Captain Goddammit wrote:What a bunch of bullshit.
Yes swamp coolers work OK... if you like damp swampy not-as-cool-as-A/C air.
I run full time A/C and I don't spend all my time looking after gear. With the right fuel tank plumbed in, I never fuel up all week.
Your swamp cooler works but trying to make up reasons why A/C is so horrible is simply BS, or you're just not doing it right.
Want to take a temp reading in your abode then compare it to the temp and humidity in mine? I'll make you a sizable (non-monetary of course... it's Burning Man after all) bet mine is cooler and dryer, and LESS work to maintain. I don't have to tend to the water level, or do anything at all but hit the switch.
Swamp coolers use less electricity but if you have the ability to make the electricity, who cares.
See you on the playa... unless I'm sleeping off the hottest part of the day, shivering under my blanket.
Not all A/C units are the same. Look at how a portable one-hose unit works...
Glad your setup works for you, but for someone looking to get setup, how can they know what will or won't work. Someone with that one-hose unit sure wouldn't have got the cooling they expected.
Look at the people with their rental RV's generator and A/C unit. With some, one or the other or both fail on-playa. Not only are they now without cooling that they were expecting to rely upon, some get charged to replace those entire units upon such failure.
And whatever the generator/A/C combo setup, some people have medical needs and were counting on having cooling from their A/C, only the fins clogged, and/or fried the starter relay, or the pump wore out or grossly overheated from too hot air or heat-retention from dust coating, or it simply didn't have a robust enough duty cycle to cool their shelter (does it have a shut-down mode, or will it burn out, or manage to limp along?), or it had to run more than expected and not enough fuel, etc. ... These things happen.
How can someone know in advance what the actual condition of their generator or a/c is, and its suitability of condition or engineering or operation for playa use. Or if their unit will run fine (with the weather & dust of
this Burning Man) with or without extra dust filters. With or without cleaning the fins out during the week? How many times? Will it appear to run fine, only end up cooking the starter relay and it's dead in the water.
A generator/A/C combo has significantly more points of failure. The consequences of those failures can be significant (including: carbon monoxide, fire). And a large number of factors can determine if that a/c will do what someone expects. And cost. And noise, and noise and fumes for neighbours. Hear tons of complaints about generator noise.
Add up everything involved.
So for someone going for the first time, or needing cooling for the first time, how can they maximize the likelihood of having cooling all week...
We can warn someone when they get some inappropriate gear, like a one-hose unit. But we can't know if their generator/a/c setup will actually do the job they're expecting.
However, sticking with the proven DIY swamp-cooler designs, you know exactly what you're going to get. Deviate from the proven designs, and you won't know.
And if you're going to tell me that you haven't heard about any of the generator or a/c or rv horrors in all the years you've been here, that would be bullshit.
The laws of physics that govern the engineering involved are not going to change because you don't like them...
Video games are giving kids unrealistic expectations on how many swords they can carry.
.
... but don't harm the red dragon that frequents the area from time to time. He and I have an agreement.