| Author |
Message |
David Hartley (Drdave)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, June 10, 2006 - 1:04 pm: | |
I was just at our local Lowes and as I went through the garden section I found the answer to adding mist cooling to me bus...for $9.95 per radiator!
http://www.mistcool.com/mistcool.html
Why try to invent something new or different when it's a shelf item and already plumbed and cheap!!
Enjoy... |
marcschlabach
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, June 10, 2006 - 1:53 pm: | |
Dave , I am adding misters as well. Which of the misters on the web site did you use ? Did they also have 12 volt valves ? Marc |
David Hartley (Drdave)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, June 10, 2006 - 4:20 pm: | |
MC 532 which is a 6 head kit with 18 feet of feed line and 10 feet of line sections for mist heads. Sells for about $19.95
I am only adding 3 per radiator and plan on using a spare shurflow 2.8 gallon per minute water pump to feed the misters with a separate switch on the dash. The pump will probably cycle on and off since these mist heads use so little water but thats OK with me. I may add more heads later.
Just have to drill 2 holes one one side at the base of the radiator pan for the feed line to enter and the cross line to feed the other mister heads on the other radiator. ( I have an MCI 9 )
I am going to add 1/2" pex from the pump to an extra valve in the engine compartment so that I have running water back there too. Makes washing hands real handy too...
The kits don't come with a valve. You can run a yard sprinkler electric valve on 12 or 24 volts safely if you prefer a valve setup.
Dave.... |
Richard Bowyer (Drivingmisslazy)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, June 10, 2006 - 5:51 pm: | |
DrDave, Great find. I had done a search but never really came up with this. I suspect that the misters company I used is no longer in business.
I suspect the 1/4 inch system would be adequate. I believe these misters are 3/4 gallon per hour which I believe is somewhat larger than the ones I used.
I found the following statement very informative:
"By forcing water through our specially designed misting nozzles, we create a fog of ultra fine water droplets with an average size of 50 microns or less.
These tiny water droplets quickly absorb the energy (heat) present in the environment and evaporate, becoming water vapor (gas). The energy (heat) used to change the water to a gas is eliminated from the environment, hence the air is cooled."
The important statement, I think is that the air is cooled.
Now someone needs to determine how to increase the water pressure up to 75-80 lbs.
Richard |
Gary LaBombard (Garylee)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, June 10, 2006 - 10:00 pm: | |
DR. Dave,
You did good finding this misting site. Thanks, now I can make a plan to plumb in my new 29 gallon mist tank. Good job again Dr. Dave. Give Mary our best also.
Gary |
David Hartley (Drdave)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, June 10, 2006 - 10:49 pm: | |
Need High Pressure?
Got Air?
Mount a 5 or 9 gallon air tank somewhere. run an air line to it with a check valve and regulator.
Put a skinner valve in the air supply line between the tank and regulator. when the skinner is off the tank vents. Install another fitting into the tank, add another check valve and sprinkler valve and run a line to your onboard.
water system.
Two switches. One kicks air on to the tank. It runs the mist heads until empty. Turn that one off and it dumps the air from the tank.
Turn on the other switch and the tank fills back up with water. ( might find a 24 volt industrial timer for that? )
That could give you up to 120 psi pressure.
Kinda like the wash down water tanks on cement mixers.... ( air charged ). |
Brent Coursey (Busboy)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, June 13, 2006 - 12:45 am: | |
I could not find the misters at Lowes or Home Depot. I have a half bath in the back bedroom or our Eagle, so I'm thinking about "T"ing off of the water line back there with a simple ball valve and making a short run to the radiator. When I need the system, I'll send one of my kids to turn the valve. My questions are:
1) My water lines are 1/2", so should I reduce down to a 1/4" or just run 1/2", I seem to recall someone saying that reducing will create more pressure or something(sorry, not my field...)
2) My water lines are done in some sort of whitish poly tubing, should I use the same stuff to plumb the misters or will it melt on the radiator?
3) Will my standard 12V Shurflo pump have enough pressure to drive 6 to 8 misters?
-Brent |
David Hartley (Drdave)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, June 15, 2006 - 12:57 am: | |
Plastic lines should not come into contact with the radiator at all. The idea of fog type mist heads is to spray the water into the air so that it pretty much evaporates before getting to the radiator as much as that is possible.
The "Other" guys spray water directly onto the radiator which could be a problem especially if the water is not 100% neutral chemically. It could cause erosion damage to the radiator fins.
My thought is that the more water that is evaporated into the air before entering the radiator fins would tend to cool the airlfow itself. It would need to be a fine mist or fog like not actually a spray pattern like a spinkler would do. Mine will be mounted on the air intake screens which are about 10 inches out from the radiators with the heads aimed at 90 degrees from the radiators to allow extra time for the vapor to form and cool the air.
I plan on using a spare shurflo 2.8 gpm RV pump on a separate switch, They only pressurize to 45 psi and with such a low flow capacity of all of the combined nozzles it theoretically should work.
I am going to test the basic idea later this week on my Isuzu diesel truck which is temperature tempermental to find the basic flow combinations
to try on the bus. The Isuzu radiator is similar in size so that will give me an idea. |