A Question about Thai Evaporative\Swamp Coolers

[Konini]

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......

He's tried saline rinsing before, I've got a neti pot on order which we haven't tried yet. He's tried distilled water spray, but we'll give the spray a go - I think we bought one at an airport once when he was bad before getting on the plane. Prior to the operation 9 years ago, we would do the kangaroo route (Melbourne to London) twice of every 3 years and he would have 7 or 8 nosebleeds during the flight. But we'll give it a go, worth a try.

Thanks for the tip-off.

[ammagic]

My solution to endless sinus problems in Chiangmai (including surgery) was to move to Hua Hin which has very little pollution & lovely sea breeze. Also religious morning & night cleansing of nose with saline solution - essential to helping with sinus issues. Like your partner I hate breathing cold air. I do use an air conditioner now but use cloth tape to tape a light towel over the air con to deflect cold air. Probably a bit self defeating, but works for me. Hashi nasal rinse plus unit can be found in Pharmachoice. Good luck!

[Konini]

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.

They really have dozens of models in those shops. I'm not sure what it is that set his sinus pain off, but having a refrigerated unit in the room even if nowhere near him sets it off. Even sitting in the back seat of cars or when he is forced to go to shopping malls. It must e that it's in the air. It's not the dryness I don't think, it's the whole refrigerated air. That's why I thought one of those portable evaporative ones that I could point at myself would be a good idea - I don't want to cool the whole room, just me and specifically my face. I'm a woman of a certain age, so unbearably hot spells of up to an hour are quite regular. Hormone tests are on my list of things to do so maybe it's something that can be managed medically.

It's been much cooler today, I haven't had to consign myself to the spare bedroom for the evening Fingers crossed that the blue ice brick thing will work. It will be an interesting experiment. I don't need the room to be at 19 degrees, it just felt nice for a little while after being in 40 something degrees for a long time. 24 or 25 is perfect and up to 30 degrees isn't a problem, It's just when it's high 30's or low to mid 40's that I have a problem with.

We've been in Asia for 9 years, in Chiang Mai about 7 and I've managed so far, it's just the last couple of weeks that I've found it unbearable. This hot weather will be over soon hopefully.

[Sheryl]

The heat situation in Thailand is the exact opposite of Australia - it is a very humid heat not a dry hear. So swamp coolers make no sense, in fact you'll get more relief from the opposite - a dehumidifier.

One thing you might look into is a small portable air conditioner - an actual air conditioner but small and on wheels. I have one and it blows cool air directly on you if you are near it without noticeably changing the air of the room, so not a bad choice for a couple like you - you could have it on your side of the bed/bedroom probably without bothering him, and also have it trained on your chair during the day. The main disadvantage is that you do have to position it so that hot air can blow out a window so while on wheels, not so easy to move around from place to place during the day.

Might also try just running the a/c on "dry" instead of cool and see if Mr. K tolerates that, it will cool things off a little.

There is also the old standby of an ordinary fan and a big block of ice

Separate question - does anyone know if the dehumidifiers they sell here use less power than an a/c set to dehumidify? I've priced them and they cost as much as an a/c hence the question...

[NancyL]

Konini, Sheryl may want to weigh in on this, but you've mentioned several times that you're a woman "of an age" where the heat bothers you. If you're going through menopause and having hot flashes, then yes you should talk to your doctor, but I'd like to pass along the advice mine gave me at the time. He suggested I try to tough it out for at least six months rather than demanding hormones at the first sign I was going to have some hot flash problems. He said once you start down the path of using hormones, it can be difficult to stop and often hot flashes just last for a few months while your body adjusts. He was right in my case. They lasted less than four months.

Of course, it came in handy that I went thru "the change" during the coldest months of a Michigan winter, although Hubby sometimes found it perplexing to wake up in the morning to find me sleeping on top of the the pile of bedding, wearing my thinnest night dress in a room that we heated to just 12 deg C in the winter.

[connda]

They have their place at the right time. We use them during the 'hot' season in parts of the house that don't have A/C (we only cool one small living room in the home where we use an inverter), and generally place a block of ice in the water reservoir. During the 'rain' season they are useless other than to run it in 'fan mode', i.e., at that time of year it's just a portable fan. I'm a proponent, but you need to understand their limitations or you will risk not being happy with the results. Global Lamphun has small units for a couple of thousand baht. Not sure about Global CM. Best of luck.

[Konini]

Konini, Sheryl may want to weigh in on this, but you've mentioned several times that you're a woman "of an age" where the heat bothers you. If you're going through menopause and having hot flashes, then yes you should talk to your doctor, but I'd like to pass along the advice mine gave me at the time. He suggested I try to tough it out for at least six months rather than demanding hormones at the first sign I was going to have some hot flash problems. He said once you start down the path of using hormones, it can be difficult to stop and often hot flashes just last for a few months while your body adjusts. He was right in my case. They lasted less than four months.

