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abarbarian
Posted

Summer is just around the corner and I'm prepared. Got me plants and new tee shirt and music. Dusted off the garden chairs. Stocked up the drinks cabinet and checked the ice crusher.

Life is good.

 

 

 

 

imgp28411.jpg

 

imgp28422.jpg

 

:breakfast:

  • Like 2
Guest LilBambi
Posted

Yes, full spring and a few days of summer weather is already here (for the most part), but summer is not far behind. We have already had a couple 90s days already.

 

June / Summer Solstice 2014 is at 6:51 AM (ET) (-4 UTC) on Saturday, June 21

 

I think Urmas will be having a good time soon at Midsummer/St. John's Day with bonfire and all kinds of celebrations.

 

MidsummerNightBonfire2.jpg

 

And also big day at Stonehenge too ... below is sunrise over Stonehenge on the Summer Solstice June 21, 2005.

 

Summer_Solstice_Sunrise_over_Stonehenge_2005.jpg

Posted

The golf summer rates have taken effect so in South Florida I'm ready for near 90's and rain every afternoon.

 

(At night it gets down to about 80F)

Posted

Getting to be AC time in SoCal too...... but no AC in the house for now. I am researching ideas for Ice in milk jugs in a bucket with forced air for cooling.....

 

Adam

Guest LilBambi
Posted

I don't know if we ever told you about Jim's wonderful device for cooling and pre-warming water passively to save money. It was great. But took a lot of copper tubing and an old car A/C unit.

abarbarian
Posted

I'm going to sulk again !! I'll have to stop being so subtle. All them Dr fans an no mentioned me tee shirt :(

 

I don't know if we ever told you about Jim's wonderful device for cooling and pre-warming water passively to save money. It was great. But took a lot of copper tubing and an old car A/C unit.

 

Intriguing. B)

Posted

I'm going to sulk again !! I'll have to stop being so subtle. All them Dr fans an no mentioned me tee shirt :(

 

The network I am on right now blocks the source of your image and many others. I have to go on what I can see. Thanksfully, it is only for my day job. :D

 

Adam

Guest LilBambi
Posted

I am so sorry abarbarian! I didn't load the page, just looked at the pretty yard. Just loaded it and it is a trip! I love that!!!!

abarbarian
Posted (edited)

Hey no need for apologies folks just caus I threw me dummy out the pram. :hug: I just had to buy the tee shirt as I thought the graphics were so cool. looks like a sack on me as it is a tad large, ha ha.

 

Queens English lesson.

 

yard = concrete or flagstones etc.

 

garden = grass + flowers

 

end of lesson. :whistling:

Edited by abarbarian
Guest LilBambi
Posted

OK, so in our 'Engish', yard was just short for backyard:

 

 

back·yard

 

ˌbakˈyärd/

 

noun


  1.  
    1.
     
    a yard behind a house or other building, typically surrounded by a fence.
    "a tree-shaded succession of backyards"

  2.  
    2.
     
    the area close to where one lives, or the territory close to a particular country, regarded with proprietorial concern.
    "anything was preferable to a nuclear dump in their own backyard"

 

 

So I guess our 'backyard' would be equiv of your 'garden'?

Guest LilBambi
Posted (edited)

Jim has some great ideas. This one worked great for a long time.

 

He used an a/c evaporator from a van that wasn't needed to run cold water from the cold water side of the house water through the piping into the evaporator and the fan would push air over the cold piping and 'evaporate' thereby pushing cold air out the grille work into the living/dining room area, then ran it from there up to the roof where it ran through an intricate patchwork of copper tubing on the roof all hot from the summer sunshine up on the tin roof. Then the preheated water would go back down to the water heater where it took considerably less BTUs to warm the water for use in the home for dishes, showers, etc.

 

Anytime you had a shower, washed dishes, washed clothes, etc (anything that would pull water from the water heater). it would pull fresh cold water from the cold water side to start or continue the process.

 

With a family of 5, there was always an endless supply of water ;)

 

It helped keep the cost of cooling the house down, and cost of heating water down as well ... all in one easy swoop all by making use of warm or hot water you would have used anyway.

Edited by LilBambi
Posted

so... where does the ice come from?

if you are producing it, your efficiency will be far less than a high-seer a/c

 

Ice in a milk jug sitting in teh freezer.

