swamp cooler

[pianotuna]

Hi all,

I purchased a swamp cooler and today ran it for the first time.

The RV had been sitting in sun all day long with the fantastic fan on high, with the rear roof vent open. Temperature outside reached 29 C (84 f). Interior of the RV was at 31 C (88 f) and was heat soaked at that temperature. Humidity inside was 33% Time was 4 p.m.

I filled the unit with water and turned the fan on high. The output air fell fairly quickly to 26.1 C (79 f). Humidity level of output was 57%

After one hour of operation the swamp cooler had lowered the temperature in the RV to 30 C (86 f) and humidity in the RV had risen to 40%.

I left the unit running until 10 p.m. When the temperature outside reached 26 C (79 f) I opened the roof vents and turned on the fantastic fan on high.

The swamp cooler output was at least 3 C (5.4 f) lower than the temperature inside the RV. Output near the end was at 66% RH at 22.5 c (72.5 f). RV was about 52% RH at 26 c (79 f).

It is now 10:30 p.m. Fantastic fan is running on low, temperature is 25 C (77 f) and humidity is 51%. Ambient temperature is 19.9 C (67.8 f)

The cooler draws 11 watts on high fan, with pump and louvers active. During the 6 hour run it used approximately 2 liters of water.

Tomorrow I will attempt to run the swamp cooler with the roof vents closed to see if it can keep the temperature from spiraling up and heat soaking the RV.

It was nice to have the air from the unit blowing on me and made the 31 C (88 f) much more bearable.

[mchero]

Your relative humidity is too high to be testing a swamp cooler!

If you where down in Phoenix that swamp cooler would amaze you at how effective they are in BONE DRY climates.
Also, another issue to consider;
If the water is loaded with elements and 99% of the time they are, those the water runs over the medium and will get loaded with elements! I have seen many swamp coolers caked with elements on those cooling panels. One might want to consider treated water for the swamp cooler.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

In extreme dry and hot climates the differential can be equally extreme.

In the Mojave Desert, my shop had a pair of 4' cube evaporative coolers.

I had a 16" 66 watt rotary exhaust fan. Plus the main door was wide open

115 F outside air temp

76 F inside temp

The curve null seems to be around 50% R/H at 90 F

[pianotuna]

My "hour" turned into 3 LOL

outside RH 64% (environment Canada)

temperature outside 24.3 c (75.7) (EC)

RH inside 64%

temperature inside 26.8 c (80 f)

RH output 91%

temperature output 24.6 c (76.3 f)

The following measurements taken with an infrared thermometer

Interior temperature of roof 30.1 c (86.2 f)

Interior temperature of west wall 28.2 c (82.7 f)

Interior temperature of East wall 29 c (84.2 f)

Interior temperature of North wall 28.6 c (83.5 f)

Interior temperature of south (window of cab) 32.5 c (90.5 f)

[pianotuna]

RoyB,

This is a stand alone portable unit which uses 11 watts AC power running full tilt.

I started the unit at 9 a.m. as the temperature had risen by 1 C (1.8 f). Ambient temperature is 19.1c (66.4 f) 79% RH and interior is 22 c (71.6 f) with 57% RH

Rain is in the forecast and the interior of the RV did not "dry down" much last night so humidity is at 57%. I'll check in an hour and see what's what with both interior temperature, output temperature and humidity levels.

[imgoin4it]

Evaporation coolers can work very well on low humidity days. One must exhaust the same amount of air out as the cooler brings in. Otherwise the humidity will just build up, cooling will cease and it will become muggy.

[RoyB]

Back in the 60s when living in Tempe AZ that was the way to go. The trick of keeping cool was how to vent-in the outside air.

Granted you could not get real lows temps goings but I would take a 10 degree drop in temperature any day...

I use to experiment back in my creekside tent camping back in those days with a car radiator or car heater fan using cool water from the creek being pumped thru the cores and dumped back into the creek. Then using a DC Fan blowing behind the radiator or heater cores into the tent... Surprisingly cool temps could be had...

In Arizona all of the air conditioners were roof mounted and were hugh with water circulating through the coils. Then you would close all of the outside windows except one or two on one end of the house just cracked open a tad. This was best sleeping of my life at night haha... Somehow you would figure out which outside windows to keep open and which to keep closed... The only bad thing I hated to do was climb up on the roof to change out the air filters. You had to fight off black widow spiders all the time... The old wives tail of only finding one black widow was false where we lived in the outskirts of Tempe AZ...

TurboKool came out with this model for RV's but I never looked into them. How to handle the water sounded like a bad thing for something like this...



AS Don is seeing the only DC Current to deal with is running the pump and the fans... No A/C compressor motors to deal with for sure...

Roy Ken

[wa8yxm]

One of the things I got when I started out was a swamp cooler. Uses very low power and took a good 10 degrees off the bedroom in the Quartsite day (did not need it at night) Worked welle. I'm considering getting another.

[pianotuna]

Regina, SK Canada. It is semi arid.

At the beginning of the test RH inside RV was 33%. I did not think to note the outdoor humidity but it may be fairly similar as the fantastic fan was running full tilt all day.

mchero wrote:
Don
Can you tell us where your located and what the relative humidity is OUTSIDE.
Swamp coolers work GREAT in very dry climates.

[mchero]

Don
Can you tell us where your located and what the relative humidity is OUTSIDE.
Swamp coolers work GREAT in very dry climates.