Of course, it came in handy that I went thru "the change" during the coldest months of a Michigan winter, although Hubby sometimes found it perplexing to wake up in the morning to find me sleeping on top of the the pile of bedding, wearing my thinnest night dress in a room that we heated to just 12 deg C in the winter.

Thank you for bringing that up Nancy - a lot of people are lurkers here and we never know they're reading this. I know 4 people close to me who had breast cancer - all of them OK now, and one thing they had in common was HRT. It may be just coincidence, but it's put me right off the idea. I've managed so far. I'm overdue an annual health checkup, will go in the next couple of weeks and request that when they take blood for whatever test they do that they specifically test hormone levels. Either that or I'll go to a specialist. It may be something else out of whack with my hormones and easily fixable. It might be just this last couple of weeks I've been feeling a bit off, had a water infection and the heat is bothering me more than usual.

Today I've been fine. I was out on the balcony before the sun came up and stayed there catching up with news and forums and emails before starting to clean up. By about 9am the whole place was sparkling and I went back onto the balcony and stayed there reading for a while then writing a long tome until about 1 o'clock, had to put the fan on at about 11, but it was heating up..

Then I just went into the smaller spare bedroom which is my workroom and east facing with a tiny bit of early morning sun so nice and cool. Had the fan on, but I've always had a fan on, I don't like being hot.

Ah, for some 12 degree days. Please buy me some

[Konini]

The heat situation in Thailand is the exact opposite of Australia - it is a very humid heat not a dry hear. So swamp coolers make no sense, in fact you'll get more relief from the opposite - a dehumidifier.

One thing you might look into is a small portable air conditioner - an actual air conditioner but small and on wheels. I have one and it blows cool air directly on you if you are near it without noticeably changing the air of the room, so not a bad choice for a couple like you - you could have it on your side of the bed/bedroom probably without bothering him, and also have it trained on your chair during the day. The main disadvantage is that you do have to position it so that hot air can blow out a window so while on wheels, not so easy to move around from place to place during the day.

Might also try just running the a/c on "dry" instead of cool and see if Mr. K tolerates that, it will cool things off a little.

There is also the old standby of an ordinary fan and a big block of ice

Separate question - does anyone know if the dehumidifiers they sell here use less power than an a/c set to dehumidify? I've priced them and they cost as much as an a/c hence the question...

As long as a window or door is open the portable one would do the trick, but they use so much electricity and I'm afraid I won't be able to help myself and have it on all the time. We have friends with a big portable one - they had the doors and windows closed and it set him off. Tried using the dry cycle and it bothered him - not as much as refrigerated but it still bothered him.

You have just confirmed that my idea will work though - blue ice bricks frozen and the fan deflecting the coldness. I suppose it wouldn't matter if it adds more moisture to the air, our windows are always open anyway, but I thought of the ice bricks because they don't give of moisture as they melt.

Songkran was dead today according to Mr K who went on a mid-day hash club fun run and came back through Taipae Gate. Hardly anyone about, all the stages are gone etc so the government decree that it would only be 2 days this year seems to have been obeyed. So we'll be able to go shopping again - I'll have a walk over the market in the next couple of days and buy some ice bricks then experiment with positions and angles.

I love a good project, me.

[theoldgit]

Off topic post removed

[connda]

Konini, Sheryl may want to weigh in on this, but you've mentioned several times that you're a woman "of an age" where the heat bothers you. If you're going through menopause and having hot flashes, then yes you should talk to your doctor, but I'd like to pass along the advice mine gave me at the time. He suggested I try to tough it out for at least six months rather than demanding hormones at the first sign I was going to have some hot flash problems. He said once you start down the path of using hormones, it can be difficult to stop and often hot flashes just last for a few months while your body adjusts. He was right in my case. They lasted less than four months.

Of course, it came in handy that I went thru "the change" during the coldest months of a Michigan winter, although Hubby sometimes found it perplexing to wake up in the morning to find me sleeping on top of the the pile of bedding, wearing my thinnest night dress in a room that we heated to just 12 deg C in the winter.

Thank you for bringing that up Nancy - a lot of people are lurkers here and we never know they're reading this. I know 4 people close to me who had breast cancer - all of them OK now, and one thing they had in common was HRT. It may be just coincidence, but it's put me right off the idea. I've managed so far. I'm overdue an annual health checkup, will go in the next couple of weeks and request that when they take blood for whatever test they do that they specifically test hormone levels. Either that or I'll go to a specialist. It may be something else out of whack with my hormones and easily fixable. It might be just this last couple of weeks I've been feeling a bit off, had a water infection and the heat is bothering me more than usual.

