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In the hot summer when the airconditioner is running, a parent calls out to a child, " close that door. What are you trying to do...cool the whole outdoors?"
With power bills as high as they are today, we are all looking for alternatives to electricity. In an effort to conserve electric power use in my home, I devised a way to lower the temperature inside. I do this by lowering the temperature of the outside air, just as it enters my home. While not "cooling the whole outdoors", I am cooling the air outside my doors, and windows.
Granted it will only cool the air when it it hot and dry, but that is most of the summer here in energy strapped California.
On a day whene the temperature is 90 degrees and the relative humidity is low, this system will lower the temperature of the air entering your home by as much as fourty degrees. A lot of the hot air will mix with it as it comes into your home so that the effective cooling in your home is twenty to thirty degrees cooler. That is enough to mean you will not need to run the airconditioner.
In one afternoon you can have your new mist system for cooling, up and running. To run the system all day, the water use is less than that of flushing the toilet once.
In the garden supply section of your hardware or home improvement store, you will find supplies for lawn sprinkler systems.You will want to shop in a store that carries small parts for "drip irrigation". These are the parts you will use to construct your mist system.
The materials list is as follows:
#1. 100 ft. of quarter inch diameter vinyl tube (comes in black, brown, tan and white)
#2. barbed vinyl connectors ("T" shaped connections)
#3. Hose to quarter inch vinyl connection
#4. Teflon plumbers tape
#5. pair of sissors
#6. hammer ( to tack the tube in place using telephone wire fasteners)
#7. fine mist heads ( one for every foot of window and door width)
#8. telephone wire fasteners ( look like big staples)
Now with the above items at hand, you will have the system running in a few more minutes.
Wrap the threads of your outdoor water faucet with the Teflon tape. This will prevent leaks. Screw the "hose to vinyl connection", onto your outdoor water faucet, (where you would hook up your garden hose).
Insert one end of the vinyl tube in the opening of the connection. It is hard to get it to go into the hole, but it is the compression of the vinyl tube as it is inserted that keeps it from leaking.
Using the hammer to "tack" the tube to your house using the telephone wire fasteners. Run the tube up the house and out to the edges of the roof. Follow the line of the roof, fastening as you go, until you get to an area in front of a window.
Cut the hose and insert a barbed "T" connection into the end. This is where you will add the mist head.
To add the mist head, cut a one inch section of the tube to hook directly onto the mist head and connect the other end of the tube to the barbed "T" connection you just installed. Use one head for every foot of window or door width spacing the heads a foot apart. Extend the tube toward the next window or door.
Continue in this fashion until you have covered every entrance of air to your home.
The last mist head will be connected on to the end of the tube without the need for a barbed "T" connection.
The roof to your home extends at least two feet from the building. This is enough room for the evaporation to take place to cool the air.
Point the heads away from the building.
Now turn on the water. NOT TOO MUCH. It only takes a quarter turn to turn the water on high enough to run the system. You want all the water to evaporate in the air. If water is showing on the ground, then you need to turn down the water pressure some. Pools of water do not do the cooling, the evaporation of the fine mist makes the air cold. If the water is on too low the heads will spray out a stream instead of a mist. Try to set the water so that the heads are spraying a mist that looks like smoke or fog.
Mark the faucet to show how big a turn it took to get this effect. Next time you will know just where to set the faucet handle.
Your best cooling will take place on the South, East and West facing windows and doors. If you have any trees in those areas you may wish to run the tubes out to the low branches of the trees. Face the heads pointing down for greatest cooling.
On windows facing the hot afternoon sun, you can add one more trick to cool your home. Add a trellis of white vinyl in front of the window and out about three feet. Add the mist system to this and consider planting a flowering vine on the trellis. The mist keeps the leaves of the vine hydrated, it thrives and blooms. The evaporation of water from the leaves of the plants adds an extra bonus to the cooling of the mist.
Today was hot. I turned off the fan and turned on the water. While the neighbors electric meters were spinning, mine was sitting still. I will enjoy fresh air and never fear Summer again
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