An update:
I built an insulated tower for air intake at 6 foot for cooler air (10F hotter than ambient here near the groundin still air from sun heating of the earth), and an evaporative pre-cooler. The precooler is just a single aspen pad, with a standard 230VAC evap cooler pump (70W). I upgraded to a new (surplus on ebay) Panasonic 1350W compressor after finding that the used LG compressor had starting problems, and lousy performance at higher current draw.
I added an Arduino nano, power monitor via I2C, 6 Dallas one wire temperature sensors, and a 4x20 character LCD display, and a stepper motor driver board for a Chinese EEV. I also got a larger brazed plate heat exchanger, and increased my water flow rate from 2 GPM to 3.2GPM with a Lang D5 12V pump.
It now cranks out 15-17K BTU (10 degrees of cooling at 3.2GPM) on 1400W to total power (320 of those watts for fan and water pump), the compressor is loafing and runs at only 115F on the top of its case.
The one area that needs work still is that even going to a larger EEV I have found that my filter dryer seems to be restricting flow enough that there is no change from opening beyond half way. That's an easy fix problem but today I just wanted to take advantage of the heat and give it a long shake down run.
As I write I am now (ever so slowly) cooling my house while its about 95F outside, on my solar PV/inverter system. Its been a very educational project.
Evaporative pre-cooling makes for a near doubling of performance at the same power level on hot days in the high desert.
PS- The line of temperatures on the display are: Incoming air, cooled air, HP refrigerant line, Suction refrigerant line, Water into BPHE, Water out of BPHE. The dT and KB (K Btus) are full accuracy. EEV position is 300. Ill try to find and add one more photo. The difference between the displayed watts and volts times amps is due to power factor. An inverter must provide the full VA, not just the "real" watts so I should change my display to that.
PPS- The Control box with Arduino Nano is squeezed in next to my propane (backup) water heater. I used all standard drivers for the power and temperature monitoring. The Dallas One wire software is very slow, about 1.5 seconds for updating all 6 sensors plus a bit of floating point math for that and the power monitor board but that's OK. Right now I have manual switches as inputs to the Arduino for controlling the EEV and power relays. By next summer, it will be automated. Te perf board left of the Arduino is just a 5V linear regulator and an analog circuit that senses water flow rate and shuts down the compressor power immediately if flow rate drops below 2 GPM; that assures no water freezing and the resulting wrecking of the heat exchanger.
