Part of the build hinges on the AC unit, so I opened that up to check out what I'm dealing with. It's quite simple and compact. Here is a picture of the front right, showing the evaporator coil, the room recirculation blower, and the condenser fan. The blower and condenser fan are both powered off the same double ended motor. Note the yellow wire in front of the coil, this is the temp sensor, reading air being pulled into the AC unit (room temp air). This is an electronic sensor, and the AC displays the current air temp in the room when you are not setting the desired air temp.
Evaporator Coil/Recirc Blower by jseyfert3, on Flickr
Back left of the unit, showing the condenser coil, compressor, and electronics housing.
Condensor Coil/Compressor by jseyfert3, on Flickr
Some sort of goo/putty on the top of the compressor, not sure why it's there. It's not really sticky, more like the kind of removable putty you can use to mount posters.
Compressor Goo by jseyfert3, on Flickr
I had only tested the AC once before, and only for a little bit. I wanted to give it a run and make sure it was good before I start hacking it. Problem is my garage was 58 °F, and the AC lowest setting is 64 °F. So I simply pinched the temp probe and held it to run the AC. Note the bottom coils are starting to freeze up.
Temp Probe/Coil Ice by jseyfert3, on Flickr
I used a digital food thermometer to measure the air temp. It was blowing out air around 32 °F, as the garage was 58 °F this is a difference of 27 °F. I'd say it's working okay. Once I let go of the temp probe and the compressor shut off, the light coat of ice that was forming disappeared almost instantly. My guess is it only started icing due to the temp of the garage, it was running below the lowest setting on the unit. Also it's not very humid, that probably helped cause the ice as well.
From the design, it appears most of the condenser cooling air comes in the right side of the unit and top sides of the unit. Some enters the left side, but this appears mainly to be compressor cooling air, as there is nowhere near the airspace for good airflow on the compressor side of the unit.