 

I don't really have many options for a high SEER AC unit.. unless window or portable units count.

 

Adam

Posted

My idea (backed up by some research) would be to freeze jugs of water in the freezer (or reusable chill blocks). The out then in a bucket elevated by a grate ir frame, and then have a fan pushing air from the bottom across the blocks of "ice", cooling the air and circulating it out the top into the room.

 

Adam

amenditman
Posted

Getting to be AC time in SoCal too...... but no AC in the house for now. I am researching ideas for Ice in milk jugs in a bucket with forced air for cooling.....

 

Adam

You're talking about a low-tech, but fancy swamp cooler.

 

We used to have these in a house here in Fla. The house was surrounded by shade trees, with lots of windows and a gigantic, low speed fan in the ceiling at the center of the house. It worked great most of the year but there were a few months in the depth of summer where we would set up a series of misters outside windows on each side of the house. The combined mist and airflow created what was locally termed a swamp cooler (technically it was an evaporative condenser - a form of air conditioning used commercially to cool buildings and processing equipment). Years later I ran into this "tech" at a greenhouse where it was used to maintain temps through the summer.

Guest LilBambi
Posted

There are many who use the true 'swamp coolers' in AZ too.

Guest LilBambi
Posted

Evaporative cooling of swamp coolers is in some ways responsible for Jim's design too. Since he only used the evaporator only (not the whole AC unit) and used cold air running through the tubes to cool the air the fan pushed around.

Posted

I would not be blowing air on an exposed ice block, but just over a jug with ice in it. I don't expect the ice to evaporate, but to simply cool the air.

 

Adam

V.T. Eric Layton
Posted

I'm in Florida. Summertime is hot, humid, and miserable. There's not much preparation to be made, unless you're well-to-do and are planning to load up the motorhome and truck on out to New Hampshire or The Ozarks for the summer.

 

In Florida, it's wake up, sweat, go to work, sweat, eat dinner, sweat, go to sleep, sweat... repeat daily. No major preparation needed.

amenditman
Posted

there used to be crystal clear ice cold springs all over florida in which to swim.

problem solved.

unless the water is gone.

Polluted, shrinking, crowded, or worst of all, privately owned now.
Posted

Yesterday a torrential downpour and the back street turned into a fast flowing river.. Today hailstones ..Last night frost on the backyard.

 

We already had our summer last Thursday. Sometimes I wish I was in Nevada living in an old copper mine..

  • Like 1
Guest LilBambi
Posted

You have a one day Summer? Where do you live?

V.T. Eric Layton
Posted

Polluted, shrinking, crowded, or worst of all, privately owned now.

 

That's it, pretty much. Even the public pools in Tampa are mostly closed; except for the ritzier neighborhoods. And forget about swimming at the beach. I don't find swimming around in warm salty water very refreshing; maybe if I was a trout it would be different.

  • Like 1
amenditman
Posted

maybe if I was a trout it would be different.

Trout

Yummy!

  • Like 1
Posted

You have a one day Summer? Where do you live?

eire. The wettest island on the planet.
abarbarian
Posted

Trout

Yummy!

 

fish seem to figure prominently here in the forums these days :hysterical:

 

eire. The wettest island on the planet.

 

Sure is even wetter than the lakes. :yes:

  • Like 1
Posted

Summer is just around the corner and I'm prepared. Got me plants and new tee shirt and music. Dusted off the garden chairs. Stocked up the drinks cabinet and checked the ice crusher.

Life is good.

Great music! You're set for a laid-back summer. This is one of my favorites, if you can ignore the muzak behind Bird (love his playing, hate the string arrangements)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gwl29diADw

  • Like 2
V.T. Eric Layton
Posted

eire. The wettest island on the planet.

 

Yeah, but there's no snakes. :)

 

fish seem to figure prominently here in the forums these days :hysterical:

 

 

And I had fish and chips for dinner this evening, too. Yummy! :)

abarbarian
Posted (edited)

Great music! You're set for a laid-back summer. This is one of my favorites, if you can ignore the muzak behind Bird (love his playing, hate the string arrangements)

 

 

Luverly, an I agree about the strings.

 

An what would summer be with out rainbows.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7g-TOxcnZs

Edited by abarbarian
  • Like 2

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