8/24/06

I did a little research on the internot about “swamp coolers” and it looks like my use of quotes is not needed. Swamp cooler seems to be a generally accepted term for evaporative cooling systems. But I digress already. In my search, I found a guy selling portable combination A/C system swamp coolers that use ice water for true air conditioning but will also use the swamp cooler effect once all the ice is melted. While reading his site I decided I could probably duplicate his system in Mr. Wiggly pretty easily. The down side is it uses about 20 pounds of ice per hour for 8,000 BTUs of cooling. Also, I live and plan to stay on the “swamp coolers won’t work as effectively” side of the “this line separates where swamp coolers will and won’t work as effectively” line dividing the country. That’s not to say it won’t work at all, but it won’t work as well. I see this as a two-stage, built in unit in Mr. Wiggly. Which is not to say I'll build it in two stages but that the cooling will be done in two stages. What I see is a wall behind the seats, duh. In the back of the van, behind the wall but accessible from the side doors, there will be a large ice chest with a 12-volt water pump inside. The pump will send water to a valve in the cockpit that will direct the water to either the heat sink in the air conditioner or to the evaporative element in the swamp cooler. Oh, I see the A/C portion as a box mounted either to the doghouse or between the seats with vents to direct air on the passenger and me after blowing through a modified heater core where the ice water is circulating. The swamp cooler portion of the program would be mounted to the roof of the van and would direct damp air down on us. It would probably be ram air only without a fan. I'd need a way to shut off the ram air though, but that shouldn’t be too tough to engineer. I just had a thought. This system would work pretty well in a 1200 if the heater core was divorced from the engine coolant and ice water was substituted. I might just look into that. I probably won’t though. Anyhoo back to Mr. Wiggly, once Juan feels that the air coming out of the A/C portion isn’t cooling anymore because the ice had all melted, he would flip the valve to swamp cooler. The water would then circulate over the evaporative cores until it was all used up. I'd provide a drain back from the swamp cooler so the system could run continuously and wouldn’t need constant attention to when the evaporators were dried out. I'd need some sort of water level indicator so I didn’t burn up the pump once all the water was gone. Hmm, a “knee knocker” is beginning to sound more and more reasonable, now that I think about it. I wonder how much ice and water I'd have to melt and evaporate to equal the investment in parts, labor, Freon (or whatever), and everything else needed for the “knee knocker.” I keep calling it a “knee knocker” but I actually see it mounted on the wall between the seats. The hoses would run under the floor and up to the evaporator, or is the inside part the condenser? I don’t remember. Anyhoo, the hoses would run under the floor, but I already said that, and up to the interior portion of the program. Hot air would be picked up off the floor and blown up through the, um, thingy and out to vents onto the occupants. Perhaps the vents could be up high blowing down onto us. That might be nice. You may notice I keep saying “us” as if anyone will ever ride in this thing with me. Juan can dream, can’t he? Ok seriously, what are the pros and cons of the two systems? The pros of the KK are: I have many of the bits and pieces to make it happen, it would be more efficient, and would probably cool off the cockpit of the van and keep it cool. The cons are: a complicated installation, most notably mounting the compressor, expense of parts that would need to be purchased, and it would rob horsepower from the wheels. Besides, removing the A/C system is usually the first thing I do to an old car! The pros for the swamp cooler are: if I didn’t go crazy with the design, it would be a much simpler installation, no power robbing bits added to the engine, and… ok so I can only think of those two. Cons of the swamp cooler are: it might be too humid for it to work very well at cooling me off, the addition of the ice water system to overcome the humidity question make it almost as complicated as the KK, and utilizes consumable components to work. Then again, I could just sweat. We’ve been doing that for millennia. I don’t know. I'm going to have to cipher and figger on it for a while. Talk to y’all later.