OT: Swamp cooler question

in message

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skeptical of

pad area

fixed thickness

they have

Is your water that loaded with minerals? Could a filter have helped? I was more concerned about the chlorine levels in our water. When you flush a toilet you can sometimes smell a whiff of chlorine from the fresh water entering the bowl. But it turns out that the swamp cooler does not give off a chlorine smell.

So far, less dust here. Because all those fans we had would swirl just about anything around, including dog hair and whatever got into the air stream.

It not a great filter. In the desert, sand will travel throughout. Sand is not good for you.

I think my KWH cost is around 11 plus cents . Whats do others have. ?? Its actually 6 cents plus the other costs.

greg

Ours is just a little portable unit, so the pad is actually cardboard! I usually drain it every couple of days by taking it outside, pulling the plug, and then start filling. When it shows full, I turn off the hose and then plug the bottom. I have also put a teaspoon of chlorine bleach in it and run it.

I think she just likes it dry!

Charlie

We have very high mineral content. Our local water has won several taste contests, and we have a lot of spas that use the local hot aquafier for their mineral baths and jacuzzis. We have a salt water chlorinator on our pool, and I have to clean it out every week. It will be caked with mineral deposits. Even after being in there for months, are removing several ounces of mineral a week, it still cakes right up.

Charlie

Cardboard? That doesn't sound too good. I am not a fan of those portables. Whenever I was at places that had them the air felt damp. Ours never does if the windows are cracked open wide enough, unless I leave the window open where the unit is. You can feel the cool air gushing out of that one and it'll get sucked back into the unit, inching up the humidity.

That is extreme. Probably a filter would cake right up then.

That cardboard pad has lots of open space to let air through for throughput, and it does a pretty good job for what is intended. It will keep a room or two pretty cool. I used it this morning in my office while I was doing some solder stenciling to help keep the smells down and the rooom cool. Worked very well!

Charlie

We actually have an Ecliipse filter system, but it doesn't remove minerals. To do that would require a water softener. We looked into getting one, and decided it was too much trouble.

Charlie

How much water do you use? You can buy distilled water by the gallon for under $1 a gallon

$1/gallon would make the operation of a swamp cooler prohibitively expensive. They can easily slurp 5-10 gallons per hour.

as

Use a dehumidifier to make distilled water. ;-)

as

Then buy or build a still.

as

Our pool is 10,000 gallons... ;-)

Charlie

us as

had

Build a big still. I use a small electric still to heat my shop in the winter, so I get my distilled water for free. :)

as

Heat? In Florida? I thought we had global warming. Or has it been cancelled? SCNR, we had just about the shortest and coldest summer in decades. Ok, I think the one in 1906 or 1907 was colder. Wednesday will probably be the only 103F-plus day we'll get, then I'll know how well this new swamp cooler worketh. So far it's been good to us, running right now.

Never heard of a still for heating. Can you post a photo or point us to a similar one?

us as

had

I used the waste heat from the condenser to heat the shop.

Here is a crude, do it yourself still:

us as

had

Ah, ok, so the still is not the heating source per se. It is run for production purposes and you just use its waste heat.

What's cooking in the pot on the front burner?

brought us as

we had

so

sick

that

just

air

?

Probably hard water.

?

Looks more like spaghetti carbonara to me. A bit heavy on the sauce.