DIY hybrid water heater and air conditioner for my solar trailer project

Take standard $98 small room 5200BTU air conditioner and re-think just where all that electric energy is going. ALL AIR CONDITIONERS ARE HEAT PUMPS! Instead of extracting the heat in the air inside your house on hot summer days, and just literally throwing all that heat out the window, heat water with it and save all that energy. duh. You can also opt to buy a commercially available "hybrid water heater" now being advertised by some companies - they do the same thing.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• DIY
• hybrid
• water
• heater
• air
• conditioner
• energy
• green
• howto
• heat
• pump

[stretcharoni]

OK - this idea worked pretty well. I've been living OFF-THE-GRID now since November 12, 2010 and have come up with a much better solution. For now, I will only say that in my super-insulated dwelling, 1Kw of photovoltaic panels was plenty of energy to run all of my appliances in the Winter. That's because ALL of your electric appliances produce heat weather you like it or not... consequently, I needed NOTHING to keep me toasty warm even on the coldest Winter nights here in ...continued...

[stretcharoni]

@stretcharoni ...in North Central Florida. We usually get maybe 10 hard freezes (27F or below) per season. I had to move my 4.4cu ft refrigerator outside over the Summer, because the heat produced by that appliance alone was not acceptable. I had to run my 5000btu room A/C too often to keep my living space cool. I now have almost 4Kw of Solar PV panels, more batteries, etc. So for NEXT Summer I will have plenty of power AND an elegant solution to keeping cool. BTW, I am @theviperguy on Twitter.

[swiftfraud09]

wow. nice viper in the background.

[stretcharoni]

@swiftfraud09 viper? oh yeah... i've been living off-the-grid since Nov 2010 and need to get some new videos up. many people don't understand how the same dude can be so "green" on one hand, and also own a viper. to me, it's no problem... i don't commute anywhere in the viper - that's not what vipers are for. i own a viper because i can. also, because i love the experience of driving my ultimate dream car.

[phatsouljoe]

hi, great work. I would like to know more about your project, would you be able to share with me more?

[stretcharoni]

@phatsouljoe Sure thing is there any particular area that you are interested in?

[MrEnergyCzar]

This is the kind creativity we need in this country from everybody...it's a lost art now..

[MB031]

Not a good idea.You need to remove the heat not leave it cycling.Try to just spray carefully the condenser with water hose and you will see immediate Amps. drop,but you can't keep it running it will lead to compressor failure.The best so far in Florida is geo loop heat pump.What we need down here is efficient dehumidifier,not oversized AC units.Humidity control equals comfort..I built myself geo loop 4Ton dehumidifier with variable blower speed fan and it takes 1.8kW to comfort my 2000sqf.house.

[dylmcil]

it called heat reclaim or a cogeneration system the only thing is if your water temp gets to high the system will cut out on high head pressure and if the system does not have a H/P cut out the systems cooling efficiency will drop and the comp may over heat due to the increase in suction pressure.

[Alientraveler003]

Lol the viper is on the dirt and his tryin to warm water lol

[Alientraveler003]

Show us the ac on the viper and toss that mess on the drive way

[stevo0625]

uhm... call me picky, but that will never produce enough heat to warm water. Besides, even if it did, then once the water got hot - the A/C would quit working. So this is double fail--> the water will never get hot and the warm water will just impede the A/C unit because it cant release the heat.

[slamdvw]

Made a pool heater that way. Used a one ton unit and made a custom condenser coil in a tube. Circulated pool water through the tube. Only problem we had was without the fan to cool the motor it overheated. We just cut a hole and used air from the evaporator instead.

[youngbeechnut78]

That's what I call taking advantage of the heat! Hope your not going to submerge that coil in your drinking/ shower water cause that coil has a galvanized plate that will corrode poisoning yourself!

[Znitso]

Hey, quick question. Did you by that ac unit brand new for only 98 $?