swamp cooler build

[rulerbreaker]

I bought the parts to build my swamp cooler today. Will upload some pics of my progress as I make progress.

[ben333]

Looking forward to it

[Brians256]

Neat! Just be sure to clean the thing very religiously. Google legionaires disease.

[rulerbreaker]

that's worrisome.

Ben mentioned silver in the reservoir before... that will work here as well right?

I've refined my cooling tower design somewhat based on further research. Instead of mounting angled plexi inside the pipe to dampen the sound, which would be a pain to fabricate, I'm inserting layers of loose mesh (bathroom scrunchies - plastic) to dampen the sound, slow down the flow of water and increase the water surface area. Also in true DIY spirit I'm making my own 'shower head' out of a short section of pipe with two pieces of plexi epoxied to either end, one of which to be tapped for a inlet and the other to be poked full of holes using my shiny new dremel work station.

Pictures... maybe tomorrow.

[ben333]

Any updates? Sounds kinda like a project I've seen here before when someone had a bunch of hard tubes stemming up from a bowl with water flowing out up from them and the tubes had wet towels tied to them - quiet evap cooling. Looking forward to some updates.

Brian actually gave me the idea for silver in the res so he can confirm that too.

[rulerbreaker]

Hey

Sorry no pictures yet... having some camera troubles.

So far I've finished my shower head and made a whole bunch of scruncy circles. I did a brief test run, brief because I dont have the right size tube for the barbs I bought, so it leaked a bit out the top, but I can confirm that my pump is strong enough for the 4.5ft height and that it cooled down about 4 leters of warm water in about 1 minute (warm to the touch to ambient-seeming... im not a precision measuring type of person)

Next steps are basically just rounding off. I might go with an angled plate at the bottom after all since I am getting a bit more noise than anticipated, although its not an unpleasant noise.

One thing I've been scratching my head over is what to do with the pump's electrical wire and the tube... I dont want to poke any more holes than I have to since that increases the chance of leakage. I think I've come up with something that might work.

Also I've found some copper for water-block construction. Seven pieces that are 3in by 2in by 1/4in - total cost of 45CAD (about the same as USD now no?)

[ben333]

Well for the power cord I'd just poke it out the fan hole or drill a hole high up and then just epoxy the hole. Thats some nice copper you've found, should be the perfect size let me know if you have some leftovers

[rulerbreaker]

Minor update:

Whats really holding me back is finding barbs/a tap to finish the build off, but I may have found a place today that will carry the items I need (wholesale plumbing supplier), only I wont know for sure until Monday.

I've decided on a larger res than just the bottom of the 4in pipe, I got a free 5gal bucket from a local paint store that I'll be modifying...maybe paint it black like the pipe and my case...

I also started making my first block... lets just say its a learning curve... I'll have to find a way to make guide holes. But on the upside, my dremel/workstation is capable of drilling holes in copper with an acceptable level of accuracy.

Pictures... probably on Monday.

[ben333]

Sounds good I think most people just epoxy the barb in a hole but good that you threaded it - should last longer with fewer or no leaks.