cooling your tent or van

[cahlm]

just finished:

[kman]

Looks great, cahlm!

I wish I could find one of those damn perfect bowls.

[cahlm]

Looks great, cahlm!

I wish I could find one of those damn perfect bowls.

Found mine at the Dollar Store. Oh, those fans put the FAN in FANTASTIC!

Har-har-har...

[FIGJAM]

I think while us cooler people are walking or riding around on the playa that we should randomly yell out "Turn the fucking cooler on."

If you built a cooler the proper responce will be " I did turn the fucking cooler on." That way it will be easy for us to find each other.

Its art damn it!

[kman]

Looks great, cahlm!

I wish I could find one of those damn perfect bowls.

Found mine at the Dollar Store. Oh, those fans put the FAN in FANTASTIC!

Har-har-har...

Clearly y'all have a better class of dollar store. The ones my local shop had pretty much suck. It should do the job, but not as nicely as the ones you and FigJam are using.

[jpccusa]

Maybe I'll post this here for some physics guru to answer (for BM 2011).

Anyway we could move water upward using wind instead of the electrical pump suggested? Perhaps centrifugal force upside down cone connected to a windmill? Archimedes screw connected to a windmill? Any other idea connected to a windmill?

It would be nice to worry about electricity for the fan alone.

Your swamp coolers are great ideas. Thanks for sharing!

[FIGJAM]

I couldnt find the bowl I wanted at the dollar store, but goodwill had more choice.

Take your tape mesure with you.

[cahlm]

Question: if the pad was more saturated, would the air be cooler? It feels really nice now, but it could always be cooler.

[FIGJAM]

Question: if the pad was more saturated, would the air be cooler? It feels really nice now, but it could always be cooler.

Not really. The temp reduction can only be about 30 degrees under optimum conditions.

As long as you are not getting any dry spots on the pad it will be fine.


Dont hesitate to put as many holes in the bucket as you can for max air flow.

[cahlm]

Yeah, I just added a few more holes. Building a resovoir water tank now. I'm hoping it's warm enough to use these damn things considering all the time we put into 'em.

[FIGJAM]

Its the big magic.

Get a bunch of people to prepare for something so that it wont happen.

[FIGJAM]

Last chance BUMP.

[FIGJAM]

My cooler worked great.

The playapod was far from completly sealed, but the little bit of positive pressure from the cooler kept the dust out so well that I just now shook the sheet that was covering my bedding and there was no dust! NONE!!!!!!!

I think the damp pad washed the air coming in.

The moist cool air kept my sinises from drying out also.

So........Tell me how your cooler did. Good, bad, or other and we can tweek them for next year.

[cahlm]

Mine worked great. I mainly used it just sitting in the dome with it pointed straight at my face. Next year, I'm definitely going bigger/stronger. Thanks FIGJAM for the cool air this year.

[Trishntek]

Had mine but never needed it! Between the mild weather and tons of shade, I never felt uncomfortably hot the entire week!

[ConnieH]

My cooler worked fantastic once I finally hooked it up! It didn't cool the entire yurt, but the vent right over the bed allowed me to nap comfortably later in the week when it started to warm up. During early arrival I was wishing that thing was a heater

I didn't get around to installing an exhaust fan in the roof of the yurt, but I think some kind of roof exhaust would be helpful for maximum cooler efficiency. I could feel where the lower 4 feet or so of the hexayurt was cool, and the upper "cone" was still warm - the hot air was rising and had nowhere to go but out the side windows, which are about 40" from the floor.

And it was lovely to meet you Figjam!

[FIGJAM]

It was a pleasure to meet you Connie.

I ment to come by later to see your cooler and visit but there was to much to see.

What fan did you settle on?

Oh, And thank you for the lovely gift!

[kman]

I agree some sort of roof ventilation (trickiest to keep playa from entering, unfortunately) would improve the efficiency.

My cooler worked out quite well, although I really only used it on the two hottest afternoons. I agree it wasn't really enough to cool the whole yurt, but pointing it right at my bed really helped catch those extra hot afternoon Z's in comfort. I ended up using my Endless Breeze fan as a booster, hanging right in front of the output duct, which seemed to help a lot.

(I used everything so little, I had lots of power to spare... never even bothered to bring out the solar array, in fact, just ran off the one battery all week, with no need to recharge.)

As fun as it all was, however, I was glad of the mild weather during the run. I think next year I may just bite the bullet, pick up a Honda genny and a small window AC unit, and go all out. I'll pass my swamp cooler onto a fellow yurt dweller in my camp so it doesn't go to waste.

[FIGJAM]

I ran my cooler on the lowest speed (250cfm 1.44amp including pump) when I did need the cooler.

Had to use a blanket when I napped every afternoon.

The 92ah AGM lasted all week!

[Tin Halo]

Looks great, cahlm!

I wish I could find one of those damn perfect bowls.

Any good restaurant supply place worth their salt will have plastic or metal versions of that bowl for a few bucks. I got a nice, shiny metal one to make my photographer's beauty dish out of. Cost me all of $3.95.

