Protecting Swamp Coolers in Playa Dust Storms

[Zippy]

I just ran my first trial test with a swamp cooler in my hexayurt. It
worked well, however, the dust on the Playa adds a confounding factor
that I’m unable to trouble shoot in advance. My goal is to develop a
system that is fairly resistant to dust influences. I’ll illustrate
my idea, then maybe others could throw in some feedback.

I’m using a commercially available swamp cooler:

http://www.symphonycomfort.com/cooler_surround.html

The Design:

I’ve installed this cooler through one of the walls, sitting on the
ground. I have cut two 6 inch exhaust ducts in the roof near the
peak, with collapsible foil dryer tubes leading out and down the
outside of the roof, with residential dryer check valves on them, to
hopefully eliminate backdraft of dust through the exhaust vents in a
storm. I tested this system over the weekend and all is well.

One thing remains. How can I manage the dust that gets sucked in to
the swamp cooler in a dust storm? The simple answer might be “Shut
down the swamp cooler when the dust blows!” But the point of the
swamp cooler is to be able to sleep through the day, and if I’m
sleeping, I'll be unaware of the situation outside. So I am hoping to
build a system that could operate through a dust storm, at least
within reason. As a first line of defense, I’ll ask neighboring
friends to cut my generator if they see it running in the storm.

Proposed solution:

I am building a totally sealed dust box around the outside of the
swamp cooler with the RMAX, with a furnace filter intake panel. This
sounded like a good plan until someone told me that furnace filters do
not filter playa dust! Questions ...

• Is this true?
• If true, are some furnace filters better than others, i.e. does
buying the highest grade make a difference?
• Would two furnace filters work better, or only restrict airflow,
putting stress on the fan?

Thanks to any and all feedback!

And then ... there is generator protection ... <sigh>.

[Tony Beletti]

Zippy

I'm not sure there is a good way around your filtering problem.  The more you filter and seal around your cooler, the hard its fan/motor have to work and the less efficient it becomes.  The wet media will naturally filter dust out of the air that enters your yurt, but the pads are the filter and will fill up with dust regardless.  I will be using my DIY trashcan cooler and just plan to only run it when the wind and dust are at a minimum.  I also plan on wrapping the cooler up with something when not in use to prevent excess dust from lining the media.

Tony

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[David Kelso]

My first attempt at a swamp cooler was based on this:
http://www.appropedia.org/Burning_Man_Evaporative_Cooler
I used some washable furnace filter mounted vertically in a painter's
bucket. The vast majority of the dust fell to the bottom of the
bucket, and as long as I emptied it daily, I didn't even need to clean
out the filter. That was with a ~300cfm fan though, which is about
half of what yours puts out.
Looking at your cooler, that might not be an option because your
intake isn't a duct, but I thought I'd throw it out there anyway.

[roger jones]

is there any video's or diagrams on hot to make the diy trashcan cooler...thanks Roger... --- On Tue, 8/3/10, Tony Beletti <tbel...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Bill]

1) furnace filters come in varying grades of filtering ability. The
best will filter out playa dust. However, the best also present the
highest resistance to air flow. It's a trade-off.
2) My TurboKool swamp cooler works much like Tony described his. The
pad is the filter and water flowing over or against the pad
automatically cleans it, leaving most dust at the bottom and out of
the way. I took out the pad out at one point to clean, and found it
didn't need to be cleaned. I originally put a furnace filter over
the air intake last year, but soon found it was superfluous.

Bill

[nutrapuppy]

I borrowed a small vintage swamp cooler 2 years ago, which was destroyed when our gennie blew some kind of square wave at the entire camp.

I had it outside a little window, it worked fine and just as has been reported, the filter didn't ever need much cleaning because the water took the dust to the bottom of the tank.

NOW I have purchased one on wheels, the smallest I could find online. It looks kinda like the Symphony in the previous link. But I have no idea about the inner workings.

I suppose this new one needs to sit outside and I have to figure a contraption to capture all the output and deliver it through a window. The marketing seems to indicate you can use it inside any room, but that would last all of 10 minutes in a Hexayurt before you have to ventilate with new dry air.

Right? Otherwise the moisture inside would keep it from cooling any further.

--

[Bill Wiltschko]

You're right.  A swamp cooler needs a constant source of dry air that the unit will make wetter and cooler.  You're also right about building a "contraption."  That was my last year's project.  I built a plenum, a box on which the swamp cooler sat, that had an open end connected to a window near the ground of one of the Hexayurt walls.

