cooling your tent or van

[illy dilly]

Then to get us back on track.
What did you pull that fan out of?
Do you think a computer fan would work?

[FIGJAM]

I like these fans.

http://www.frozencpu.com/cat/l2/g36/c43 ... y_CFM.html

[FIGJAM]

The dayton is 4in. 3000rpm and 107cfm. $32.

[Mr. Lucky]

I'm loving all this discussion about homebrewing a swamp cooler. I've brought a couple failed attempts to the playa in the past, but this year my wife is going to be 5 months pregnant, so I'm starting early and will succeed.

My question is about maximizing the cooling effectiveness per watt of fan power. Would it be significantly beneficial to use a bigger bucket/box so that we would have more wetted surface and still use the same 100-150 cfm fan? Is there some physical limit or ratio that says it's not worth oversizing.

My other question is about pressure in a decently sealed structure. We've been using a hexayurt for the past three years and love it. In reading here you all have talked about needing an exit fan. Stack mentions having 1 exit fan to 4 input fans. In our case we use some furnace filters taped in to the wall that provide passive eventing. Would that be enough? Again, I'm just trying to cut down on the amount of power I need to supply via solar.

Thanks all

[FIGJAM]

You just need to balance the amount of water on the pad and the amount of air drawing through it. More air, more water. I didnt use emitters on the water line cause they can clog with dirt or calsium build up. When that happens here, part of the pad is not getting water and it will suck hot air in at that spot. you can test by increasing water and air flow untill you are either getting dry areas on the pad or actually sucking water off the pad. Then you may need a larger bucket or box. They used water chillers with the same principle to cool the movie palaces before air conditioning and still use them to cool whole blocks of old gov. buildings here. Read the whole thread again in case I missed something. Hope I anwered your question.........lol.........Oh, you dont need an exit fan. Just balance the air coming in with the vent size going out. Here we open a window a little or vent out through the attic.

[FIGJAM]

Some good history here.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/barstowsteve/3586459468/

[FIGJAM]

Heres what a normal swamp cooler looks like.

http://www.homedepot.com/Appliances-Air ... ogId=10053

You could put a big 12 volt motor in this thing or if your on a grid it would work, but I wouldnt want to supply the power.

[FIGJAM]

[FIGJAM]

[rodiponer]

Yes, there is 12 volts AC. I don't know why, but some motors run off of it.

[capjbadger]

OK.......so my little fountain pump came today and i pluged it in to test (110 wallwart reduced to 12 volt) and it worked purfectly. THEN when i cut the cord and connected it to the battery it wouldnt work. What am I missing. Is there such a thing as 12 vac?

Take the cut end from the wall wart side and test the output so you know what the pump needs.

-Badger

[FIGJAM]

[FIGJAM]

Went to hf and bought this........

http://www.harborfreight.com/solar-powe ... 66093.html

it works great for this size cooler.

[AntiM]

Went to hf and bought this........

http://www.harborfreight.com/solar-powe ... 66093.html

it works great for this size cooler. There was a tech glitch with the discount pump...DONT BUY IT!!! Plus i dont need a switch for this pump cause no sun, it shuts down.

We were using ours in our evap pond, and weren't in camp when a white out hit. Dang thing kept running until the dust killed it.

[Ugly Dougly]

Can you use grey water in this?

[bm_cricket]

Can you use grey water in this?

Iiiiieeeewwwwwww....

How gray is your gray water? Mine is usually black and soupy.

[ConnieH]

Went to hf and bought this........

http://www.harborfreight.com/solar-powe ... 66093.html

it works great for this size cooler. There was a tech glitch with the discount pump...DONT BUY IT!!! Plus i dont need a switch for this pump cause no sun, it shuts down.

Good to hear! I bought one the other day, too...still need to collect the other parts and build this thing - thanks for posting all your updates, Figjam, I really appreciate you sharing everything since it will save me a lot of time collecting the right parts

I imagine you could use it with grey water if you added a filter, we were going to do something like that last year, but we didn't end up needing it. I'd be picky about the greywater, I'd only use "cleanish" grey water, the thought of inhaling rotten meat water vapor seriously grosses me out.

[gerlachedNloaded]

kinda like a hot dog... eww

[FIGJAM]

The big coolers here have a basket that the pump sets in to act as a filter. I dont think the shade cloth will let enough dust in to clog the pump, but you could wrap the pump in a shade cloth bindle just to refilter the water.

[FIGJAM]

[Goatlegz 5000]

Those computer fans don't have much push or pull when it comes sucking air and throwing it thru a tube. You should check out some smaller inline fans from a hydropinic store they move a lot of air efficiently. I have a 100cfm inline fan that only takes .28 amps or 33 watts. It would be a great fan for this and will also throw air thru a tube 5 times better than a computer fan. Also do you have to throw it thru that right angle piece could you let it go just straight up. Turns cut off quite a bit of air. I got the fan at hydrowholesale.com

[Goatlegz 5000]

You could also find a great pump at that website. They have a ton of different sizes and most come with pre filters. You could also get the irrigation there.

[FIGJAM]

[theCryptofishist]

Any advice on cooling my jets?

Or even my jests?

[FIGJAM]

There doesnt seem to be ANYWAY to slow you down crypto, so flame on baby, flame on.

[capjbadger]

Captjbadger.....the discount pump says 12 volt on the pump, I just didnt notice that it said vac right after that. The power from the battery is correct, but its not alternating current and I dont know how to change 12 volt dc to 12 volt ac.

If the pump runs on AC, that's a pain. The only way you'd be able to run it on a battery (DC) is hook the battery up to an inverter which will put out 120VAC (wall voltage) and then hook up the wall wart that came with the pump to that.

Or you can get a nice 12v DC pump. They're all over the place.

-Badger

[Token]

MG5K is correct. CFM means squat in this application since there is a lot of resistance for the air being moved.

You really want to look at the Static Pressure, usually listed as mm Hg. The higher, the better.

Most common designed are enclosed blowers or squirl cage.

That 200 CFM fan is likely pushing only 25 with all that water and filters.

Most reputable fan manufacturers have graphs for this.[/s]

[FIGJAM]

I got the solar pump and it works great. I may up the size on the water lines for less resistance as these pumps are made for pushing water but not producing pressure. The fans are also working great as the cooler pad is very porse and doesnt seem to restrict air flow. Just have to have plenty of holes in the bucket, but thanks for the responces token and capt.

[capjbadger]

Very cool idea all in all (no pun intended).

I've actually used those same solar fountain pumps (mine has batteries that get charged) for the swamp cooler I bult. i might just have to build another l now like this one. It would hold more water and I could make the airflow better.

Plus you can't beat the nice built-in handle!

-Badger

[FIGJAM]

got any pictures? Id like to see it.