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Step 3Assembly
First you need to make a way for the air to pass thru wet padding:
Cut 2.5 inch diameter holes in sides of garbage can. A drill bit made for cutting doorknob holes works perfectly. Leave the lower 10 inches of the garbage can intact, without holes. Line the inside of garbage can with blue evaporative cooler padding x two layers. Keep it in place with hardware cloth or chicken wire on the inside. Keep that in place with the U-bolts drilled thru the garbage can sides. Now you have a garbage can with ventilation holes, lined with evaporative cooler pads which are kept in place with hardware cloth wire.
Now you make a dripper to keep the padding moist:
Make a circle with the 1/2 inch diameter irrigation pipe; join with a 1/2 inch T-piece. Drill very small holes about every 2 inches in bottom side of circle for water to drip from. (If you want to get really fancy, you can insert drip irrigation emitters in the holes, which will give you a known gal/hour drip rate. )
Now we need to get the water up to the top of the pads:
Place 12 volt submersible pump in bottom of garbage can. Connect the pump to the drip ring with 1/2 inch tubing. Feed wiring thru one of the holes so you can connect to battery power later
Next, we need a fan at the top, which will suck air in, thru the holes in the sides of the garbage can, thru the evaporative cooler padding, and out the top into the HVAC tubing which will deliver cool, humidified air to the location of your choice:
Cut out a circle in top of garbage can lid and mount fan.Make sure it blows upwards! Used auto radiator fans are cheap, blow lots of air, but use a LOT of amps. So we eventually bought a solar-type fan for about $200 that runs forever on a 45 watt solar panel hooked to a deep cycle 12 volt battery. An auto radiator fan will use more juice than this system puts out, and only runs about 20 hours before draining the battery faster than the solar panel can charge it. However, if you have enough solar panels, the auto fans REALLY put out lots of cool air, compared to just a breeze from the solar-type fan.
Wire it up! Soldering connections is a good idea, but you may want to make the wires to the top lid/fan/HVAC tubing component unpluggable so they can be removed for easier packing for transport. I also installed a switch to cut off the pump in the cool morning hours and just have a fan. It gets too cold, otherwise!
The entire unit will need to sit in a catchment basin, to collect water that drips out from the sides (this dripping is inevitable). Big black tubs from a garden center work well. you may need to drill holes in the bottom of the garbage can to allow this water to percolate back inside to the pump.
Cut 2.5 inch diameter holes in sides of garbage can. A drill bit made for cutting doorknob holes works perfectly. Leave the lower 10 inches of the garbage can intact, without holes. Line the inside of garbage can with blue evaporative cooler padding x two layers. Keep it in place with hardware cloth or chicken wire on the inside. Keep that in place with the U-bolts drilled thru the garbage can sides. Now you have a garbage can with ventilation holes, lined with evaporative cooler pads which are kept in place with hardware cloth wire.
Now you make a dripper to keep the padding moist:
Make a circle with the 1/2 inch diameter irrigation pipe; join with a 1/2 inch T-piece. Drill very small holes about every 2 inches in bottom side of circle for water to drip from. (If you want to get really fancy, you can insert drip irrigation emitters in the holes, which will give you a known gal/hour drip rate. )
Now we need to get the water up to the top of the pads:
Place 12 volt submersible pump in bottom of garbage can. Connect the pump to the drip ring with 1/2 inch tubing. Feed wiring thru one of the holes so you can connect to battery power later
Next, we need a fan at the top, which will suck air in, thru the holes in the sides of the garbage can, thru the evaporative cooler padding, and out the top into the HVAC tubing which will deliver cool, humidified air to the location of your choice:
Cut out a circle in top of garbage can lid and mount fan.Make sure it blows upwards! Used auto radiator fans are cheap, blow lots of air, but use a LOT of amps. So we eventually bought a solar-type fan for about $200 that runs forever on a 45 watt solar panel hooked to a deep cycle 12 volt battery. An auto radiator fan will use more juice than this system puts out, and only runs about 20 hours before draining the battery faster than the solar panel can charge it. However, if you have enough solar panels, the auto fans REALLY put out lots of cool air, compared to just a breeze from the solar-type fan.
Wire it up! Soldering connections is a good idea, but you may want to make the wires to the top lid/fan/HVAC tubing component unpluggable so they can be removed for easier packing for transport. I also installed a switch to cut off the pump in the cool morning hours and just have a fan. It gets too cold, otherwise!
The entire unit will need to sit in a catchment basin, to collect water that drips out from the sides (this dripping is inevitable). Big black tubs from a garden center work well. you may need to drill holes in the bottom of the garbage can to allow this water to percolate back inside to the pump.
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May 13, 2010. 7:01 PMJenn Nelson
says:
Very nice, and obviously playa-tested! If I can get my vardo interior temp down from 105 degrees to 75 degrees using an inverter and batteries instead of my gennie, I'll be a happy camper!
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