Despite living in Colorado and on a mountain property... we have had a HOT summer!
A few weeks back our heat-wave was so bad we had to dramatically re-assess our energy usage and find a way to cool off for our own safety since the RV was reaching over 90 degrees each afternoon!
Jen being the genius she is figured out the parts we needed to build a SWAMP COOLER. While our DIY version is a bit different, it is the same concept as the first AC unit my grandparents ever purchased for their home.
Now building a swamp cooler does depend on you having some form of power, but luckily you can buy parts that will suit your particular setup. Our setup is low-powered enough to run for hours on our current RV battery setup but could run as long as we want once we finish our solar set up (dang weather delays!)
Quick and Easy Bucket Swamp Cooler:
Required Items:
Plastic 5 Gallon Bucket - From any local hardware or ranch store
Water Pump - We used a non-submergible water cooler pump from Walmart
DuraCool Fabric - 30" x 36" from a big chain hardware store
Plastic water tubing - The size of your pump
Drill & Drill bits - 1/2"+ suggested
Plastic blade or cheap steakhouse knife ;)
Energy-efficient fan- 10" or smaller preferred
Suggested Items:
Pex Tubing Cutters are handy if using that tubing
If you using Pex, larger tubing, or a powerful pump, you might choose to reinforce with:
Pex Clamps
Crimpers for Pex Clamps
Here's What We Did:
1) Fill your bucket with 2 gallons of water and mark the water line. This is to make sure you don't cause a leak during the next step.
2) Using a 1/2" up to 1" drill bit start drilling holes above the water line. These holes are where the swamp cooler fan pulls air through, so put enough to make sure you get enough air flow.
3) Then cut your Duracool cloth so that it is large enough to fit around the inside of the bucket. It should essentially go all the way around while touching the bottom of the bucket.
4) Next you will need to attach your tubing to your water pump. You can use really any type of plastic tubing you would like that can be run around the inside top of the bucket. We used simple plastic tubing you can find in the sprinkler aisle of your local hardware store.
5) Once you have the tubing attached to your pump, you will need to poke holes into the tubing that is running along the top of the bucket. You can use a sewing needle, a pin, or anything that's thin and sharp to do this. You want enough holes in the tubing to make the Duracool cloth damp when you start up the pump.
6) The last step is to put your fan on it. There are 2 ways to do this.
- You can cut a hole in the lid to the bucket and place a 6" fan in the lid. The lids are easy to cut through with an X- Acto knife or scissors. Once you get your fan secured into the lid (it takes some finagling), you simply put the lid on the bucket and you are ready to plug her in. This method will get you the coolest air.
- Alternatively, you can use a larger fan that fits over the top of the bucket without the lid. It is much simpler to do. You do lose some of the cooling effect doing it this way the fan will pull air through it from inside AND outside of the bucket. The benefit though is that the fan itself pushes more air.
All in all the swamp coolers have been a life saver. There needs to be some major finetuning to say that these will replace a swamp cooler you could buy at the store, but they definitely are effective and WAY more power efficient - the 2 things we needed.
- peace, love, & dogs -
Sam + Jen
Comments