Today I've been fine. I was out on the balcony before the sun came up and stayed there catching up with news and forums and emails before starting to clean up. By about 9am the whole place was sparkling and I went back onto the balcony and stayed there reading for a while then writing a long tome until about 1 o'clock, had to put the fan on at about 11, but it was heating up..

Then I just went into the smaller spare bedroom which is my workroom and east facing with a tiny bit of early morning sun so nice and cool. Had the fan on, but I've always had a fan on, I don't like being hot.

Ah, for some 12 degree days. Please buy me some

My wife is pushing 3 years of menopause and is ever so slowly seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Hormones simply complicated her problems and put her on a roller-coaster of symptoms. She dropped them early on in the first year and has just toughed-it-out. I don't envy you gals.

[connda]

The heat situation in Thailand is the exact opposite of Australia - it is a very humid heat not a dry hear. So swamp coolers make no sense, in fact you'll get more relief from the opposite - a dehumidifier.

One thing you might look into is a small portable air conditioner - an actual air conditioner but small and on wheels. I have one and it blows cool air directly on you if you are near it without noticeably changing the air of the room, so not a bad choice for a couple like you - you could have it on your side of the bed/bedroom probably without bothering him, and also have it trained on your chair during the day. The main disadvantage is that you do have to position it so that hot air can blow out a window so while on wheels, not so easy to move around from place to place during the day.

Might also try just running the a/c on "dry" instead of cool and see if Mr. K tolerates that, it will cool things off a little.

There is also the old standby of an ordinary fan and a big block of ice

Separate question - does anyone know if the dehumidifiers they sell here use less power than an a/c set to dehumidify? I've priced them and they cost as much as an a/c hence the question...

As long as a window or door is open the portable one would do the trick, but they use so much electricity and I'm afraid I won't be able to help myself and have it on all the time. We have friends with a big portable one - they had the doors and windows closed and it set him off. Tried using the dry cycle and it bothered him - not as much as refrigerated but it still bothered him.

You have just confirmed that my idea will work though - blue ice bricks frozen and the fan deflecting the coldness. I suppose it wouldn't matter if it adds more moisture to the air, our windows are always open anyway, but I thought of the ice bricks because they don't give of moisture as they melt.

Songkran was dead today according to Mr K who went on a mid-day hash club fun run and came back through Taipae Gate. Hardly anyone about, all the stages are gone etc so the government decree that it would only be 2 days this year seems to have been obeyed. So we'll be able to go shopping again - I'll have a walk over the market in the next couple of days and buy some ice bricks then experiment with positions and angles.

I love a good project, me.

Konini We had a small one for our apartment in CM. We ran that probably 16 hours a day last year and it may have raised our electric bill 1000 THB/mo if that. They really are only a fan and a water pump. They don't draw an excessive amount of current.

[Konini]

Well I wouldn't mind that - thanks for the info. Blowing on me then taking hot air out of the door or window sounds good. Water and pump is an evaporative/swamp one though isn't it? How did it work, ice in the water?

I'm coping pretty well most nights, I have a ceiling fan and if I wake up in a puddle of sweat - I always put hand towels on top of the pillows for both of us during this hot period, and it hasn't been that many times, maybe 3 or 4 times a year April/May. I just go out onto the balcony for a while - the cool night breeze and a fan blowing straight into my face for 30 minutes, clean towel on the pillow and I've been ok. However that was in previous years, I don't know about this year. I've been feeling a bit off for the last couple of weeks and have a water infection which doesn't help and that could be the reason that the heat is really bothering me this year for the first time. Could be nothing,

Annual medical check is well overdue, I'm going to ask them for hormone tests to be included or be referred to specialist. Could be some other hormones out of whack. Need to do some research on what hormones I need tested - I read somewhere that the standard one only test for a few things that are common issues and you have to ask for some others to be tested. I'll get around to it in the next couple of weeks.

[lopburi3]

This is actually an unusually hot year - we had five consecutive record high for day at Don Muang this past week - and the humidity has also been high so you really feel it and sweat a lot.

[taotoo]

This is actually an unusually hot year - we had five consecutive record high for day at Don Muang this past week - and the humidity has also been high so you really feel it and sweat a lot.

Actually up here in Chiang Mai I think it's been remarkably non-humid this month.

[lopburi3]

You are a bit further from the sea - but here in Bangkok it has ranged from about 40-90% most days. Currently 90%.

[haybilly]

The Evaporative Coolers are alright, for very limited space areas--i.e. fine for someone sitting right in front of the unit, but almost useless as a room cooler; and it's essential to get the intake pipe fitted to an external wall/window, otherwise you're defeating the object, I reckon.

Another vote for Neti Pots and Saline--I have 2, cheap plastic ones from online--and, they really do help when my sinuses are getting blocked [not such a good idea if they are already fully blocked, since there is a possibility that the saline finds it's way to the ear cavity, if it's preferred route through the nostrils, is blocked].

