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Author Topic: making a cooling unit  (Read 1261 times)

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skiblits

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making a cooling unit
« on: April 13, 2014, 11:32:34 PM »
So my place is huge and my roommates are not keen on the idea on the huge bill it will take to keep the whole house at 75 degrees. So to solve this problem my chinchillas have their own fairly small room. I have made an air cooler by getting a 5 gallon styrofoam cooler, cutting a hole in the top and putting a 3in. curved PVC pipe in it then cutting a hole in the other end of the top and placing a 6in fan in that hole. Then I place a gallon of frozen water in the cooler along with a few frozen bottle of water. When I turn the fan on it pushes the cold air out. When checking the temperature it seems to cool the room down decently when its not boiling hot outside. Outside it was at 80, the house was at 78 and the chin room was at 66.  When it gets hotter outside I want to make sure that the chins stay cool so I want to build one more cooling system. Is the way I have done my first one the best way to go or is there another more efficient and still cheap to make way to do a cooler.
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kageri

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Re: making a cooling unit
« Reply #1 on: April 14, 2014, 12:42:51 AM »
Can any of the moisture escape?  Humidity could be a problem if the water is not sealed in well as it melts.  Humidity is important when considering heat index and keeping chin coats healthy.
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skiblits

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Re: making a cooling unit
« Reply #2 on: April 14, 2014, 08:49:25 AM »
I do have a humidity guage in the room and it never goes above 30%. Most of the time the humidity is at 0%. I live in Colorado and its really dry here.
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GrayRodent

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    • Chris Hamilton
Re: making a cooling unit
« Reply #3 on: April 14, 2014, 03:08:13 PM »
As always the most important factor is heat. Make sure to have a plan B if for some reason your ice machine doesn't work as planned. Another thing to note is that if you are getting ice from your home refrigerator you can destroy your freezer's compressor because it will be running constantly to cool the water for the next round. Regular refrigerator/freezers are not designed for that. Your best option is to get a condenser based air conditioner either a window unit or free standing one. It works well.
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skiblits

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Re: making a cooling unit
« Reply #4 on: April 15, 2014, 11:02:25 AM »
I'm not actually using any ice. I now have 10 gallon water jugs that I keep frozen and 7 24oz water bottles that stay frozen. We have 3 freezers so I have been able to keep them all frozen and I rotate them out of the cooler every few hours when the ice inside of the jugs starts the melt. I also have 3 granet slabs that I rotate out of the freezer when I need to. I would love to get a real air contitioner for the room but I don't have $400 to spend on one right now which is why I have resulted to making my own, which seems to be working fine.
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Chins4Life089

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Re: making a cooling unit
« Reply #5 on: April 15, 2014, 07:31:43 PM »
Could get a pic of this. I don't have the money to buy a 600 dollar free standing ac unit so I thought about making a couple of these to help with my home ac.  (My room gets hot even when the ac is on)
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GrayRodent

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Re: making a cooling unit
« Reply #6 on: April 15, 2014, 08:15:13 PM »
I strongly recommend you put a thermometer right next to the cage. If it exceeds 76F it is unsafe and you need to have a plan of action.
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