A Question about Thai Evaporative\Swamp Coolers

[Konini]

Mr K's sinuses may not be able to survive air conditioning, but I can't survive this heat. I'm in the bedroom now with the air con on, and I'm going to get myself an evaporative cooler - he's OK with them, they don't seem to bother him just the refrigerated ones. So I started looking at Lazada and online shops hoping to get one delivered tomorrow but my head is now spinning. Even on the English language sites most of the blurb is in Thai. Google tranlate is good but not perfect and is confusing me. It seems to be talking about blocks of ice, which i though was just a bad translation until I saw one advertising gel packs that you put in the freezer instead of using ice.

My only experience of these coolers was in Melbourne and I know that you don't use ice at all with them, just fill with water or the big whole house ones are plumbed in. I'm confused. Doesn't make sense unless the ice is just to cool the water, but it gets a lot hotter in Aus than it does here and the water isn't cooled.

I would be really appreciative if someone could help out with an explanation. Also, they range from less than 3,000 to very expensive. I only want one to point at little old me not cool down a whole room so a small one would suffice, but there is a fairly big price differential in them too. And of course all this talk of watts etc. I know it's how much electricity they consume, so is the difference in watts just to do with power of the fan inside?

EDIT: what I mean by that last part is what are the things I should look for with these coolers, never owned one, know nothing about them.

Thank you in advance. My bedroom is reading as 19 degrees and is feeling very nice. Mr K might just be consigned to a spare bedroom tonight.

[lopburi3]

1. You are not likely to obtain anything from Lazada prior to next week - this is a holiday week.

2. I suspect what is being sold is a fan over ice from what you mention.

3. Thailand is a swamp - there is no dry air to use for water cooling - it would not evaporate. Save your money.

4. 19c is much too cold - most people living here full time would be comfortable at 27/29c if not working.

[pgrahmm]

Many threads - same conclusion = useless and a waste of money....

My wife bought one - she thought it would help visiting at the inlaws - she didn't believe me when I told her it was throwing money away......Within 6 hours of buying she believed me....

The hard part was watching her disappointment as she thought she was easing the heat for me while there....

[Gonsalviz]

1. You are not likely to obtain anything from Lazada prior to next week - this is a holiday week.

2. I suspect what is being sold is a fan over ice from what you mention.

3. Thailand is a swamp - there is no dry air to use for water cooling - it would not evaporate. Save your money.

4. 19c is much too cold - most people living here full time would be comfortable at 27/29c if not working.

#3 is not true, entirely. At this time of year the % humidity has been in the low 20's. Mine works fine in this weather but it will just be a fan when the rainy season hits.

[Gonsalviz]

Dehumidifiers would work much better but other than ordering one on line, it is difficult to find one.

My swamp cooler works good when the humidity is low but that is maybe 3 months a year. I live in Isan. There are an additional 3 months or so that the humidity is low but it is cool enough no fan is needed. In fact a heater is in order.

[Chris Pirazzi]

Some folks in Pai, Mae Hong Son toyed with swamp coolers a bit but yes like most other people say, their basic design depends on low humidity and the results were just not satisfying in either the hot or rainy seasons. Depending on the humidity where you are it may work though. In the US they are almost exclusively used in the super arid southwest (though humidity is so low there that simply wetting the windowshade of an open window in a light wind also helps ).

These links might help to quantify things a bit more:

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/aprilholladay/2007-05-21-swamp-coolers-dark-dirt_N.htm

http://www.sylvane.com/swamp-cooler-buying-tips.html

[Konini]

Ha - I wrote this last night and obviously fell asleep before posting it. Very vaugue recollection of my husband moving the computer trolley away, thank goodness for the autosave function here.

Thank you for replying so quickly. I'd forgotten about Songkran. Pick it up tomorrow or forget. Actually scrap that. This is Chang Mai and if they aren't out there tomorrow it will be odd, especially as it's so hot. Sounds like forget the whole, but is the fan over ice (or the gel filled ice blocks advertised as accessories) the same thing as an evaporative cooler? Part of me feels it is just ice dropped into water, but if it's a blue pack rather than an ice block in front of a fan there wouldn't be extra moisture???

