swamp cooler in garage?

[thcrefugee]

Hello all!

I am looking at using a swamp cooler to forced-air intake/ cool my garage. (Vs using an a/c to cool the tent....-> nearly having to seal it, leading to $$ for power and sealed room supplies)

I have a 4x8 tent inside the garage with air venting 2 -1k hoods closed-loop; and the tent is vented separately through a filter. The intakes for these two air circuits is the garage space.
Garage is passively intaking air through lots of tiny holes, cracks, and gaps.
One window for exhausting.. with one other window available. (windows next to each other, yet seperated by privacy fence.)

I was thinking of putting a small swamp cooler on here to cool the garage (lung) air down some before its used by the tents and lights.
I think it would also help to keep the exhaust fans from working as hard.

Is this correct? Just trying to avoid adding $AC$.
im in the desert, but will humidity be a huge problem?


What has worked for you in the past?, avoiding going fully sealed!

 

[Lungy]

I do exactly as you describe. How big is your garage? I use quite a big swampy sucking air directly from outside as they work best with the lowest humidity air available on intake and lots of room for the old wet air to be forced out.
ie .You want the swampy to be mounted thru window/wall/roof
I'm in OZ in a damn hot and fairly low humidity area.
Haven't had any problems in 5 or so years.

 

[mojave green]

I use a swampy in my room. Works well

 

[thcrefugee]

Thanks for the responses!
The garage is a full sized detached, maybe 20x25, insulated walls, but not roof.
The cooler would mount to a window, and blow into the garage space. ..finding its way out both through the tent/ light exhaust, and all the cracks and crevices. I'm assuming the tent will cycle air almost constantly (on its own t-stat), and the swampy will kick on when garage temps hit 70/75F or so, on its own separate t-stat)

I'm hoping that I can keep the garage at a manageable 70F through the summer days, with the swamp cooler. That'll be my night time temp. I will run my lights at night to offset that heat.

Am I looking for humidity problems?

What do you all think, manageble to keep temps down?

A whole lot cheaper and easier to run/ install..

 

[mojave green]

Gonna need more/bigger exhaust vents.

 

[Lungy]

Gonna need more/bigger exhaust vents.

I agree maybe open that extra window. Humidity with heat doesn't cause me any dramas though I've always run a oscillating fan inside the tent as well. You may find stretch a lot more pronounced than growing in winter as your creating a nice tropical atmosphere.

 

[thcrefugee]

I agree maybe open that extra window. Humidity with heat doesn't cause me any dramas though I've always run a oscillating fan inside the tent as well. You may find stretch a lot more pronounced than growing in winter as your creating a nice tropical atmosphere.

That extra window, that's where the swamp cooler will go. The only other option/s would be to add a gable vent or two...
or, remove the back utility door and frame it into a window temporarily..
I dont really want to do either.

will 2 6" vortex fans, plus a ton of air gaps in the garage not cut it to exhaust the swampy?


ive also ran with higher heat that i wanted, and humidity.. it's not the end of the world, but if i can fix it some.. I will. Plus, I have 0 room for much stretch this round. ooooops.

 

[thcrefugee]

I was hoping that between 2 6" vortex fans, and an occasional 4" (for veg), Plus all the garage air leakage, that the swamp cooler air wont have any trouble finding a way out. It should serve to only increase efficiency of my existing airflow; acting as a super-active intake for the lung (garage).

thoughts?

 

[thcrefugee]

Also, with the space almost fully set-up and running now, ive been able to gather some data.
The night time, lights on, outside temp is still around 60-65F here, for now. This has the tent running at a sweet, cool 70-72F which is great! (also running the lights dimmed..)
The daytime outside temps are up to the 80s now, and thats the same for the inside of my tent lights-out temperatures. A little high, for me.

Add to this that the next two months will bring much higher temps. I want to plan for this future.

 

[AvidLerner]

consider an fan operated attic/gable end vent for the garage to keep the garage cooler.

 

[Lungy]

Run it and see what temps and humidity are like with door closed then door open to see if extra exhaust is needed. The attic/gable fan would be the go if needed.

 

[atk7]

I run a swampy on a tstat also, works great, I did add a gable vent to vent the heat that accumulates near the roof, ,I put a shutter on a hinge on the inside that I can open and shut with a pull string . I open it in summer to push heat out and close in winter to keep heat in . and the swampy pushes air out it and a window all summer . But I would suggest insulating the roof to keep heat in during the winter months and solar heat out in the summer. My area is desert dry so humidity added is a bonus not a problem.

 

[mojave green]

I gutted my swampy and use it as passive intake. 14" cancan sits atop a 5' carbon filter exhausting through the roof of room inside garage. Swampy's efficiency drops rapidly without adequate exhaust.

 

[theLumberjack]

same. works well for me. far more efficient then ac. as long as your not using co2 and can constant exhaust.

I have 2 portables in my lung. drops me at least 10 degrees.

it takes no time at all for the swamp to make a lung room too humid if the exhaust turns off.

 

[thcrefugee]

Awesome everyone, thanks a bunch for the ideas!
Seems like thats the way to go for me. Ill keep the exhaust running constantly then, at least the one through the lights.

I could use the extra humidity generally too, especially if the exhaust will run all the time. its been like 20-30% in there with plants..

I really dont want to cut a hole in the garage, but the gable vent might be the best option. Nor do I want to spend the money on insulating the roof. This is just a rental place, so I dont want to invest too much money into it. I also cant really leave the back door open for more than a few minutes, privacy and security are huge here.

thanks for all the help!

 

[The Meadows]

My swamper saved me $200/month in electricity costs last summer. Its a window mounted unit with a 16" fan that is rated at 5900 cfm. It moves some air! It raises the humidity from 10% to 30%. It lowers the temperature a good 25°F, but that means an indoor temperature of 90°F at some times of the year. It gets plastic melting, egg frying hot here. Without a proper exit for the saturated air, the humidity will skyrocket.

 

[thcrefugee]

My swamper saved me $200/month in electricity costs last summer. Its a window mounted unit with a 16" fan that is rated at 5900 cfm. It moves some air! It raises the humidity from 10% to 30%. It lowers the temperature a good 25°F, but that means an indoor temperature of 90°F at some times of the year. It gets plastic melting, egg frying hot here. Without a proper exit for the saturated air, the humidity will skyrocket.

Thanks! These numbers are very helpful, and give me lots of hope.

Am I wrong to think that the tents exhaust fans will work as my exhaust for the swamp cooler? If they cannot provide enough exit, then I know the garage's gaps and cracks will.. they probably total the equivalent of at least a 10" hole in the wall.

 

[atk7]

You need very good exhaust flow experiment and add more as needed watch the humidity rise and the amount of positive pressure in there you will find the balance.

 

[thcrefugee]

thanks everyone! I guess the next step is to spend some money and hook up the swampy! its been cooler here lately so i havent even wanted to mess with it, after 5 days of harvest, tear down, and rebuild!!

 

[The Meadows]

Add to this that the next two months will bring much higher temps. I want to plan for this future.

The future is here. Officially 105°F with 6% relative humidity. I have a window mounted swamp cooler that uses < 200 watts of power when the fan is on low. On high, the fan is rated at 5,900 cfm. That's not a typo, that's nearly six thousand cfm out of the 16" fan.
Here are a couple of thermal images showing the interior and exterior of the unit.