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [hexayurt] Re: Protecting Swamp Coolers in Playa Dust
Storms

[nutrapuppy]

I just got my cooler delivered and it is much larger than I expected, though it had smaller dimensions than others I saw online.

Is there any benefit to running it inside, but with a little duct to the outside?

I am thinking it would keep dust off of it almost entirely, and would it not cool better if it was that much more out of the sun? Also, mine has a lot of controls on the upper front. I have plenty of room to keep it inside...so is there a reason I should NOT do that ,assuming I do what it takes to get dry air input from a duct-to-window rig?

Thanks,
NP

[Bill Wiltschko]

I'm going to speculate on both questions, since I don't know what your exact configuration is.  Inside placement will keep the cooler itself out of the sun, but the air flow is so high I'll bet you wouldn't notice the difference.  Keeping dust off the cooler, as opposed to inside the cooler where it can't be helped, has little practical value other than cosmetic.  The decision to put it inside or outside should have more to do with how difficult or kludgey the mechanical construction will be.  If inside, you'll have to get water to it as well as air.  You want your air duct into the hexayurt to have an area the same or greater than the intake or outlet of the cooler,whichever way you go.

Bill

[Cody Firestone]

IT DEPENDS ON HOW YOU RUN IT.

 

we have a cooler where the cool air ducts away, and the intake is drawn in from a bank of furnace filters.

 

the intake air comes in from a square frame, then passes directly into a box.  it is directed down a baffle, this changes the air direction and scrubs a surprising amount of dust.

 

it passes under the baffle into the chamber with the swamp... then the cooled air is drawn from the center, out a duct the size of the 8 inch fan and directly into the side of our monkey hut shade structure.

 

the sleeping is INSDIE the monkey hut ( a big pvc pipe shade.. like a big quanset hut) and we keep it totally open most of the time.  if we leave the camp, we close up the zippers on the tent.

 

at night, we open up the end flaps of the monkey hut when we are awake and blow in nice cool dry nightime air.  when we go to sleep, we close it back up, and use simple air intake vent.

 

the water pump is solar, so when the sun comes up in the morning, it starts pumpng the water onto the "swamp" and the cooling begins.

 

at night, it just pumps moisture into the tent and seems a bit "muggy" so thats why we turn off the water pump at night.

 

 

 

since we have a filtered inlet, we keep the machinery outside.

 

if you dont have a filtered inlet, or you want to recirculate the air inside a large structure, you problem is that unless you have an exhaust for all that humidity, you are basiclly becoming a humidifier, not a swamp cooler.

 

this MAY be ok if you have a LOT of ventilation anywyas,.. but if thats the case, why even try? it will be dust city.

 

so my sugesstion is to keep the machinery outside (quieter, more effective cooling hot dry air into cool mosit air.  other wise it is simply mosit air) and direct the cooler air immediately into the shade structure / hut.

 

hope it goes well!

 

 

[nutra...@gmail.com]

Cody, Bill, thanks so much. 

I had not considered the noise of it...not to mention the potential mess when getting water to it inside.

I think i'll make a little outdoor hut for it with an input duct that changes direction. Crafty idea.

Then I'll cut a big enough window for me to easily reach the control panels. I can probably find some scrap materials to make an airtight seal between the unit and the Hyurt.

Peace,
Np

-- Sent from my Palm Prē

---

--

[Cody Firestone]

i would suggest

 

you can make a square frame that holds the furnace filters, and have a square to round duct adapter.  this goes to elbow (down) then to a "t" connection.  the "down" on the t connection goes to a 5 gallon bucket with water in the bottom of it, and the "T" in a hole cut in the top.  the dust falls in there.  the air then travels thru the 90 degree angle into your swamp cooler....

 

then from the fan outlet into you hut!

[nutra...@gmail.com]

Ok that was a great description because I can actually visualize it. I think. So after the T, I need to simply use a round to square adaptor and seal it to the cooler intake. Right?

Nutrapuppy, aka gibbon @ american steel's camp by the ton, 430/esp.

-- Sent from my Palm Prē

[Cody Firestone]

YES

 

I CAN DRAW UP SOMETHING TONIGHT   OR IN THE AM  AT THE ER RIGHT NOW

 

WORK...