I know 19 is far too cold, I've turned it off now but it felt nice for a little while. I'm also a woman of a certain age as it is delicately put, perhaps why I feel so hot and irritable. The 40-odd degrees today doesn't help though. The fan in the lounge was just blowing hot air at my face, most uncomfortable.This was literally the 3rd time the aicon has been put on in since we have been in Chiang Mai - give or take 7 years.

______________________

That's as far as I got last night. This morning at 5.05am the lounge, which gets the sun only for the last hour or so of the day was 34 degrees. I know this is accurate because I didn't use a dodgy Chinese thermometer, I have a very, very expensive digital one that I use for making candies and fudge and if it weren't accurate, first bite and you'd know. This is because we face west and when the wind whips up, it whips up good. Mr K closed the patio door before going to bed as he thought the wind was getting up and it was so bad here on Sunday there is a very heavy sunbed mattress flying around somewhere in Northern Thailand - be on the look out for UFO's. The bedrooms are fine because he had to repoen the windows of our bedrooms because he turned the aircon off, and with only the security door open rather than the main door and all other windows - none of which face into the usual wind direction wide open the cooling air from the cross draft during the night has made an amazing difference.

Given his sinus problems/our no refrigerated aircon problems and the fact that it is just me I would need cool not a whole room any (reasonable) suggestions? I've tried the aircon on dry rather than cool but logic tells me it must be doing pretty much the same thing, It made him just as ill. They do seem to use evaporative whole house systems in Sydney which gets very, very humid so I'm thinking that there has to be a solution that will work for both of us. I could very easily jobby up some of those blue ice blocks on a stand in front of a fan but would that help me? As I said, I want me cool not the whole room.

Thank you everyone else as well for your replies, I do appreciate kindly folk taking the time. I've never really considered Chiang Mai as a particularly humid place except for a couple of months during the year.

[lopburi3]

1. You are not likely to obtain anything from Lazada prior to next week - this is a holiday week.

2. I suspect what is being sold is a fan over ice from what you mention.

3. Thailand is a swamp - there is no dry air to use for water cooling - it would not evaporate. Save your money.

4. 19c is much too cold - most people living here full time would be comfortable at 27/29c if not working.

#3 is not true, entirely. At this time of year the % humidity has been in the low 20's. Mine works fine in this weather but it will just be a fan when the rainy season hits.

Current humidity in Bangkok is 90% - it varies by weather, location, time of day and temperature but it is never a dessert (where evaperative works) anywhere in Thailand. And this year there really is not enough water to be using for this purpose in any case. But admit it will feel as if it is working if you do not mind the water droplets - we used to use the garden hose as children. But it is really not an effective alternative to real air conditioning here.

[kaptainrob]

Make a simple evaporative cooler with a desk mount pedestal fan and large bowl of water, add ice packs if desired, available from Daiso outlets. Place pedestal fan on floor with large bowl (laundry bowl?) of water in front of air flow ... fan should be aimed slightly downward so air passes over the water. Ensure fan CANNOT be knocked over, into the water.

[lopburi3]

I suspect the whole house Sydney would just be use of water cooling of regular air conditioning - used outside to remove heat in coils rather than as a direct coolant. Air conditioning air would be the same as you have now so would not help husband.

One thing that helps here is to not use sheets/blankets during the hot season (for Bangkok that is most of the year).

Using "dry" would be worse for husband if he needs water in the air. But using high fan might help as that will provide less drying to lower temp.

[daoyai]

A few restos use them here IN CM as it may be 41 degrees and 15 percent humidity. They work very well in these conditions if you sit right in front of it. This is not BKK.

[khwaibah]

If evaps were such a great idea for Thailand why do you not see them for sell in every DIY store. Living in the Mojave Desert which I did it would get to 51C or 124F, a evap worked great as there was only 13% humidity.

