# AC unit Fog Chiller



## hydehaunt (Jan 22, 2008)

Hello gang, I have been playing with the idea of using an AC unit as a fog chiller hack, have no idea where to start. The gentlemen's video below looks like he figured it out. Does anyone have any thoughts of how? If this haunter is on the forum maybe he can educate us?  Thanks, HH


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## Brad Green (Jul 29, 2004)

I'd been thinking about this same idea for a few years now, a small ac unit with the air intake closed off with the exception of a 3" inlet for the fogger. Fogger shoots into the inlet and comes out through the units cold air vent. In principle, the idea seems sound, just never tried it out. Maybe it's finally time to put theory to the test!


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## niblique71 (Dec 2, 2009)

Interesting idea indeed. I've never measuerd the actual temperature comming out of an A/C unit.. I would suspect that it's between 55 and 65 degrees when on high power. It could work very well in warmer climates.

Keep us updated.


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## corey872 (Jan 10, 2010)

Ideally, the coils of a well functioning AC unit should get down to ~38-40F, so it could make a decent chiller. By design, the coil shouldn't go below 32F or you'll freeze the water condensate on the coil. Though as the volume of air through the coils falls, the air will approach the temp of the coils.

In the video, I believe the gent mentions 95F outside, and the chiller is in the garage - so that is not a bad environment for dense, ground hugging fog. A 40F Halloween night, and a light breeze would make for a bit more trouble.


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## pagan (Sep 9, 2009)

I seem to remember previous threads regarding this and the issue always seemed to come down to a debate about whether or not a momentary pass through a cooling fin array would cool the relatively hot fog enough.. Fog volume, fog temp vs ambient temp, and that old favorite... Surface area. The results I have seen have not been impressive, I guess that's why we continue to build chillers with ice, chicken wire, PVC and coolers/trash cans (niblique's works of art are another matter entirely).


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## randomr8 (Oct 24, 2009)

Well, I made one with an old dorm fridge that I got from dumpster dive that worked well and I'm pretty sure somewhere in the back of my shed I've a working AC unit or two that I can take apart. I'll see if I can get a proof of concept going in the next month, unless someone gets to it before me.


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