Life off the grid in the SW Texas desert. An experiment in sustainable living. NUMBERS AT THE END OF EACH BLOG POST: temp at 8PM,high temp,low temp,rainfall,wind conditions(CalmBreezyWindyGusty). YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/c/TheFieldLab
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Tuesday, May 5, 2015
Pepino II season
Getting a little warm inside these days so it was time to fire up my swamp cooler for its' fifth season.
82,90,58,0,B
HI Margery. There's what we call drop in refrigerants that will take the place of the r22 freon that is in your current system. We use the drop in's now due to the higher cost of r22 freon. If you're leaking the freon out talk to your ac guy about using some stop-leak. Its good for sealing small leaks. Nothing wrong with upgrading to a more efficient system though.
The timer runs the water pump in peppy. Due to the small size of the unit, optimal cooling comes from precise timing of the water cycle...on for 6 seconds - off for 4 minutes. (a constant flow does not work - I tried it) The black dots are fly poop.
The cooling effect (15 to 20 degrees) remains fairly consistent thoughout the ambient temperature range of our normal summer days without changing the on/off time. Could I tweak it a little cooler? Perhaps. Am I satisfied with the way it works as is? Yes. On 105+ days it will get up to the low 90's inside but since we rarely have overnight temperatures above 80 degrees, the hut cools down nicely in the evening for sleeping.
George, thankfully my AC does not leak. Some stop-leak might have been used in the past. But I did not know about the drop-in refrigerants. I have r22 now. Good for now.
Still about a month away from air conditioner season up here in the cool blue north. Not all of the snow birds have returned yet.
ReplyDeleteThey might be on their way, Sam. I saw a beautiful Blue Bird flying toward me when I was whistling for my little fluffy white Cotton dog today?
ReplyDeleteMy air was fixed a few weeks ago. Works fine now, but in 3 yrs., we will need 15 seer or new ones.
ReplyDeleteBecause they are going to quie making the liquid additive that we have now.
ReplyDelete713˚F seems a bit toasty… how did the world work prior to the toggle? & other electro bits…
ReplyDeletepowerwall
Elon
Thanks Margery. If you see him again please tell him we're waiting on him! :-)
ReplyDeleteJohn, Are you using Mikey's controller?
ReplyDeleteLooks familiar.
http://www.canakit.com/60-minute-1-hour-adjustable-on-off-cyclic-timer-kit-ck191m60-uk191m60.html
ReplyDeleteI'am curious, are those little black dots, gnats?
ReplyDeleteon/off timer, not thermostat?
ReplyDeleteHI Margery. There's what we call drop in refrigerants that will take the place of the r22 freon that is in your current system. We use the drop in's now due to the higher cost of r22 freon. If you're leaking the freon out talk to your ac guy about using some stop-leak. Its good for sealing small leaks. Nothing wrong with upgrading to a more efficient system though.
ReplyDeleteThe timer runs the water pump in peppy. Due to the small size of the unit, optimal cooling comes from precise timing of the water cycle...on for 6 seconds - off for 4 minutes. (a constant flow does not work - I tried it) The black dots are fly poop.
ReplyDeleteit would seem a fixed on-off would not correspond to different ambient temps as well as a thermostat would.
ReplyDeleteI contemplated that, but I found that my timer method worked so well in my real world experiment that I did not bother adding a themostat controller.
ReplyDeleteyou don't have to adjust it depending on the outside temp?
ReplyDeletein very hot weather - would it perform better if it ran continuously instead of on cycle?
swamp coolers used to be ubiquitous in the southwest at one time.
The cooling effect (15 to 20 degrees) remains fairly consistent thoughout the ambient temperature range of our normal summer days without changing the on/off time. Could I tweak it a little cooler? Perhaps. Am I satisfied with the way it works as is? Yes. On 105+ days it will get up to the low 90's inside but since we rarely have overnight temperatures above 80 degrees, the hut cools down nicely in the evening for sleeping.
ReplyDeleteThe on-off sounds good. But as as I got older I preferred it a little cooler than 90"s. At 19 I could easily take 107.
ReplyDeleteGeorge, thankfully my AC does not leak. Some stop-leak might have been used in the past. But I did not know about the drop-in refrigerants. I have r22 now. Good for now.
ReplyDeleteOh I do not care for gnats. Have to get out the fly paper. I always have bananas out.
ReplyDeletewell if you have low humidity and shade and a breeze -it can be quite comfortable..
ReplyDelete