[NancyL]

You've probably thought of this already, but wouldn't it be advisable to get Mr. K to a doctor to advise about his sinus problems? I know I feel much better this time of year if I keep taking a once-a-day antihistamine tablet. I can breath much easier, nose isn't as congested and eyes aren't sore. Also helps to have electrostatic air filters in the house.

[Konini]

I suspect the whole house Sydney would just be use of water cooling of regular air conditioning - used outside to remove heat in coils rather than as a direct coolant. Air conditioning air would be the same as you have now so would not help husband.

One thing that helps here is to not use sheets/blankets during the hot season (for Bangkok that is most of the year).

Using "dry" would be worse for husband if he needs water in the air. But using high fan might help as that will provide less drying to lower temp.

No, just the water unit on the roof. Costs about 8 cents an hour to run. Maybe it's because the water coming into houses in Aus cities is so cold and that's why they don't have ice, the whole ice thing threw me, but thinking about it there is no such thing as cold water here apart from December and January.

Husband likes a top sheet even in summer - why don't they sell them in most shops here? - and the ceiling fan at night is all he needs. Actually he'd rather do without it a lot of the time because he doesn't like anything blowing on him.

What I'm looking for is something just for me, portable so it can move with me and maybe cool the bedroom down a bit when it's crazy hot - it was 37 degrees in our lounge at 9pm last night and he was sitting watching TV and giving the ceiling fan dirty looks. The heat doesn't bother him the way it bothers me. We only get the sun for about 2 hours in the afternoon; I'd hate to be living on the other side of this building and it was the main reason we chose this particular condo out of half a dozen they had for rent. Way too big for us, crazy expensive, but no all day sun and traffic noise and it is very nice. We've stayed with friends who had a portable refrigerated unit in the lounge room and it made his nose swell up after just 2 days so one of those is out of the question.

[Konini]

If evaps were such a great idea for Thailand why do you not see them for sell in every DIY store. Living in the Mojave Desert which I did it would get to 51C or 124F, a evap worked great as there was only 13% humidity.

Homepro, Powerbuy and Baan and Beyond are full of them????

[Konini]

You've probably thought of this already, but wouldn't it be advisable to get Mr. K to a doctor to advise about his sinus problems? I know I feel much better this time of year if I keep taking a once-a-day antihistamine tablet. I can breath much easier, nose isn't as congested and eyes aren't sore. Also helps to have electrostatic air filters in the house.

Lifelong problems, 3 operations and he went to the top bloke in Australia for ENT who did the last surgery, telling him before hand that it would be of limited use. I got the name of the doctor to visit here in CM - I forget the name but sounds a bit like rat. Can't convince him to go, he's seen too many doctors over the years and can't be bothered going along to hear the same old thing. At least the last surgery he had in Melbourne (2007) with the best ENT doctor in town stopped the daily nosebleeds. We were once going 'over the hill' the road on the Pennines between Manchester and Barnsley, when we hit the highest spot on the road and his nose started bleeding. When it's at it's worst, he looks like someone has punched him in the face - bridge of his nose swollen and black and black under his eyes. I can't imagine how much suffering he's had over his life - his first surgery was when he was 9.

If I can't find a non refrigerated solution then I'm prepared to put up with it rather than make his suffering worse. I'm going to experiment with some of those blue ice bricks in front of a fan. Won't cost much if it doesn't work and will make me very happy if it does.

[lopburi3]

If evaps were such a great idea for Thailand why do you not see them for sell in every DIY store. Living in the Mojave Desert which I did it would get to 51C or 124F, a evap worked great as there was only 13% humidity.

Homepro, Powerbuy and Baan and Beyond are full of them????

Believe that is a bit of an exaggeration but you often have to run the mist filled air at entry so rather obvious - what is also obvious is that they are not being used inside the stores. For outside or open cooling in a small bar/restaurant they may have a place - but not in the home unless you like living under water and have a passion for mold.

