DIY Spot cooler

[jeff5may]

Originally Posted by F357

That does not mean that an intelligent, non electrician person can not safely and correctly do electrical work, but some electricians will lead you to believe that. The fact is it is perfectly legal, safe, and acceptable to do your own electrical work in your own home, it is not legal to do your own A/C work unless you have a license.

And more importantly, you can't do A/C work without also doing electrical work. Unless maybe you build a gas powered air conditioner....

it isn't all that difficult to obtain a license to work with commercial refrigerant. A few days of studying and a few dollars to take the test is not such an insurmountable task to accomplish. However, the skills required to pull off a safe and reliably working setup are diversified. In this realm, it is very difficult to just copy someone else who made a working system. Something about your unique rig is going to be different than the others. More than just the "how to" is needed to spot problems and deal with them in a safe manner.

Besides the electronic or electric skill, one must also possess strong knowledge of mechanical systems such as plumbing, ductwork, structural design, hydraulics and pneumatics, and heat transfer. As with any complex machinery, the end product is only as good as its weakest link. Taking a mass produced device and mutating it into something that serves a different purpose is not all that difficult. Making the new device act correctly and not waste energy or die in the process is much more challenging.

This challenge is what sucked me into the subject. Along with the high efficiency and great satisfaction of a successful project being brought online, the tinkerer in me has found a whole new universe to explore. The adrenaline junkie in me likes to build fast cars and race them, the mad scientist in me works on this stuff.