Swamp Coolers - Cool Air At Low Cost

A swamp cooler, an earthen pot for coolingCondition affecting performance
drinking water, cooling tower, and human skin,There are no controls for temperature of
work on the same principle. The principle isoutgoing air since it cannot just be controlled. It is
evaporative cooling. Water is broken down intoa "take it or leave it" type of machine with
smaller droplets and air forced through it. Heatabsolutely no control on the out let air
transfer takes place from water to air or air totemperature. The out let air temperature is the
water depending on the design of the equipment.result of atmospheric air temperature and
In human skin, the heat is taken away from theatmospheric humidity. The lesser the relative
body when sweat on surface of skin evaporates.humidity, the higher is the performance for a
Construction Of Swamp Coolersgiven inlet temperature. At the same relative
The swamp coolers consist of a box and a fan ishumidity, higher inlet temperature increases the
situated inside the box. On the suction side of fan,cooling ratio. Therefore, you can see that the
there are pads. These pads are made of woodair-cooling cannot be controlled. If this is the case,
shavings or PVC. A small water pump directswhy have a swamp cooler at all? The answer is,
water on top of the pads. The construction ofair conditioning was invented about in1902 and
pads is such that the incoming water is brokenthere was no choice before it. Now it is a question
down into small water droplets and air going toof money. If you wish to have a low initial cost
suction of fan goes through these small droplets.and low operating cost solution, swamp cooler is
So in essence, it is just a box with a pump and athe only alternative.
fan & lot of pads for breaking water intoHow to choose your swamp cooler
smaller droplets. The construction might alsoThe capacity of swamp coolers is on cubic feet
include a distributor for air delivery so that the airper minute (CFM) capacity of air delivery fan. If
is equally distributed in all areas of the room.the room dimensions are 15 feet by 12 feet and
Other variations include a common motor for8 feet high, then room capacity will be 15*12*8 =
pump and fan, thus further reducing construction1358 cu ft. The fans are designed to have
complexitycomplete change of room air every 5 minutes.
The controls of swamp coolers include controlsThis means that the capacity of fans will be 1358
for fan speed, a float valve for maintaining waterdivide by 5, or approximately 280 CFM. This
level in the basin of cooler and controls for aircapacity is for a fan that draws cold air from the
delivery. Some portable swamp coolers haveroom. If the same swamp cooler is fixed in a
water level indicators instead of float valve andwindow, the capacity will increase, as recirculation
water level has to be maintained by pouringwill be reduced to zero.
water from outside.