For your personal use perhaps a movable drape such as used in hospitals to allow air conditioner to cool only your side? Probably not help much if you need 19c but at higher temps might make enough difference.

[NancyL]

You've probably thought of this already, but wouldn't it be advisable to get Mr. K to a doctor to advise about his sinus problems? I know I feel much better this time of year if I keep taking a once-a-day antihistamine tablet. I can breath much easier, nose isn't as congested and eyes aren't sore. Also helps to have electrostatic air filters in the house.

Lifelong problems, 3 operations and he went to the top bloke in Australia for ENT who did the last surgery, telling him before hand that it would be of limited use. I got the name of the doctor to visit here in CM - I forget the name but sounds a bit like rat. Can't convince him to go, he's seen too many doctors over the years and can't be bothered going along to hear the same old thing. At least the last surgery he had in Melbourne (2007) with the best ENT doctor in town stopped the daily nosebleeds. We were once going 'over the hill' the road on the Pennines between Manchester and Barnsley, when we hit the highest spot on the road and his nose started bleeding. When it's at it's worst, he looks like someone has punched him in the face - bridge of his nose swollen and black and black under his eyes. I can't imagine how much suffering he's had over his life - his first surgery was when he was 9.

If I can't find a non refrigerated solution then I'm prepared to put up with it rather than make his suffering worse. I'm going to experiment with some of those blue ice bricks in front of a fan. Won't cost much if it doesn't work and will make me very happy if it does.

Hmm, knowing this history, I'd have opted for the two bedroom solution a long time ago. Can you rent a studio unit in the same building for yourself?

[Konini]

We have 2 spare bedrooms both a little bit of sun between 8 and 10am, ad one of I use as a bit of a my workroom with all windows wide open, and usually I'm OK with fans, but it's been so hot that I've had to put the air con on this last week. But once the air has cooled down I'm OK (if a bit sweaty) in our bedroom with the ceiling fan and windows open to get cooler air in at night. We have a security door with flyscreen and never close our wooden door so get great ventilation and cross draughts which cool very well, but I have to learn to remember to close the door and windows when the air outside is so hot because I don't want hot air flowing through. As I say, a lot of condo's get all day sun. I can't imagine living somewhere like that. We made the classic mistake when we built our house in Aus, floor to ceiling windows all along the back of the house. Full afternoon sun all day. A pergola was quickly added after our first summer. Good experience though, because we looked at some very nice and tempting condo's but because we'd made the mistake before, we know to ask the question - which way does the sun rise and fall before making a decision on where we were moving to. You can't solve the problem with a pergola in a condo, and it's not just the windows, the walls are made of cement or concrete or brick which are all magnificent heat retainers. After a couple of really hot days in Melbourne, once the house had heated up it could take a week for it to cool down. Our first summer I was surprised at how hot the floor tiles were (laid on a concrete slab) several days after a cool change had come through.

[malmac]

I bought a CLARTE' CTRL 100 WACTON for 4990 Baht from home pro. It has a remote, 3 fan speeds and apart from being a little noisey it works OK and should do what you want it to do.

[silverhawk_usa]

I'm not going to address whether they work or not; but if you want one, HomePro has stacks of many different models and a number of staff dedicated to just their sale.

[northernjohn]

You've probably thought of this already, but wouldn't it be advisable to get Mr. K to a doctor to advise about his sinus problems? I know I feel much better this time of year if I keep taking a once-a-day antihistamine tablet. I can breath much easier, nose isn't as congested and eyes aren't sore. Also helps to have electrostatic air filters in the house.

Lifelong problems, 3 operations and he went to the top bloke in Australia for ENT who did the last surgery, telling him before hand that it would be of limited use. I got the name of the doctor to visit here in CM - I forget the name but sounds a bit like rat. Can't convince him to go, he's seen too many doctors over the years and can't be bothered going along to hear the same old thing. At least the last surgery he had in Melbourne (2007) with the best ENT doctor in town stopped the daily nosebleeds. We were once going 'over the hill' the road on the Pennines between Manchester and Barnsley, when we hit the highest spot on the road and his nose started bleeding. When it's at it's worst, he looks like someone has punched him in the face - bridge of his nose swollen and black and black under his eyes. I can't imagine how much suffering he's had over his life - his first surgery was when he was 9.

