Staying cool in rural areas

[monkeymonk]

You're sure right about that, Tom. I don't miss that old outhouse and lack of indoor plumbing at all. I don't miss having to milk that cow twice a day regardless of the weather or how I felt at the time. And I sure don't miss the lack of air-conditioning.

The only time i don't like my out house is in the middle of the summer and the middle of winter.

Strange thing happened today.....it started raining....just a little bit ....it got real humid ....and a tad bit smokey from the fire in the wilderness. It stayed round 80-85 then round 5pm the sun popped up for a few? not our normal weather here at all. Good for working, and for the fire its a "let burn" one. yesterday was 110! Swim Time..all day river party.

I like the pool 3RRL, I gots me a horse troth next to the garden for quick dips as long as the darn Free Range horses aren't fighting for it! What are Swim Suits?

 

[texasjohn]

I hoisted my 5 orfice mister, low pressure, about 50PSI, to top of building... about 15 feet over the concrete slab.

Yep, even at this height the slab gets slightly damp....

My conclusion is that maybe misters work fine outside, or with a fan, and/or under high (1000PSI) pressure... but not for inside a workshop at ordinary pressures.

 

[dmccarty]

TexasJohn,

Do you know how many gallons per hour your misters use?

Would use use it on a tall porch? The peak of our porch is maybe 16 feet tall. I suppose if I put in misters they might be 10-12 feet above the porch.

Do the misters dramtically drop the temperature?

Later,
Dan

 

[RonMar]

I hoisted my 5 orfice mister, low pressure, about 50PSI, to top of building... about 15 feet over the concrete slab.

Yep, even at this height the slab gets slightly damp....

My conclusion is that maybe misters work fine outside, or with a fan, and/or under high (1000PSI) pressure... but not for inside a workshop at ordinary pressures.

The theory behind the mister is evaporation. Water is absorbed into the atmosphere and as it does, this transfer lowers the temperature and the air mass is cooled. If the air is saturated, the water won't evaporate. I would imagine that the air in your shop quickly became saturated and stopped absorbing the water so it became rain...

You could try putting a vent up high near the roof line to let the warmer air out and a vent down low to let fresh air in. Place a mister nozzel in the fresh air vent to cool the air as it enters. Of course what I just described is a swamp cooler but probably not quite as efficient as they have more surface area to premote more through water evaporation as the air is drawn thru the media.

It also helps to have insulated walls and a ceiling to separate the attic space from the workspace and of course attic ventilation to help keep the heat generated there from heating the ceiling. Without the insulation and ceiling, the radiant heat from the roof and walls being struck by the sun would most likley overpower the effects of this type cooler anyway.

My upstairs in my home is a converted attic space. It does not have enough insulation and air space between the roof and the inside ceiling so the upstairs warms up very quickly in the summer months. I open the upstairs windows in the morning to help dissipate some of this heat and keep it from radiating downward into the main floor. This makes a huge difference in the upstairs temps.

 

[RobertN]

2. New Fire Truck training!

Something is wrong with that grass rig... Fire engines are red ;-)

 

[texasjohn]

dmccarty, What I know about misters is limited... the key points seem to be the following:

You can get kits at box stores such as Home Depot where I got mine.
They come in various lengths and huge price variation.
For a starter situation, seems that maybe $30 is lowest for a low pressure system.. about 5 nozzles, plus filter for hard water plus drip on the end to drain line when it is turned off.
Attached to a regular pressure water hose, this mist system placed 15 ft or so in the air produces a fine mist but a few of the droplets are still of sufficient size to not evaporate before they reach the ground. Thus when used in a tool shed some equipment gets damp.
My system does not involve a fan. Perhaps if the misters were placed in a stream of air they would evaporate more effectively... I haven't tried this as yet.
The evaporative effectiveness is highest at very low humidity, say below 30%. Rather ineffective at higher humidity, say above 65%.
It is likely, but untried by me, that a high pressure system... produces finer droplets and more complete evaporation... 1000psi systems exist and their components, pumps, hose, etc. are really pricy, my opinion.... but I think this is what lots of restaurants etc. use very successfully. These can also be obtained at Home Depot, for a price.

As for temperature drop, the literature says that up to 20 degrees is possible. In my situation, I got a barely perceptible drop in temperature for several reasons, including: 16 ft and 16 ft roll up doors both open at each end of building, breeze blowing misted air, only 5 nozzles.

At this point, I must keep the nozzles above an area free of tools to keep them dry. I'm looking for a squirrel cage fan from an old A/C unit that I can rig up, place the misters around and try that to see how it works.

So, my search for a cheapo work building solution to cooling continues... not surprisingly since if it were easy everybody would already be doing it

 

[3RRL]

Oooooo, well, this is really about normal temperatures in these parts, bro. The thing I think is abnormal is that we haven't hit 110° or above yet.One thing that is out of the historical norm is the humidity. The "valley" region used to be known for a very dry heat but, the past 10 years has brought increased humidity.

Well, I just spent last weekend up near you on my place. I have 3 thermometers but they are in different places in our spacious camp. Saturday it was 110° on one and the other two read 112°. So there's your 110° day...thanks for THAT bro...hahaha

Good job on the pool! The cheaper the better.
Cheers!

Thanks, it works GREAT for a quick cool off. Mrs 3RRL got this Cobra Mister for sitting around on the decks. It doesn't work so great... unless you stick your face in it. Seems the breeze keeps pushing the spray all over the place. Maybe need to get 2 or 3 of them?



Funny thing is when we got home my buddies told me it was 112° down in Rancho Cucamonga with big hunidity and it got to 122° in parts of Fontana...man that's HOT! That's like Palm Springs action. Three Rivers was pleasant even with the high temeratures. I got a lot done on my bucket grapple addition and managed to grade some of the homesite pad. Drinking hot coffee till my 2 thermoses are gone and then GatorAid helps though.

 

[stumpfield]

Hey Rob, You should be glad that you were up north at your property. It was 116° in Claremont on Saturday. I imagine it's the same right next door in Rancho Cucamonga. There was a brief thunder storm that dump just enough rain to drive the humidity way up. It's HOT HOT HOT...

Tom

 

[rox]

For a month we have had temperatures in the 90's and I am getting real sick of it. It jsut makes you so tired and so un motivated. I hae all kinds of projects I want to do but no motivation and this is pretty unusual for me. However reading the news on the internet about the temperatures in California, the 90's ae actually starting to look good to me. How the heck do you people stand it so hot? You all must have air conditioning (we don't) that is the only thing I can think of.

Like Harv was writing how hot it is by him in Texas and they are still outside working. I don't get comfortable until 10pm and thank heavens the nights are cool, like in the low to mid 70's.

Tomorrow I'm going to go buy some wood and make a screen for my office. If you can believe it in the south of France hardly anybody has screens. There may not be mosquitos, however all kinds of flying bugs come into my office at night because of the light form the computer.

I feel far all ya'all (the plural of y'all (yall being singular) is "all y'all) in California with the heat. May the air conditioning Gods wrap you in thier cool mist....

 

[Phils]

I'll accept your sympathy, rox! I've lived here most of my 56 years and this is the longest and hottest I ever remember seeing in Northern CA!

I'm off-grid so we don't have 'refrigeration' air conditioning. We only have evaporative coolers ("swamp coolers"). These coolers reduce air temp via evaporation by 20 degrees. Normally this is great -- 85 or 90 degree air in = 65 or 70 degrees out. The past couple of weeks it's been 110 in and 90 out! Plus that 90 degree air is humid (nature of the beast).

If this is to be our 'norm' then I need to buy some more solar equipment and a "real" air conditioner.

Phil