On 30 Jul 2004 21:58:16 -0700, Lori Siegmund wrote:

Hi Everyone,

Before I get in to my question for y'all... let me just toot my horn
about FINALLY moving my plants in to my gh on July 18! Many of you
helped me in the past few months with my questions about venting,
shading, etc. Sooooo helpful and thank you very much! I did end up
with Aluminet shade cloth suspended over the gh and it does a GREAT
job keeping the heat down about 15F from what it was without it. My
Jaybird AquaFog 400 is doing a pretty decent job keeping the humidity
where I want it. I'll be posting another question about humidistats
since I am having some issues with that.

So far, so good with the plants. That weekend and for a few days in
to the following week we had a bit of a heat wave here (outside temps
reaching 80-90F)and I struggled to keep the max temp in the gh under
100F. The Jaybird couldn't really keep up either; especially during
the hottest part of the day between noon and 4PM. Now for the past ten
days we've had a a lot of coastal fog so heat has not been a problem.

Hi Lori, I purchased a portable swamp cooler from Home Depot. I didn't use
the stand with wheels. I set it on some 2x4's at the existing opening.
It is made of plastic. It has a 6 gal water storage
tank. They should make them with on/off floats so that you don't have to
fill up all the time.
Ray is correct, you do need to pull in outside air through
the back of them.
Over the years, I have replaced many "metal" box fan type coolers,
because of corrosion! Seems like more & more are made of plastic these
days.
Also misters under the benches or on the floor help to cool & keep
up the humidity.
Cheers Wendy


I am thinking on those occasional days I need a swamp cooler to help
out. I'd rather not do a permanent mount through the polycarbonate if
possible, and was looking at the WisperCool Shop Swamp Cooler Model
SC3500 made by AdobeAir out of Phoenix. I can find it online for as
low as $299.00. It's rated to cool up to a 400 sq. ft. area at 3500
CFM. My gh is 240 sq. ft. Anyone had any experience with this model
or use a portable swamp cooler? The people from Adobe say it probably
would do what I want it to (lower the temps another 10-15F and help
keep the air more humid). It can be connected to a thermostat.

I have a Santa Barbara GH deluxe model and it has the side vents and
roof vents. With any portable model you would need to place it near
an side vent opening to take in outside air. I think that would work,
wouldn't it?

Any advice or info would be appreciated!

Lori
Santa Cruz, CA