If I can't find a non refrigerated solution then I'm prepared to put up with it rather than make his suffering worse. I'm going to experiment with some of those blue ice bricks in front of a fan. Won't cost much if it doesn't work and will make me very happy if it does.

Medical science has come a long way in 9 years. Time to give them a try again.

[islandguy]

Living close to the ocean in Koh Samui, we only use the air con in this hottest time of the year. My partner finds sleeping with the wall mounted air con blowing directly down at us too cold. What we are doing is pre cooling the bedroom to get to sleep, and then switching to a fan after the air con is turned off. A bit of a bother to make the switch from a closed room to having open (screened) windows, but I stay up longer and make the change after she is asleep. Perhaps some version of this routine with a mister/diffuser unit next to your partner (Muji has ultrasonic ones used to disperse essential oils, no heat is involved) would work. You wouldn't have to use any essential oils in the disperser, but the some oils might actually help his condition. Note that most cheap oils are very bad quality.

[Konini]

Medical science has come a long way in 9 years. Time to give them a try again.

True, I'm going to have a hard time convincing him though. Even constant nagging doesn't work - it's almost like he switches off, says yes and no an hmm every now and again but I know he isn't listening. Not just about doctors either

We asked our GP in Australia about this time last year on our annual visit if there were any significant advances since we left Aus a couple of months after the op and she said no; I trust her, she's been our GP since 1990 and her treatments and advice - I'd often leave with just advise not a prescription - as always been very solid.

[Konini]

Make a simple evaporative cooler with a desk mount pedestal fan and large bowl of water, add ice packs if desired, available from Daiso outlets. Place pedestal fan on floor with large bowl (laundry bowl?) of water in front of air flow ... fan should be aimed slightly downward so air passes over the water. Ensure fan CANNOT be knocked over, into the water.

As soon as Songkran is over I'm going to buy half a dozen of those blue ice bricks - I've already got some that I use when I empty the big freezer to clean it out, but they're cheap enough. I'll jobby up a stand in front of the fan and somehow set it up so it hits the ice bricks before it hits me, deflecting off it. Not sure how, but I'm good at experimenting. Not an expensive attempt and who knows, it may actually be enough without putting too much more humidity in the room.

[mamborobert]

It has been a few decades since I have heard the word "jobby"

I'm still trying to work out how you jobby up a stand without affecting your husband's sinuses....definitely not something I would do in this heat.

A jobby to me is something the odd Chinese tourist has been known to deliver to the moat........

Clearly North and South of Hadrian's Wall provide vastly different meanings for the word!

[pgrahmm]

Ha - I wrote this last night and obviously fell asleep before posting it. Very vaugue recollection of my husband moving the computer trolley away, thank goodness for the autosave function here.

Thank you for replying so quickly. I'd forgotten about Songkran. Pick it up tomorrow or forget. Actually scrap that. This is Chang Mai and if they aren't out there tomorrow it will be odd, especially as it's so hot. Sounds like forget the whole, but is the fan over ice (or the gel filled ice blocks advertised as accessories) the same thing as an evaporative cooler? Part of me feels it is just ice dropped into water, but if it's a blue pack rather than an ice block in front of a fan there wouldn't be extra moisture???

I know 19 is far too cold, I've turned it off now but it felt nice for a little while. I'm also a woman of a certain age as it is delicately put, perhaps why I feel so hot and irritable. The 40-odd degrees today doesn't help though. The fan in the lounge was just blowing hot air at my face, most uncomfortable.This was literally the 3rd time the aicon has been put on in since we have been in Chiang Mai - give or take 7 years.

