Swamp Cooler 2.0

Steve Upstill

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Jul 25, 2018, 1:23:58 PM7/25/18

to hexayurt, Greeson, Michael, Michael Greeson

After years of struggling with the Home Depot swamp cooler, and inspired by a friend of a friend, I started over, and made this:

The vessel is a swing-lid trash can, and the filter holders are cheap-ass soffit vents (two wide and one narrow) from the ventilation-and-flashing aisle, both from HD. The evaporative area is more than 50% larger than my old bucket cooler, the water capacity two or three times greater, and since the fan points horizontally (i.e, toward the yurt rather than the sky), it requires a fraction of the length of duct to get to the building, so I expect higher flow AND less heat gain. I haven't been out to the Playa with it, but I'm getting 5°F cooling at 68° temperature and 68% humidity.

The pump is a 3.6W 12V aquarium pump (2 for $15 at Amazon), and that white thing at the bottom is a float switch to cut it off when the water gets too low.

It has a cigarette-lighter male plug for power in, so I can either run it off a car battery or 12V solar panels. At the top, barely visible on the right, are simple 12V voltage regulators for the fan and the pump. I bought a pair of these solar panels years ago, and those voltage regulators are all the control you need (I think they were $1.69 at my local electronics depot, ad I have two, one for the pump and one for the fan, just b/c they're so wimpy).

The lid was a bit of a mission to build, because you want a good seal, yet the bin has rounded corners.

You'll have to follow this link to see what I mean.

Rather than try to duplicate the bowing of the box, I exploited it by gently forcing it straight, to provide pressure against the outside. (I used the dado blade on my table saw to cut the channels, but you don't really need it to be held on both sides.) For the curves, I used Bondo: plopped it down inside the lid, greased up the bin with butter, put it in place and let it define its own shape. I suppose you could work from the inside and pile more Bondo up on the lip, but that felt like overkill to me. You could also do it entirely with Bondo, allowing the box to keep its natural shape, only if your Bondo skills are better than mine.

So will a hot, dry Playa give me enough temp. drop to sleep in? We shall see. It does seem to be moving a lot of air.

Cheers,

Steve Upstill

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Hal Muskat

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Jul 25, 2018, 1:26:23 PM7/25/18

to hexa...@googlegroups.com, Greeson, Michael, Michael Greeson

Looks great. Where will you be camped?

On Jul 25, 2018, at 10:23 AM, Steve Upstill <ups...@gmail.com> wrote:

After years of struggling with the Home Depot swamp cooler, and inspired by a friend of a friend, I started over, and made this:

<IMG_20180724_195151114.jpg><IMG_20180724_195216011.jpg>

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Steve Upstill

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Jul 25, 2018, 3:17:54 PM7/25/18

to hexa...@googlegroups.com, Greeson, Michael, Michael Greeson

I'll be camped with Aquazone Love Water Bar, 3 & E. Come on by! (Ask for Swifty.)

Cheers,

Steve

Jay Batson

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Jul 27, 2018, 5:38:16 AM7/27/18

to hexayurt

There is such amazing awesomeness in this. Thanks for posting.,

Do you dare post it on Figjam's ePlaya thread about swamp coolers, or do you think that's just asking for unkind comments

Kevin Fischer

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Jul 27, 2018, 5:58:06 AM7/27/18

to hexa...@googlegroups.com

I admire the DIY attitude but it should be more widely known that mass manufactured swamp coolers are available on Amazon Prime and the $200 one will evaporate more water than you probably want to give it if you run it on high and is overkill for an H12.

https://www.amazon.com/SPT-SF-614P-Evaporative-Cooler-Cooling/dp/B00TRLXXWA/ref=sr_1_17?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1532685161&sr=1-17&keywords=swamp+cooler is what I used last year and it kept me sleeping in till 2PM without fail.

You can build more airflow for the price yourself but perfectly lining up the evap pads is hard and nothing hand build will be as well sealed as what you can buy online.

Burning Man: Adventures in extreme consumerism.

