My classroom air conditioner works again! Woo hoo!
The repair person came yesterday to fix Josh’s air conditioner because the part had come in. While he was there, he checked mine and found that it was a simple capacitor replacement. He had the new part with him! Nice!
Further experiments with my swamp cooler will be postponed until a later date.
It felt so good!
Because my classroom air conditioner isn’t working, I’ve been thinking about alternative cooling methods. I got some fans of course, but someone mentioned swamp coolers in passing, and that got me interested. I decided to research them a little.
The basic idea is that you get a fan to blow through something wet. The water changes state from liquid to vapor. Changing state requires heat energy, which the water gets from the air. With less heat energy in it, the air not only feels cooler, it actually IS cooler.
Swamp coolers require continuously circulating water, which requires a water pump. I decided to Lauren it. I got an air conditioner filter, cut it into a couple of pieces, and poured some water on it with a cup.
The trash bag is to catch the excess water.
It didn’t seem to feel any cooler than a non-filter fan when I put them side-by-side. I think maybe the continuously running water may be a requirement. Alternately, I could have been too humid yesterday. If there is already a lot of water in the air, it seems like not much more would vaporize in a swamp cooler.
I think this might require more testing…
The air conditioner in my classroom stopped working. I think it’s the compressor. I think that because Josh’s air conditioner stopped last week and it was the compressor. It might not have been such a big deal, but our rooms don’t have very big windows, so we can’t get a cross breeze.
The air conditioner people are pretty busy, so it takes a while to get service. And the parts may need to be sent from the mainland, which would add a lot more time. Fortunately, there are a couple of rooms in the main school building that we can use. I’m glad. It gets warm in my room by the afternoon.
The big number is the thermometer. The small number is the thermostat.
Happy Birthday to Denis! Yay! He doesn’t comment a lot, but he lurks here often.
I haven’t posted about chickens in a while. Yesterday I saw a lot of them. I stopped at a grocery store to get some food for Bible study, and the parking lot had LOTS of chickens. Somebody had just put some food out for them, so they were out in numbers.
I had to walk past them to get to my truck, and they barely moved. These are a tame group of chickens!
Of course when I tried to take a picture, I only got four in the shot.
I tried to take a picture of my foot and a chicken, so I could show how close I was. I was only marginally successful:
I finally finished my taxes yesterday. I had them mostly done about a week ago, but then I added the money I converted from a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA. Ouch! It really hurt me.
I don’t regret it though, because it will pay off when I retire. Pay taxes on a smaller amount now; pay no taxes when I withdraw later.
Still, it’s always hard when I have to write a check to the government. Stupid taxes.
I could not e-file my Hawaii taxes. The envelope was bulging with forms!
Ahhhhhh……..
A flux capacitor? Can you go back in time?