like the creativity of whomever rigged up the window unit. I hope that the Dell box came from a neighbour or a monitor, though.
Oh, Dell very much still does this in tower servers. There may be three or five fans, instead of one fan, but they do this! No CPU fans, but loads of ducting. Does work!
When the historical district authorities (condo police) say no window a/c’s, Draconian action is required to thwart the blue haired b***ches.
O.K. Delconian measures.
Like this AC unit, I’m baffled.
I find this apparatus absolutely frightening to look at. I’m serious! Iliterally have goosebumps! (sheepishly) Oh…right. *slowly stepping away from in front of the A/C unit*
I miss Paddy.
Ditto
I keep checking the Spam Filter to make sure he isn’t getting caught. Thought I was the only one that noticed he’d gone missing.
Thanks for checking on him Ms. Fix-it. His last excuse for dropping out was a bandwidth conflict. Maybe he just doesn’t love us any more.
Heck with the desktop a/c, I wanna see the water-cooled computer setup this guy has.
It’s held together with duck tape, but there’s a roll of masking tape on the table. Did he run out of duck tape near the end and picked up with masking tape?
Look at the top of the AC unit. The masking tape was used to seal the cardboard at the top of the AC.
ps – Duck is a brand of duct tape.
…and one of the most well known. therefore, like hoover – or “PC” – it’s probably ok to use it in place of the 100% correct name?
The Flea Circus was very pleased with construction of their new Giant Slalom course on the Dell Mountains. Not only was the course challenging, but the built in refrigeration system kept the slopes cold for optimum ski conditions.
One of the few times I’ve seen Dell and Windows working together so well.
Today’s bonus internets to you, sir.
The boxing is just a coverup. Under it… A MAC!
so you mean it’s a heater instead?
(only mac i’ve used at significant length was one of the hottest laptops its been my legs’ painful displeasure to experience)
this is – with no pun _originally_ intended – one of the coolest things I’ve seen on here. good recycling / use of available materials? check. cheap? check. cleverly and neatly made, and presumably effective? check!
in fact its an inspiration for the cause of reducing packaging – make the box into part of the device once it’s unpacked! Just make sure you include a small amount of spare card and tape (and/or: packing peanuts?) to patch any fraying, scoring or punctures suffered in transit.
Oh come on really, is a pun that bad? I mean after all, you did decide to go ahead and use it. You can’t help help yourself, so pun and be proud.
Duct tape actually being used to seal ducts!? A rare sight indeed.
Four words: Too much spare time. Taking what is obviously an air conditioner designed to be mounted in a window, putting it on a box and then concocting ductwork out of cardboard is a total waste of time. This air conditioner(sic) by design can only move a certain volume of air, and all the ducting in the world won’t change that. FAIL!
That’s probably like that because they aren’t allowed to have window units.
Drawn by subtle vibrations caused by the air conditioner’s compressor, the boax constrictor slipped silently through the open window, unseen by it’s victim. As birds chirpped and children played, happily out on the sunny streets, the constrictor prepared to engulf the unsuspecting appliance.
I am a PC and Windows 7 was my idea (kludge).
So this is what ductboard is.
Where’s the drain line and 5 gallon bucket to catch the water this will produce?
It shouldn’t be necessary. Window AC units have a built-in drip pan, and there is a “slinger” on the condenser fan to splash the condensate onto the condenser coil, which is hot and evaporates the water almost instantly. This has the added effect of cooling the condenser, which makes the unit run more efficiently.
Window AC units only drip when somebody installs them out of level.
I concur, a mere 23:47 ago (see post below)
Wait a few days and this will have a really bad ending. The moisture that would normally drip out the back will destroy the cardboard ducting and the cardboard support it’s sitting on. Failed Kludge.
Until a dip pan is added!
Hmm. If they’d raised the A/C unit up a few inches, they could have made a trough from cardboard, covering it with duct-tape for waterproofing. Put it under the A/C, tilt it to drain out the window.
Yup. Condensation is going to ruin this unless there’s something to collect it in that white box. If there is, though, it wouldn’t go far before it gets mildewed.
Last time I kludged a window unit A/C into a window too wide for it with duct tape & cardboard, I ended up with a huge paper-wasp nest inside the space between the storm window and the A/C … And yes, I did figure this out when there were several large, annoyed paper wasps buzzing around in my bedroom. Haven’t slept with both eyes shut since.
That window unit is going to drip water all over the place once it gets going. My mom tried running one sitting on a table. The coils get all frosted over, then the condensation melts and has to drip somewhere.
I agree, I used to have a neighbor who lived upstairs. I’d wake up at 4 am to a waterfall. After about the 3rd time. I went up there and put the dang AC in the window for him.. Some people just need help I guess.
All he needs now is a TOASTER
I may be wrong but this might be even cleverer than it looks at first. Given that two windows are in use, I think the kludger is attempting to direct the hot, damp exhaust through one window while drawing cooler, slightly less-damp air in through the other.
Not sure what ultra-clever purpose the box under the unit serves, other than adjusting the height. Perhaps it doubles as a spare filter storage locker?
The problem is now the compressor is inside the house. It is made to go in a window so all the heat can be radiated off outside. Now all that heat is trapped in the house. Plus where is the condensor draining now? On the floor? All this work has probably made it hotter and more humid inside the house. Nice.
Many larger window units are ducted so as to be able to fit into a wall opening with the compressor inside the building. The condenser fan removes the compressor heat quite well enough.
Being the hotter part of the machine, the condenser (outdoor coil) does not collect the moisture. It is called the condenser because that’s where the refrigerant is condensed, not because of what happens to moisture in the air. The evaporator (indoor coil) gets wet from condensation of moisture in the room air and drains into the cabinet bottom. The condenser fan typically has a ring around the blades to pick up and fling this condensate through the condenser fins. This action removes more heat from the condenser and improves the efficiency of the system. Draining the pan through other means removes this efficiency bonus. However, if the cabinet is not within some range of the optimum angle, the condenser fan may not spit out the water quickly enough. You know the rest.
Say what you will, this is a smart idea, specially in places where window units get stolen all the time. And you do not have to take up an entire window either.
I have to admit, I HAVE cone this very thing before. I ran a condensate pan to water some houseplants though.