I use an RV swamp cooler made by Turbokool (http://www.turbokool.com/, near Carson City, Nevada). It is elegantly simple. Yes, this is more expensive than a home-brew mechanism. The first year I took a hexayurt to the playa I found 12v computer fans totally inadequate. Their CFM (about 75) is an order of magnitude less than what you need. So, I went bigger.
Since I stay in the Alternative Energy Zone (AEZ) village, where generators are prohibited, I need to run everything off 12v. Yes, I use a PV panel to charge my batteries, although I need another panel to be able to bring the batteries backed fully charged. You won’t have an exhaust problem in a tent, where achieving air flow is easy, but I needed to add an exhaust fan to pull air out of the hexayurt and keep the humidity and temperature down. This is a good thing, since the hexayurt was still air-tight and thus dust-proof. The evaporation mat in the swamp cooler also made an excellent – and self-cleaning - dust filter. This year, if work allows me to get to burning man for the 12th consecutive year, I will bring Aluminet shade cloth to cover the sunny side of the hexayurt. Thermax’s one inch insulation is good, but the 60° difference between outside panel temperature and inside ambient temperature is still a lot for the swamp cooler to work against. Bill Ectropy camp, AEZ From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Cody Firestone Sent: Sunday, June 26, 2011 12:15 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [hexayurt] Door So Bill, did you use a trash can swamp cooler (ise 35 gal trash can with holes in it and swamp cooler fan on top) or something more fancy... Also, was is solar? My first swamp cooler last year had a solar submergable fountain in the bottom, which sprayed the water onto the cooler mats inside the trash can when the sun was up. We also used a bank of four solar powered computer fans, they didn't seem to main the slight moisture in the duct. We just put them in line to a 4 inch flexible duct pipe ( like for a dryer vent) It turned itself on when the sun came up and cooled our entire monkey hut shade structure. Everyone loved hanging out in the cool moist breeze. Unfortunately it was so cold most of the time, we didnt really need it, but the a=dded humidity DID make a huge impact on the comfort of our tent / shade structure. On Sun, Jun 26, 2011 at 1:15 PM, Bill Wiltschko <[email protected]> wrote: I have taken my hexayurt to the playa for 3 years, and the door has evolved over that time, in two phases. First note that my walls are 6 ft tall and the door itself 5 ft tall. Phase one: I cut the Thermax door assembly panel so that a 6” sill was under the door, and I bolted a thin plywood reinforcement over the inside of the sill to prevent “oops” stumbles over the threshold. Reinforcing was needed. In addition, the sill provided a solid area to tape the ground tarp to the Thermax door assembly so that the whole hexayurt was completely sealed. However, latching the door put a strain on the portion of panel under the latch mechanism. In addition, when I added a swamp cooler and exhaust fan (creates negative or positive air pressure), I found the latch inadequate. Phase two: I cut a piece of plywood the same size as the existing Thermax panel door assembly, and used the Thermax panel to insulate the new plywood door. In other words, I kept the 6” sill, area to tape the ground tarp, and reinforcement against my clumsiness. The latch mechanism is anchored to the plywood instead of the Thermax, and is pretty much bomb-proof. At BM 2010, it handled any combination of swamp cooler and exhaust fan settings (and wind) with aplomb. Bill From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Keith Brown Sent: Saturday, June 25, 2011 7:58 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [hexayurt] Door I did not leave a connection at the bottom. Instead, on the playa, I put the door about 12" away from one corner (handle side), and put a piece of rebar into the ground at the hinge side to support it. However this summer I'm putting a 5-6' piece of sill-iron (from my stage crew days) across the base of the opening to keep the door from spreading. It will be integrated into the bottom edge taping. Sill iron is about 1/8" thick by about 7/8" wide. -Oswego On Sat, Jun 25, 2011 at 5:51 PM, Milt Fisher <[email protected]> wrote: I was wondering if anyone leaves a 2-3" sill at the bottom of the door in an attempt to not weaken that panel by cutting the door all the way through the edge. Is it worth the trouble? Thanks, Milt -- 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] <mailto:hexayurt%[email protected]> . For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/hexayurt?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "hexayurt" group. 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