I cooled my shop for years with a 1953 chevy truck radiator bolted over a window, well water, and a box fan.

House is now cooled by an old air conditioning A-coil, retubed to replace the cap tube distributor with a manifold that will flow water, well water, and the furnace fan. Same coil gets hot water (boiler) water it in the winter. Dust, ashes, smoke, and bugs are all outside.

 

Oh boy, did you just stoke the memory box. About 900 years ago, when living in the San Joaquin valley in California at about 110 degrees (horrors), we had a swamp cooler on the side of the house. Big square box, hard top, water reservoir on the bottom with a float switch, grilles on three sides with excelsior pads behind them and a big squirrel cage fan inside. Little pump would drip water down the pads from the top, fan blew into the house pulling that hot dry air from the outside thru the wet pads. Cooled amazingly well due to the low humidity. You open a window a bit on the other side of the house to direct the air flow. Then, we had one on the car that hung out the passenger window. Bullet shapped thing with an open front that you dropped the passenger window down about 5", put this thing in the window and brought the window back up to hold it in place. Had water in the bottom and a cord inside that would rotate a round excelsior pad in the water. Motion of the car would blow air in the front and thru the slot into the passenger side window. Wow, that was really digging in the memory bank. I remember trying to get my mom to let me sit in the front so I could play with that cord. LOL

Ahhh, lunch time.

HungryBob

 

Is it that difficult to make it a cooler, I thought you just kicked it upside down....

Slev

 

Ok, the water enters the radiator and the fan pulls the cool air off the radiator, but what happens to the water? Does it return to the well? Or do you just let it go on the ground?

Afternoon y'all.

Made it to Clarion PA. Slept most of the way as I didn't sleep well last night. I've been working like crazy to get projects done, muscles ache that I didn't know I had and I thought I'd sleep like a rock. Instead I tossed and turned all night. No snow here yet. That'll probably be tomorrow as we get into the steeper, higher terrain. Yay.

 

[QUOTE=FiverBob;3149168]Oh boy, did you just stoke the memory box. About 900 years ago, when living in the San Joaquin valley in California at about 110 degrees (horrors), we had a swamp cooler on the side of the house. Big square box, hard top, water reservoir on the bottom with a float switch, grilles on three sides with excelsior pads behind them and a big squirrel cage fan inside. Little pump would drip water down the pads from the top, fan blew into the house pulling that hot dry air from the outside thru the wet pads. Cooled amazingly well due to the low humidity. You open a window a bit on the other side of the house to direct the air flow. Then, we had one on the car that hung out the passenger window. Bullet shapped thing with an open front that you dropped the passenger window down about 5", put this thing in the window and brought the window back up to hold it in place. Had water in the bottom and a cord inside that would rotate a round excelsior pad in the water. Motion of the car would blow air in the front and thru the slot into the passenger side window. Wow, that was really digging in the memory bank. I remember trying to get my mom to let me sit in the front so I could play with that cord. LOL

Ok Bob the secret is out.You lived somewhere between Arvin and Modesto near the cotton fields.You must be really old to remember the flo-thru coolers attached to the car windowsDon't forget the "water bags of canvas hung out in the air to chill the water.Were you near old thumpty thump,Hwy 99.

 

Only takes a couple of gallons a minute. Flows out on the ground. The house has a gravity sump system, so it just goes down the sump drain, out 150' of 4" pipe to a pond in the pasture.

By comparison, the sump flows about 10 gpm on a rainy spring day.

Swamp coolers don't work well around here. Hot day might be 95° with a dew point around 70°. Coming into the house at 75° and 60° dew point feels like walking into a refrigerator.

 

Eric Eric Eric Eric Eric Eric Eric Eric Eric

 

I'm thinking more along the lines of Heidi..

 

That's so going to leave a mark.

 

OOOHHHH, low blow. I saw some of those coolers on a couple old cars several years ago going thru the valley. Crazee. Probably blew their compressor and couldn't afford a new one. Hey, so dry there they worked purdy good. Man, I used to run the bulldozer in those cotton fields. Closer to Visalia up against the foothills of the Sierras. Lots of oranges and olives around too. That was another life, for sure. Yeh, had forgotten about the water bags. And dad used to put a pan of ice on the floor board under the dash to distribute the cold air from the blower thru the car - - that worked pretty good. Usually held long enough to get past Bakersfield and start up the pass. ha ha - - what memories.

Bob

 

I spent years honing this grumpiness....

 

sitting here watching bizarre foods on the travel channel.
Andrew Zimmern is in Finland. I realized I was sitting here fascinated and drooling... Grilled reindeer, salted cod, fresh breads, and alot of the other stuff I fell in love with in Norway...

 

I'm home. Long day.

Chaikwa has the right idea about sleeping. Heading that way after I finish my glass of milk. Glad to be in my own bed.

I was gonna say the biker dude was Cincy after a road trip weekend. After his comment I think he better sleep with both eyes open for the next few days

 

I think he needs a visit so you can impress upon him how you really feel.

I found this little news story this morning. Besides the obvious jabs at Eric and Scott, the store is actually disturbing.

http://now.msn.com/bestiality-law-introduced-in-germany

Morning all.

 

Wake up wake up wake up.

Trad, yeah..the article...I'm asking the same question the entire civilized world is asking...that was legal???