______________________

That's as far as I got last night. This morning at 5.05am the lounge, which gets the sun only for the last hour or so of the day was 34 degrees. I know this is accurate because I didn't use a dodgy Chinese thermometer, I have a very, very expensive digital one that I use for making candies and fudge and if it weren't accurate, first bite and you'd know. This is because we face west and when the wind whips up, it whips up good. Mr K closed the patio door before going to bed as he thought the wind was getting up and it was so bad here on Sunday there is a very heavy sunbed mattress flying around somewhere in Northern Thailand - be on the look out for UFO's. The bedrooms are fine because he had to repoen the windows of our bedrooms because he turned the aircon off, and with only the security door open rather than the main door and all other windows - none of which face into the usual wind direction wide open the cooling air from the cross draft during the night has made an amazing difference.

Given his sinus problems/our no refrigerated aircon problems and the fact that it is just me I would need cool not a whole room any (reasonable) suggestions? I've tried the aircon on dry rather than cool but logic tells me it must be doing pretty much the same thing, It made him just as ill. They do seem to use evaporative whole house systems in Sydney which gets very, very humid so I'm thinking that there has to be a solution that will work for both of us. I could very easily jobby up some of those blue ice blocks on a stand in front of a fan but would that help me? As I said, I want me cool not the whole room.

Thank you everyone else as well for your replies, I do appreciate kindly folk taking the time. I've never really considered Chiang Mai as a particularly humid place except for a couple of months during the year.

Get some light saline solution for about 40B.....At any drug store in the eye section for contacts.....

Also get a 14ml bottle of Nasol nose spray (atomizer) - take off the cap, then pry/wiggle the top off & pour that sh#t out....Rinse out the little

bottle with water & Put the light saline solution in there for use when the sinus's need it.....

I keep one in the main car & one in the bedroom.....

Give it a try trying this approach....Cost if you set up 2 sprayers about 160B......

[Gonsalviz]

If evaps were such a great idea for Thailand why do you not see them for sell in every DIY store. Living in the Mojave Desert which I did it would get to 51C or 124F, a evap worked great as there was only 13% humidity.

They sell 'evaps' everywhere. As I said they only work during the hot season when the air is dry.

Thais think any moving air is cool, so they use them but for those of us from temperate climate they are useless.

Home Pro, Global House, Lotus and Thai Watsadu all sell them. I have seen them for sale outside those all over.

[Gonsalviz]

1. You are not likely to obtain anything from Lazada prior to next week - this is a holiday week.

2. I suspect what is being sold is a fan over ice from what you mention.

3. Thailand is a swamp - there is no dry air to use for water cooling - it would not evaporate. Save your money.

4. 19c is much too cold - most people living here full time would be comfortable at 27/29c if not working.

#3 is not true, entirely. At this time of year the % humidity has been in the low 20's. Mine works fine in this weather but it will just be a fan when the rainy season hits.

Current humidity in Bangkok is 90% - it varies by weather, location, time of day and temperature but it is never a dessert (where evaperative works) anywhere in Thailand. And this year there really is not enough water to be using for this purpose in any case. But admit it will feel as if it is working if you do not mind the water droplets - we used to use the garden hose as children. But it is really not an effective alternative to real air conditioning here.

The current humidity in Kalasin is 26%. That is pretty darn low.

[Konini]

It has been a few decades since I have heard the word "jobby"

I'm still trying to work out how you jobby up a stand without affecting your husband's sinuses....definitely not something I would do in this heat.

A jobby to me is something the odd Chinese tourist has been known to deliver to the moat........

Clearly North and South of Hadrian's Wall provide vastly different meanings for the word!

When we moved to Doncaster I was 3 and our next door neighbours were from the rough part of Glasgow - the kids used to say I need a jobby all the time. We were from the colliery villages in Durham, all of us speaking with out own dialects and we came up with a kind of pigeon language over a few years that nobody else could understand. We literally created our own dialect. It was great when we didn't want people to know what we were talking about.