Swamp coolers

[Guest]

This Texas heat is a killer this year! It was 112 in the shop today...and NO it's not a DRY HEAT!! I'm thinking about getting one of those water spray in front of a fan coolers aka..swamp coolers, but don't need to increase the "hum did it tee" any more than it is and I'm not sure how bad that would effect my pc work. Any ideas to cool the shop without paying an arm and a leg for a window unit a/c? My 3 fans just circulate the heat like a convection oven!

[Guest]

Re: Swamp coolers

I'm with you on this one Bob. It has been 105+ for a few days here in Vegas, and that's outside... add a compressor, oven, and lights... and it's easily 110+ in the shop. I have a couple of fans but they just move around hot air...

[rbroker]

Re: Swamp coolers

This Texas heat is a killer this year! It was 112 in the shop today...and NO it's not a DRY HEAT!! I'm thinking about getting one of those water spray in front of a fan coolers aka..swamp coolers, but don't need to increase the "hum did it tee" any more than it is and I'm not sure how bad that would effect my pc work. Any ideas to cool the shop without paying an arm and a leg for a window unit a/c? My 3 fans just circulate the heat like a convection oven!

Paying 3 bucks a day for AC is worth the price to me. I have two window units in my garage that work well enough, not great. But then again its only 80-90 here in MN. With the oven going and its vent hood exhausting out the window I can keep it about 80 in there with all the other doors closed. Its better than 90, and the cool air blowing is nicer than hot stanky air.

[Guest]

Re: Swamp coolers

Rbroker is on the right track. Removing the heat at the source is the first step. But like anything else, it costs money to do it correctly. It doesn't need to be anything fancy, basically just a device to pull the heat from the oven area. In commercial kitchens, they're called "Heat Removal Hoods" and are required at all ovens, cookers, etc. that don't generate grease fumes or steam. A residential vent-a-hood is a grease hood only on a smaller scale.

To do it by code if you HAVE to, use the following:
Fabricate a hood out of non-combustible materials that is at least 6" wider than your oven on each side. If you're oven is 4' wide, build the hood 5' wide. The depth must be enuff to cover the door(s) at their maximum arc - i.e. if you have two 2' doors on a 4' wide oven, then the depth must also include a 6" overhang, or 30" in this case. Make a frame out of 1" angle iron that's 60"x30"x12" tall and cover all sides and the top with sheet metal, seal the joints with high temp silicone. Mount so that it just clears the oven doors as they are opened. Figure the sq. footage of the hood in plan view: in this case, 5'x2.5'=12.5 s.f., allow for 100 cfm/s.f. for exhaust, or 1250 cfm. A 1000 cfm fan will probably get you by. Duct to the outside thru a backdraft damper. 12" round or a rectangular equivalent will give you enuff velocity to do the trick. I'd switch it seperately so you don't use it in the winter if you don't want to - that's basically free heat for the shop.

I'm have the same "hot air convection" problems in my shop this summer and a heat removal hood is one of my winter projects.

One little thing that'll help a ton is a 'sweat rag'. It won't cool the shop, but it'll cool you a bunch. Any old towel soaked in cold water and drapped around your neck/shoulders helps make things a lot better.

[BeeBob]

Re: Swamp coolers

[quote="CPC-2"

One little thing that'll help a ton is a 'sweat rag'. It won't cool the shop, but it'll cool you a bunch. Any old towel soaked in cold water and drapped around your neck/shoulders helps make things a lot better.[/quote]


Yea I gotta do something, I don't even want to go down there during the day and at night or early morning I've got that noisy azz compressor waking up the neighborhood! We use to use soaked sponge strips with elastic bands on our heads to keep us cool when I was on the shooting team.

[Guest]

Re: Swamp coolers

[quote=BeeBob]

Yea I gotta do something, I don't even want to go down there during the day and at night or early morning I've got that noisy azz compressor waking up the neighborhood! We use to use soaked sponge strips with elastic bands on our heads to keep us cool when I was on the shooting team.

Another thing to try, instead of just using fans to move the hot air around the shop, try to position it(them) so they can REMOVE as much heat as possible. Set in front of a doorway or window, blowing OUT, to 'exhaust' the space as best they can. You won't get the 'effect' of moving air on you, but overall, the shop temp will drop.

Any means at all you have available to use the wind to ventilate the space - take advantage of it. Even if it's a 5mph wind, that's better than letting the mass of your shop/equipment absorb the heat and THEN try to overcome it. Every structure absorbs heat from the sun (and your oven) during the day, and releases it during the night. The more you can relieve the rate of absorption during the daylight hours, the cooler the place will be.

Even running the yard sprinkler against the west side of your shop (if you have a west exposure), can drastically reduce the amount of heat the building will soak in. Those of you with brick homes that have a wall facing west: lean up against it about 2 hours before dark, or better yet, take your IR gun and read the wall temp - you'll be shocked

[Guest]

Re: Swamp coolers

Another thing to try, instead of just using fans to move the hot air around the shop, try to position it(them) so they can REMOVE as much heat as possible. Set in front of a doorway or window, blowing OUT, to 'exhaust' the space as best they can. You won't get the 'effect' of moving air on you, but overall, the shop temp will drop.

Any means at all you have available to use the wind to ventilate the space - take advantage of it. Even if it's a 5mph wind, that's better than letting the mass of your shop/equipment absorb the heat and THEN try to overcome it. Every structure absorbs heat from the sun (and your oven) during the day, and releases it during the night. The more you can relieve the rate of absorption during the daylight hours, the cooler the place will be.

Even running the yard sprinkler against the west side of your shop (if you have a west exposure), can drastically reduce the amount of heat the building will soak in. Those of you with brick homes that have a wall facing west: lean up against it about 2 hours before dark, or better yet, take your IR gun and read the wall temp - you'll be shocked

Good point on which way the garage is facing. I'm lucky enough that the entire garage is sheltered by the rest of the house facing west... but I can tell you the master room (facing west on second story) is just hot as hell after sun down. I can't even touch the windows!