I just ran my first trial test with a swamp cooler in my hexayurt. It worked well, however, the dust on the Playa adds a confounding factor that I’m unable to trouble shoot in advance. My goal is to develop a system that is fairly resistant to dust influences. I’ll illustrate my idea, then maybe others could throw in some feedback.
I’m using a commercially available swamp cooler: http://www.symphonycomfort.com/cooler_surround.html The Design: I’ve installed this cooler through one of the walls, sitting on the ground. I have cut two 6 inch exhaust ducts in the roof near the peak, with collapsible foil dryer tubes leading out and down the outside of the roof, with residential dryer check valves on them, to hopefully eliminate backdraft of dust through the exhaust vents in a storm. I tested this system over the weekend and all is well. One thing remains. How can I manage the dust that gets sucked in to the swamp cooler in a dust storm? The simple answer might be “Shut down the swamp cooler when the dust blows!” But the point of the swamp cooler is to be able to sleep through the day, and if I’m sleeping, I'll be unaware of the situation outside. So I am hoping to build a system that could operate through a dust storm, at least within reason. As a first line of defense, I’ll ask neighboring friends to cut my generator if they see it running in the storm. Proposed solution: I am building a totally sealed dust box around the outside of the swamp cooler with the RMAX, with a furnace filter intake panel. This sounded like a good plan until someone told me that furnace filters do not filter playa dust! Questions ... • Is this true? • If true, are some furnace filters better than others, i.e. does buying the highest grade make a difference? • Would two furnace filters work better, or only restrict airflow, putting stress on the fan? Thanks to any and all feedback! And then ... there is generator protection ... <sigh>. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "hexayurt" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/hexayurt?hl=en.
