kesuki's Journal: my air condiditoner problem.

my apartment has a very poorly designed metal housing the surrounds my AC unit completely, the problem? airflow. with just the fan in the AC unit itself, the box climbs to about 110F what's wrong with that? well at that temperature, the apartment ceases to get cooler. now the simple solution is to get a fan, to increase the airflow. but Houston we have a problem. this box, only has vents at the very back. if i put a small (desk sized) fan there blowing out (has to be out) the AC works properly dropping the room about 1 degree in a variable amount of time, depending on outside temperature.

but there is only 5 1/2 inches back there, and a slanted grill, but in a heavy rain rain will come in there anyways. that's all and fine for an AC unit, they're completely weatherproofed. the problem, is getting a water proof outdoor fan. they sell plenty of outdoor fans, in all shapes and sizes, but all the ones i've looked at warn about not getting them wet. worse still, i will likely need to run my AC even when it's raining, i don't want to trip a breaker from leaving a fan running in the rain.

i have a window fan, but it doesn't quite look weather proof to me. i suppose i could hack the window fan, to make it 100% weather proof... but that's a daunting problem... i've thrown a few queries at google, but i don't know what would be the best method to make a fan waterproof, without making it wear out from not being able to cool itself properly. it's going to be running next to a very hot AC all summer long.... i'd rather have an inexpensive mod, rather than buy a completely different AC unit that 'completely' fills the unit to the back... i can tell already from accidentally leaving it on for 4 hours that without a fan it won't change the temperature of my place by more than a half a degree, and then plateau getting warmer as the outside does.

PC fan

[Justtaint]

I would think a 12 volt 120mm PC-like fan along with a shroud to shelter it from any rain would work just fine. Its a cheap solution ~$5, and if the fan stops working you just replace it.

Re:

[kesuki]

it would probably take at least 2 120 MM fans.

somebody suggested i make my own shroud for a fan. i've already got a good free idea of how to make a shroud using entirely free parts (at least, materials i already have access too) since i have a window fan already, i think i'll make the shroud around my 'existing' fan rather than buy new parts over the internet. although if i were going to go with Pc fans i already have enough spare 80 mms to put 4 along back of the AC unit.