Justin Shanks

Andrew Sauer
Ethan Woods
Madison Shelley
Courtland Vice

Lab Report – Swamp Cooler Design

1. INTRODUCTION
Since the age of the Romans, early civilizations have used evaporative cooling as the
earliest form of air conditioning. When hot air runs through water, the heat from the air causes
some of the water to evaporate. Due to its high heat capacity, when water phase changes, a lot of
energy is removed from the air. This is how evaporative cooling works as a form of air
conditioning. Air conditioning is beneficial because hot air can cause fatigue, heat strokes, and
the spread of bacteria. Our goal is to find the most efficient form of evaporative cooling by
building an evaporative cooler out of a bucket and a fan. All teams have constant constraints
such as a plastic paint bucket, a smaller Styrofoam bucket, PVC piping, and an electric fan.
Teams test different insulators filled with ice, water, or a combination of both to see what creates
the coolest air conditioning unit. Many videos online claim to have the best evaporative cooler,
but they all have different setups with the same quantitative results. By choosing different porous
materials and testing each one at varying heights and densities, the team can determine the best
structure for an evaporative cooler. Our team first tested different sizes and amounts of sponges
to determine which resulted in the lowest temperature. Then we took the lowest sponge
combination and tested it at varying heights. We once again took the variable with the lowest
temperature and kept it as a constant. The procedure was repeated with chemical additives and
then concentrations of ice water. We determined that surface area, distance, time spent inside of
the bucket, and coolant composition were the biggest contributing factors. We hypothesized that,
for each factor, if we found the variable with the lowest temperature and kept it a constant while
we tested the next variable, we could determine what variables make the coldest evaporative
cooler.

2. METHODS
The first step of our procedure was identifying the problem, which as stated in the
previous section was drawing warm air into our bucket and having the coldest air possibly come
out while maintaining adequate performance for the entire 45 minute testing period. We next
inventoried our materials and thought about how the materials provided along with materials that
we could procure would help to solve our problem. The materials are as follows:

MATERIALS:

 2” PVC piping (at least 5” in length)

 5 gallon bucket with lid
 styrofoam bucket liner with lid
  pipe cutter
 utility knife
 sorbent pads
 shop towels
 electric fan
 ice
 electric drill with 2” coring bit
 screwdrivers (Phillips and flathead)
 marker
 infrared temperature gun
 scissors

Based on these materials, we then created the following procedure to build the swamp cooler:

PROCEDURE:

1. On the outside of the 10 gallon bucket, a dot was marked 4” from the bottom of the
bucket with the marker.
2. The coring bit was attached to the drill and a hole was drilled in the side of the bucket
centered on the mark made in STEP 1.
3. The styrofoam bucket liner was inserted into the bucket and trace the hole made in STEP
2 onto the styrofoam bucket liner with the marker.
4. Using the drill with the coring bit, a hole was drilled into the styrofoam bucket liner
based on the marking made in STEP 3. The bucket liner was inserted into the bucket, the
hole in the bucket liner and the hole in the bucket having been made relatively flush with
each other.
5. A screwdriver was used to remove the front housing from the back part of the fan.
6. The larger end of the front housing of the fan was placed centered onto the lid of the
bucket liner. The outline of the front housing was traced onto the lid using the marker
and a circle was cut ½” in from the trace made by the marker using the utility knife.
7. The larger end of the back part of the fan was placed centered onto the lid of the
bucket. The outline of this back part was traced onto the lid using the marker and a circle
was cut ½” in from the trace made by the marker using the utility knife. A few adjacent
holes were poked into the lid along the circumference of the circle ½” in from the trace
using a screwdriver so that the utility knife could be inserted into the lid in order to cut
the opening.
8. The inner circle cut out from the rim of the bucket liner lid was then taken and a rough
circle was drawn 1” in from the outer rim with the marker. The utility knife was taken
and used to cut along the circle made by the marker. The ring created by performing this
step was saved while the inner circle was discarded.
9. The bucket liner was taken out of the bucket and 1” was cut off the top rim of the liner.
10. A 5” length of the PVC pipe was cut using the pipe cutters. With the bucket liner inside
of the bucket and the holes lined up, the PVC pipe segment was inserted so that it fits into
the holes of both the bucket and bucket liner. The PVC pipe was adjusted to make sure it
was flush with the inner wall of the bucket liner.
11. Ice was added to the bottom of the bucket so that it stopped just before the opening of the
PVC pipe. ¼ of the bottle of rubbing alcohol was poured in as well.
12. The lid of the bucket liner (now with a hole in it) was placed onto the bucket liner. The
front housing of the fan was laid into the bucket liner with the tapered end facing down
into the bucket. The front housing looked like a bowl when viewed from above in this
assembly.
13. 5 sorbent pads were cut into ½”wide strips.
14. In the front housing of the fan, there was an inner ring of ridges and an outer ring of
ridges. One of the strips from the previous step was taken, doubled over, and placed over
one of the ridges in the inner ring such that each of the loose ends went completely into
the gap on either side of the ridge. This step was repeated until the ridge was full. For the
inner and outer rings, this step was repeated on every other ridge.
15. ¼ of another sorbent pad was cut off from the rest of the pad. The larger, ¾ part of the
pad was then wetted, rolled up like a tube, and placed in the PVC pipe such that it was
flush with the end up the PVC pipe inside of the cooler, that it did not extend beyond the
PVC pipe on the outside, and that it had large opening through the middle of it to allow
the passage of air.
16. Two shop towels were, while maintaining connection between themselves, removed from
the shop towel roll. The shop towels were folded onto each other and 15 holes were
poked into them using the scissors. These holes ranged from being in the center of the
folded towels to going out to about 3” away from the center.
17. The front housing of the fan draped with sorbent pads, sorbent pad cut to line the PVC
pipe outlet, and shop towels were taken to a sink, wetted, and then cooled for 15 minutes
covered in ice.
18. After this 15 minute period, the bucket was filled up just below the PVC outlet with
ice. Water was then poured onto the ice until it too reached just below the PVC outlet.
19. The shop towels were draped over the ring made in STEP 8 such that they went over the
edge of the ring. This assembly was then placed in the bucket liner such that it was
parallel with the bottom of the bucket (refer to APPENDIX A).
20. The bucket liner lid (now with a hole in) was placed onto the bucket liner and the front
fan housing draped with the sorbent pads was placed in the hole of the lid such that the
sorbent pads hung downwards into the bucket (refer to APPENDIX A).
21. The bucket lid (now with a hole in it) was placed onto the bucket. The back part of the
fan was placed face down onto the lid such that it did not fall into the bucket and such
that the air was blown into the bucket (refer to APPENDIX A).
22. The ¾ of the sorbent pad cut in STEP 15 was then rolled into a tube such that it fit inside
the PVC pipe outlet and did not extend into the inner part of the bucket from the outlet
nor outside the outlet on the outside of the entire swamp cooler assembly (refer to
APPENDIX A).
23. The fan was connected to power and turned on.
24. To measure the temperature of the air emitted by the swamp cooler, an infrared
temperature gun was used to shoot inside of the PVC outlet (approximately 3” into the
outlet) from a distance of approximately 6” from the lip of the outlet. Shots were taken
every 3 minute on the minute for 45 minutes straight, measuring both the temperature of
the swamp cooler and the ambient temperature of the room, which was measured by
measuring the temperature of a fixed point on a wall. Readings were taken until the
infrared temperature gun read “Hold” and then the temperature was recorded.
 25. Three runs were performed, repeating STEPS 17-24. After each, the ice and water were
drained from the bucket as well, restocking with new ice and water each time.