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Jay Batson

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Jul 27, 2018, 6:21:19 AM7/27/18

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Kevin -

The general setup is to put the swamp cooler outside the yurt / tent, and vent it inside. I don’t see how to do this with that Amazon unit. Have you tried putting that unit inside the structure to be cooled? Is the net temp change good?

On Jul 27, 2018, at 11:57 AM, Kevin Fischer <kfis...@gmail.com> wrote:

I admire the DIY attitude but it should be more widely known that mass manufactured swamp coolers are available on Amazon Prime and the $200 one will evaporate more water than you probably want to give it if you run it on high and is overkill for an H12.

https://www.amazon.com/SPT-SF-614P-Evaporative-Cooler-Cooling/dp/B00TRLXXWA/ref=sr_1_17?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1532685161&sr=1-17&keywords=swamp+cooler is what I used last year and it kept me sleeping in till 2PM without fail.

You can build more airflow for the price yourself but perfectly lining up the evap pads is hard and nothing hand build will be as well sealed as what you can buy online.

Burning Man: Adventures in extreme consumerism.

On Wed, Jul 25, 2018 at 10:23 AM, Steve Upstill <ups...@gmail.com> wrote:

After years of struggling with the Home Depot swamp cooler, and inspired by a friend of a friend, I started over, and made this:

<IMG_20180724_195151114.jpg><IMG_20180724_195216011.jpg>

The vessel is a swing-lid trash can, and the filter holders are cheap-ass soffit vents (two wide and one narrow) from the ventilation-and-flashing aisle, both from HD. The evaporative area is more than 50% larger than my old bucket cooler, the water capacity two or three times greater, and since the fan points horizontally (i.e, toward the yurt rather than the sky), it requires a fraction of the length of duct to get to the building, so I expect higher flow AND less heat gain. I haven't been out to the Playa with it, but I'm getting 5°F cooling at 68° temperature and 68% humidity.

The pump is a 3.6W 12V aquarium pump (2 for $15 at Amazon), and that white thing at the bottom is a float switch to cut it off when the water gets too low.

It has a cigarette-lighter male plug for power in, so I can either run it off a car battery or 12V solar panels. At the top, barely visible on the right, are simple 12V voltage regulators for the fan and the pump. I bought a pair of these solar panels years ago, and those voltage regulators are all the control you need (I think they were $1.69 at my local electronics depot, ad I have two, one for the pump and one for the fan, just b/c they're so wimpy).

The lid was a bit of a mission to build, because you want a good seal, yet the bin has rounded corners.
You'll have to follow this link to see what I mean.
Rather than try to duplicate the bowing of the box, I exploited it by gently forcing it straight, to provide pressure against the outside. (I used the dado blade on my table saw to cut the channels, but you don't really need it to be held on both sides.) For the curves, I used Bondo: plopped it down inside the lid, greased up the bin with butter, put it in place and let it define its own shape. I suppose you could work from the inside and pile more Bondo up on the lip, but that felt like overkill to me. You could also do it entirely with Bondo, allowing the box to keep its natural shape, only if your Bondo skills are better than mine.

So will a hot, dry Playa give me enough temp. drop to sleep in? We shall see. It does seem to be moving a lot of air.

Cheers,
Steve Upstill

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Jay Batson

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Mobile: +1-978-758-1599

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Schedule time to meet or talk

Steve Upstill

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Jul 27, 2018, 12:21:36 PM7/27/18

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Kevin,

I admire your commitment to consumerism. :-) In my case, I'd be happy to plunk down the cash, but I'm trying to run it off a modest solar rig, so 7W vs. 65W makes a big difference.

Also, as we all know, no pain in the ass is too onerous if it's for Burning Man.

PS I forgot to mention one downside with this particular trash basket: it appears to be made of the plastic equivalent of Teflon. At least, I've never found any adhesive to stick to it and hold up to any structural demand. I used spray-on contact cement to stick the aluminum tape to it, and I'm hoping the caulk underneath the vents holds up (they're also bolted down), but I wouldn't count on using glue for anything more than that.