[Konini]

If my ice brick\fan experiment doesn't work then I'll get a cheap one - I literally only want it pointing at my face, wouldn't need an external source, I would just move it around with me as I went.

Thanks for the thumbs up on me getting neti pots, the ones I got were cheap (maybe a dollar each), I wasn't out looking for them, just putting an order in on AliExpress and as I as going to the checkout noticed that the store I was ordering from sold them so added a couple to the order. Still haven't arrived yet so he hasn't started using and a huge thanks for the tip on using before they get fully blocked, I'll put googling how to use them on my list of things to do.

[Gary A]

An air conditioner dehumidifies the air often to the degree that the air is too dry to be healthful. What would be wrong with setting up an evaporation cooler in the same room. They don't cost much to run and they won't affect the air con at all. The swamp cooler puts humidity in and the air con takes it back out. I would think there may be a humidity balance with this method and may even help with the room cooling.

[taotoo]

You are a bit further from the sea - but here in Bangkok it has ranged from about 40-90% most days. Currently 90%.

Glad I'm up here - it's only about 15-45%.

[lopburi3]

But you have the AQI with burning - so not all positive.

[taotoo]

But you have the AQI with burning - so not all positive.

As an ex smoker I barely notice it :-)

[mamborobert]

Necessity the Mother of Invention?

Not really Rimping Condo style, maybe wood grain the polystyrene box.

A degree of sophistication in this model.....by using water bottles you can put the cap on one or two at night to make it last longer or have a more directed blast .....don't want to catch a cold.

Edited April 27, 2016 by mamborobert

[Konini]

Solid teak or rosewood only, I'll have you know .

That's an ingenious little set-up that I might have tried, but I've caved and have ordered a 2500 baht evaporative cooler as an experiment. Results will be posted.

[Konini]

OK, so off to Lazada I went and found a little portable evaporative cooler for 2,490 delivered.

It's never going to cool a whole room, but that was never my aim, I'm the one who is hot, I'm the one to be cooled. By using blocks of ice in the water bin, I am happy with it. Pointed straight at me, it is keeping me cool without any cold, dry air which set's my husbands nose and chest off.

I'm going to have a look at something suggested by member FolkGuitar in another thread about using ziplock bags sealed with alcohol soaked sponges inside them - not for the money saving, the freezer costs the same to run (in fact, I'm sure it runs more efficiently if fuller) but because alcohol doesn't freeze, allowing it to get to a much lower temperature than zero, which is where water stops, just as 100 degrees is as hot as it gets unless you have something added to it like sugar. I don't drink often, but when I do, my voddy comes out of the freezer and pours like thick cough medicine. I've read of Russians dying because of it - not because it's moonshine, although it may well be - but because they leave it outside to get nice and cold, after several drinks forget to take it easy and sip it, and it's so cold that it does the opposite of scalding your throat and innards, whatever the proper word for that may be. Several deaths a year if I recall correctly, as well as the odd suspicious death by ultra-cold vodka. You really couldn't make it up because nobody would believe you.

More research for later in the week on getting home made cold packs nice and cold, but as I said, I'm very happy with my purchase, and glad that I made it. For single person use, pointed directly at them, I would recommend without hesitation. There is a built in thermometer and it tells you the temperature of the air it's putting out. My candy thermometer, which I know to be very accurate, agrees with the figures give or take half a degree. When I put it on fan it is putting out 34 or 35 degrees, about the same or a touch lower than in the room - far too hot to have pointing at your face, and, I believe dangerous. With a big fat ice block in the water reservoir and some water I've had in the freezer (not long enough to freeze, just to get really cold) then changed from fan to cool, within a few minutes it has consistently changed the output temperature of the air to below 30, got as low as 28 at one stage when 34 in the room. That is certainly good enough for me.

[moe666]

Since this is the Chiang Mai forum a swap cooler willwork here until the rainey season is full blown. Like any evap cooler it will only lower the temp 10 to 20 degrees depending on humidity. They do work ok inthe north because it does get dry here during the hot season futher south not so good, Pattaya forget about it. In what ever room you are cooling you need another source of air to feed the cooler once the room cools off it is to humid for the cooler to work also there needs to be a opening to allow air to escape but not the whole wall missing.

I am from New Mexico in the states we use evap coolers for at least 75 percent of cooling. There is usually a unit on the roof or in a window drawing in dry outside air after being drawn across the cooling pads the cool air is discharged into the home there have to be opening usually windows slighty open to draw the cool air thru the home. If there are no openings the air will preassurize the house eventually causing the motor to burn out. There is a basin where the water is collected and controlled with a float a pump forces water over the pads and the blower draws air over the water causing evaporation and cooling to take place.

[haybilly]

Interesting, Moe, thanks for that.

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