OT: Swamp cooler question

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And you call yorself an engineer! ;-)

Yup, afraid so.

OTOH, we live in California so possibly the air has been taxed into oblivion by the time it would have gotten to the office :-)

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Same here, but codes require a certain amount of airflow to the outside just like it is required with cars. One thing I never liked in Germany were "super-tightened" homes where the air was stuffy and I (and the occupants) became tired fast. Yeah, they used a bit less energy but this leads to lots of mold problems in the winter, mostly black mold.

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But what can you do? I could possibly flood the house with water but our Rottweiler does not like swimming :-)

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Then this may be the product for you. Darn, they just came out with it about a month too late, I'd probably have gone for this one instead:

Oh well, I'll see if I can get one of those in at the other end of the house because it has very little depth. I don't know how they arrive at

5500cfm with a 4.8A motor but even if it's less that should adequately complement the one I just installed. I wonder why they don't make any that can go between studs and where the flanges aren't fixed to the discharge duct (#%^@&!!).

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Ok, I could provide a transportation system around it. But it would have to be helium balloons, else the local code authorities might send the goons out :-)

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Probably better to jump in it.

I love the freezing cold water of an unheated pool in October. Invigorating

I want to get one of those ice air coolers, but my icemaker is broke.

greg

The new california efficiency requirements for homes pretty much require you to have a tightly sealed home. Ours is like that, so that, when the blower for the A/C runs, it also opens a valve in an outside air duct to bring in air. It even has a special timer that runs periodically just to ventilate the house. Of course, down here, the only way to get mold is to have a water leak. It is too dry otherwise!

Charlie

A lot of regs and regulations are set up by armchair engineers and rather nonsensical.

And then one fine day this timer or the actuator mechanism fails, nobody notices, and people just become tired so easily. Seen it many times, mostly in buildings with a super-tight structure. Opening a window brought the great relief.

That would be a perfect climate for a swamp cooler. But who knows, maybe some nonsensical "efficiency requirement" forbids that nowadays and forces everyone to run the electricity-guzzling central A/C.

All I can say is that when we run the swamp cooler all day (mostly in low cool) the temps in the living area are now really comfortable and the air is always fresh. Those $400 for machine and materials was one of my best investments in years. Ok, it might not cut it on super hot days. We'll see, but we don't need it to be 70F inside. 80F is just fine and so far it was able to keep it well below that except in the office.

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Their website is lacking when it comes to specs on that thing.

Perhaps they have measured the airflow w/o the pad and into zero head pressure? Kind of like Sears' inflated horsepower claims. I'm skeptical of the things ability to cool whatever airflow they are achieving as the pad area just looks too small to me. The faster you push(pull) air thru a fixed thickness pad the less effective it is at dropping the exit air temp. But maybe they have some newfangled pad that will do it. Art

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I'm skeptical too. IIRC my 6500cfm cooler had a 3/4hp motor ...Jim Thompson

--
| James E.Thompson, CTO                            |    mens     |
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
| Phoenix, Arizona  85048    Skype: Contacts Only  |             |
| Voice:(480)460-2350  Fax: Available upon request |  Brass Rat  |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com |    1962     |

                   Spice is like a sports car... 
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Mine did too. And 4 pads ea about 36" x 30" x 2to3" IIRC. Art

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Yep. It's been 16+ years since I had a cooler, but that sounds correct. ...Jim Thompson

--
| James E.Thompson, CTO                            |    mens     |
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
| Phoenix, Arizona  85048    Skype: Contacts Only  |             |
| Voice:(480)460-2350  Fax: Available upon request |  Brass Rat  |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com |    1962     |

                   Spice is like a sports car... 
     Performance only as good as the person behind the wheel.

Just make sure that one of the goons isn't dimbulb. :(

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That's a problem with swamp cooler mfgs in general. They don't even have drawings so you can't measure whether it'll fit, before ordering. I mean, what's so difficult about copying a drawing onto a web site?

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And it's Celdek pads, not sure if easily obtainable in the US plus everyone says Aspen pads are better. Even if it had half the cfm I'd go for it, all I need is a li'l supplemental airflow for the office area. The swamp cooler I just installed cools down the living quarters enough, even on a 95F day it remained well under 80F inside.

But, yesterday night I measured ... too big, won't fit where I thought it might :-(

If they made an SMT version maybe half it's size I'd go for it. Well, that is after opening the wall to see if any water pipes are behind there. When cutting the hole for the existing cooler I wiped the sweat off my forehead. Boy was I lucky that I only used the little Bosch jigsaw and not the massive Milwaukee with its big blade. Someone had routed a 120V line around there, for no apparent reason. You can't detect any of that because of the aluminum-backed insulation. I would have cut right through that. Whew.

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Regards, Joerg

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I think evap coolers have fallen out-of-favor. Around 1980, I simply went to the industrial zone of downtown Phoenix and bought a _stainless_steel_ 6500cfm direct from the manufacturer, and loaded it onto a borrowed pick-em-up truck. It certainly came with detailed drawings... I may still even have them.

I remember a lengthy chat with the superintendent... I figured it to be a seasonal business, but he said, "No!"... Phoenix off-season is Arabia and Australia on-season :-) ...Jim Thompson

--
| James E.Thompson, CTO                            |    mens     |
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
| Phoenix, Arizona  85048    Skype: Contacts Only  |             |
| Voice:(480)460-2350  Fax: Available upon request |  Brass Rat  |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com |    1962     |

                   Spice is like a sports car... 
     Performance only as good as the person behind the wheel.

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They certainly have fallen out of favor. Most people here have switched to A/C and won't ever go back. I guess they don't care about the steep electricity bills they now pay in summer. Most don't want the maintenance. Although, looking at the ting it ain't too much of a hassle, and nothing is complicated, nearly everyone can do it I assume.

My unit just fell $40 in price. Grumble. Then again it has brought us as much comfort during that time as $50 worth of kWh would have if we had used the A/C. So we are $10 ahead :-)

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Regards, Joerg

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Well, we aren't using ours that much. First, the humidity is up, so it isn't that effective. Second, every time we run it, Pam gets sick I suspect that it is either mold/mildew that is inflamed by the moisture, or it could even be the find mist of mineral particles that get spread through the house...

Charlie

I was quite surprised to see ours cool quite a bit even when the moisture ouside was >50%.

Make sure that the pads aren't excessively old and that the water gets drained regularly (must usually be done by hand, opening the unit). Some people put disinfectant stuff in it but I won't. I only know one person who couldn't stand their swamp cooler and replaced it with A/C, on account of her arthritis acting up from the moisture.

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Regards, Joerg

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