Cheers,

Steve

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Steve Upstill

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Jul 27, 2018, 12:28:35 PM7/27/18

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Thanks Jay! I'll probably keep this in the "family" until I've tried it out in situ. Crossing fingers...

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Vladimir Khodel

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Jul 27, 2018, 3:39:27 PM7/27/18

to hexayurt

To get glue to work on these kinds of plastics we do flame/heat treatment first - use a propane torch or a heat gun on high to soften the surface - after that epoxy works just fine ;) Let us know if it helps bondo or silicone adhesion as well!

Vladimir

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Steve Upstill

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Jul 27, 2018, 6:09:32 PM7/27/18

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Interesting! Does it still have to be hot when you apply the adhesive, or does heating it once make it persistently friendly?

On Fri, Jul 27, 2018 at 12:39 PM Vladimir Khodel <vkh...@gmail.com> wrote:

To get glue to work on these kinds of plastics we do flame/heat treatment first - use a propane torch or a heat gun on high to soften the surface - after that epoxy works just fine ;) Let us know if it helps bondo or silicone adhesion as well!

Vladimir

On Fri, Jul 27, 2018, 09:28 Steve Upstill <ups...@gmail.com> wrote:

Thanks Jay! I'll probably keep this in the "family" until I've tried it out in situ. Crossing fingers...

On Fri, Jul 27, 2018 at 2:38 AM Jay Batson <bats...@gmail.com> wrote:

There is such amazing awesomeness in this. Thanks for posting.,

Do you dare post it on Figjam's ePlaya thread about swamp coolers, or do you think that's just asking for unkind comments

On Wednesday, July 25, 2018 at 7:23:58 PM UTC+2, Steve Upstill (Swifty) wrote:
After years of struggling with the Home Depot swamp cooler, and inspired by a friend of a friend, I started over, and made this:

The vessel is a swing-lid trash can, and the filter holders are cheap-ass soffit vents (two wide and one narrow) from the ventilation-and-flashing aisle, both from HD. The evaporative area is more than 50% larger than my old bucket cooler, the water capacity two or three times greater, and since the fan points horizontally (i.e, toward the yurt rather than the sky), it requires a fraction of the length of duct to get to the building, so I expect higher flow AND less heat gain. I haven't been out to the Playa with it, but I'm getting 5°F cooling at 68° temperature and 68% humidity.

The pump is a 3.6W 12V aquarium pump (2 for $15 at Amazon), and that white thing at the bottom is a float switch to cut it off when the water gets too low.

It has a cigarette-lighter male plug for power in, so I can either run it off a car battery or 12V solar panels. At the top, barely visible on the right, are simple 12V voltage regulators for the fan and the pump. I bought a pair of these solar panels years ago, and those voltage regulators are all the control you need (I think they were $1.69 at my local electronics depot, ad I have two, one for the pump and one for the fan, just b/c they're so wimpy).

The lid was a bit of a mission to build, because you want a good seal, yet the bin has rounded corners.
You'll have to follow this link to see what I mean.
Rather than try to duplicate the bowing of the box, I exploited it by gently forcing it straight, to provide pressure against the outside. (I used the dado blade on my table saw to cut the channels, but you don't really need it to be held on both sides.) For the curves, I used Bondo: plopped it down inside the lid, greased up the bin with butter, put it in place and let it define its own shape. I suppose you could work from the inside and pile more Bondo up on the lip, but that felt like overkill to me. You could also do it entirely with Bondo, allowing the box to keep its natural shape, only if your Bondo skills are better than mine.

So will a hot, dry Playa give me enough temp. drop to sleep in? We shall see. It does seem to be moving a lot of air.

Cheers,
Steve Upstill

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Vladimir Khodel

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Jul 27, 2018, 6:13:18 PM7/27/18

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It's persistent - the flame treatment makes it a lot less smooth to touch. I am sure there is a scientific explanation :)

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