[FIGJAM]

bump

[FIGJAM]

Here's the link: http://www.axiontech.com/prdt.php?item=57484

55.5dBA vs. 41dBA for the 107cfm fan on the same website, so probably noisy, but that doesn't bother me so much since I usually sleep with earplugs anyway and I can sleep through just about anything, even the whomp-whomp sound camps.

Just ordered this fan.

I will update this tread when it arrives.

[FIGJAM]

I love this fan!

For spaces small enough fo the bucket cooler its great and not that noisy.

I still think that a space as large as a yurt needs the box cooler.

[BAS]

At the University of Wisconsin's surplus store (known as SWAP-- "Surplus With A Purpose), they had a bucket full of fans like that for $1 each. I picked up two of them-- after all, at that price there HAD to be a use for them!

[Turnip]

I just put my tent inside of a bigger tent, then insulted the inner tent with blankets kept in place with a lot of tesa tape.

Then we cut aligning holes in the two tents big enough to cram a normal every day window air conditioning unit. We sealed the edges with more tape and ran the cord from the generator inside. Not only did it keep it tolerable, but downright cold.

It was, to be completely honest, stupidly simple and worked great.

We had 10 year veterans complimenting our structure and thinking we were joking about being virgins.

[Montanarchist]

Someone asked earlier in the thread how to calculate solar panel size by Amperage draw for direct drive (no battery) operations; here is what you need to know: Convert the amp draw to wattage: A(amp)=W(watt) divided by V(voltage), therefore, W=V multiplied by A. All panels are rated by Wattage. A 12Vnominal system will actually operate somewhere around 14.4V(use this for your V calculations.) Some 12V panels will put out 19V(or more;) make sure all your components can handle that much voltage. Panel wattage is calculated by the manufacturer using OPTIMUM conditions. A general rule of thumb is to deduct 20% from rated capacity, for the dusty conditions of the Playa I’d deducted at least 35%. These deductions are for quality name brand panels; not the cheap crap from Harbor Freight; I’d at least double the requirements for those panels. These are just guidelines and YMMV; on one very cold winter day when the solar horizon was nearly perpendicular to my panel’s angle (50 degrees) I got 1920W from my array that is rated at 1800W. Panels perform better in cold weather and worse in hot weather (the high day time temperatures on the Playa will affect your performance negatively, so I’d deduct another 10%.) Some new panels will sometimes outperform their ratings for the first couple of months of use, but you can’t count on it. Mono-crystalline panels outperform amorphous and other types of panels, but use the factory ratings anyways. If using quality panels I would also suggest a lightning arrestor (premade units cost around $30 but, homemade designs can be found on the net,) a good ground is also critical to protect your investment. Another thing to keep in mind when sizing your direct drive panels is what is called “Start-up Surge.â€

[FIGJAM]

What are the dimentions of this unit?

I was trying to keep it simple and compact so that anybody would have room to bring one.

Where does the water go after it runs through the pad?

It looks like you intend to gauge an exact amount of water on the pad so there wont be any extra to run out of the bottom.

Since relative humidity is not a constant, I cant see how that would work.

Im I missing something?

My basic design ran all week on one 92ah AGM battery.

[Montanarchist]

What are the dimentions of this unit?
I was trying to keep it simple and compact so that anybody would have room to bring one.

If the ram intake unit is installed it would measure ~14" X ~48" not including the intake "horn" and tail. The basic unit (that would require fan powered air movement would be 12" X "36 assembled, for travel it would be the size of two 5 Gallon buckets stacked inside each other.

Where does the water go after it runs through the pad?

Some tinkering to find the correct valve setting would be required for maximum efficiency, since RH does vary if someone wanted maximum efficiency all the time a 5 gallon bucket lid could be modified e.g. cut out the entire middle portion for air flow, and a catch container (similar to a grease can on a BBQ) could be hung below a hole on the rim to catch any excess H2O.

My basic design ran all week on one 92ah AGM battery.

That is low power consumption indeed, but a lot of people (like myself) don't have extra deep cycle batteries just lying around (all 20 of my Trojan T105s are currently in use.)

[copilot602]

So I have been following this thread for awhile now. I actually made the base unit with the MegaFlow 200 Blue LED Silent Fan....but found dissapointing air flow. The Blue LEDs are nice though....

Is there any concensus on the best fan to use?


here are the specs on this fan:
Dimension (W / H / D) 200 x 200 x 30 mm
Speed (R.P.M.) 700 RPM
Air Flow (CFM) 110 CFM
Air pressure (mmH2O) 0.595 mm H2O
Noise 19 dBA
Bearing Type Sleeve Bearing
Fan Life Expectancy 30,000 Hours
Rated Voltage 12 VDC
Current (Ampere) 0.16 A (Max 0.28 A)
Power consumption 3.36 W

[FIGJAM]

Here's the link: http://www.axiontech.com/prdt.php?item=57484

55.5dBA vs. 41dBA for the 107cfm fan on the same website, so probably noisy, but that doesn't bother me so much since I usually sleep with earplugs anyway and I can sleep through just about anything, even the whomp-whomp sound camps.

Just ordered this fan.

I will update this tread when it arrives.

I really think this is the best fan for the bucket coolers.

How large a space are you trying to cool?