[Leica] Re: Darkroom ventilation

[Jim Brick <jim@brick.org>]

My darkroom is in my garage and it used to get really hot in the summer. 
Fortunately, one of my sons is in commercial/industrial air conditioning 
for the semiconductor industry. Clean rooms and all of that.

Anyway, I asked him about air conditioning for my 10'x10' darkroom and he 
got a Fujitsu split type room air conditioner and installed it for me. The 
compressor and evaporator are mounted on concrete outside my darkroom wall 
(the outside garage wall), two copper pipes (the feed and the return) and 
the electrical cable (four wires plus power) go between the compressor and 
the inside unit. The inside unit is mounted high on the wall over my sink 
and does not point toward either my enlarger or my JOBO. This inside unit 
contains the cooling radiator and fans. It is so quiet that you have to 
strain to hear it. It has a remote control with a myriad of functions. If 
set on high, ice cycles will form in the darkroom with 100 deg. E6 running 
and my 1100 watt enlarger running. The thing is amazing. Dead quiet and no 
wall shaking because the compressor and all of the guts are outside bolted 
to a driveway down the side of the garage. It was $900.

All of the self contained room air conditioners, those that sit on the 
floor in a room, were $900 and up. So the cost was comparable. But I got 
free installation so that would have to be figured in.

Jim


At 03:10 PM 9/16/2001 -0700, tm wrote:
>Tomorrow I am going to build an approximately 8 x 6 foot wood-based darkroom
>in my garage due to a lack of room in my house and too much dust in the
>overall garage space. Since the temperature therein reaches up to 100 in the
>late summer, I need intermittent cool air. Can someone recommend a portable
>air conditioner, not wall mounted, that won't break my bank account? (I'd
>rather spend less than $300). BTW, I bought the Sharper Image air purifier
>that Jim Brick recommended. Thanks.
>
>Terry

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