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Old 04-14-13, 01:49 AM   #5
jeff5may
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dremd,
If it were me, I'd start out small to prove the effectiveness. Just spew water out of your pond pump pipe onto the existing evap somewhere it would only sling a little of water in the fan. Maybe up high near the top left corner? You could put in a vertical strip of something waterproof at the edge to block airflow. At a few gallons per minute, the drain hose for your window unit should be able to handle that volume of water. See if you gain any performance over air-only. My guess is that you will. Water conducts and carries heat MUCH better than air.

After preliminary testing, you can decide if you want to do better. The next step could be to add a txv where the capillary tube exists now. Then maybe add water cooling to the line between the condenser discharge and the txv. This way, you would get your existing air cooling plus water subcooling. Grab a small pack of the next tube size up from your existing line and a styrofoam 6-pack chest. Twist the tube up into some shape that will fit in the ice chest with room to run to the splice point, poke a few holes above water level to break out of the chest. Rig up an overflow drain to collect warm water, then figure out how to secure the chest before you cut or braze anything. With only 1/2 ton of heat flow, you would not need a very large exchanger.

Good luck, this stuff is addictive if you have the skill and patience!

jeff
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