3. RESULTS & DISCUSSIONS

The addition of 91% Isopropyl Alcohol initially decreased cooling of the system, but
effects soon faded due to fast evaporation rate. Increasing the surface area of the absorbent
material decreased the overall temperature of the air flowing out of the cooler, and providing a
layer of shop towels to slow down air flow to allow the air too cool more before leaving the
cooler als result in a decrease in air temperature flowing from the cooler. After completing three
test runs of forty five minutes, modifications to the internal design of our cooler such as the
addition of a cool shop towel proved to help in consistency of temperatures recorded. After
cooling soaked strips of sorbents pads and shop towels in ice for fifteen minutes, much cooler
temperature values were recorded alongside more steady temperatures compared to previous
iterations of our design and implementation process.

Image 1 Image 2
Pictured above, sorbent pads have been
cut into strips (Image 2) and then layered in the front housing of the fan
(Image 1) to increase surface area.
 Pictured above are the interior and exterior of the swamp cooler. The styrofoam core is
for better insulation from ambient heat.

Time(min) Average of Average of Ambient

Temperature(Fahrenheit) Temperature

0 52.56666667 81.96666667

3 49.06666667 77.73333333

6 54.66666667 80.5

9 55.23333333 79.9

12 57.93333333 80.66666667

15 59.26666667 80.06666667

18 56.23333333 79.76666667
 21 57.83333333 80.53333333

24 57.46666667 80.36666667

27 56.86666667 79.43333333

30 57.3 81.3

33 58.3 80

36 58 80.56666667

39 57.73333333 80.93333333

42 58.23333333 79.53333333

45 58.83333333 80.06666667

Total 56.59583333 80.20833333

Average

Data from all three trial runs have been collated into a pivot table showing the average
temperature of air exiting the evaporative cooler at three minute intervals, along with the average
ambient temperature. Trends suggest that the cooler reaches working temperatures after twelve
minutes of running, and then maintains a two degree temperature tolerance for the remainder of
the trials.

4. CONCLUSIONS
As shown in the table in the results section, the average difference between the ambient
temperature and the outlet temperature was 23.6 degrees fahrenheit. The significant part of these
results isn’t just that we cooled the air, it is that we managed to keep the air cool over an
extended period of time. Initially we struggled with maintaining the cold temperatures over a 45
minute period however through many trials and errors we managed to keep the air consistently
cool. Our first design consisted of strategically placed cold sponges and water sitting at the
bottom of the bucket. Our final design featured hanging sponges, a mixture of ice and water
sitting at the bottom of the bucket, and a chamber created by shop towels suspended a few inches
above the PVC pipe outlet where the air could sit in the bucket, being cooled for a period of time
before being blown out and recorded.
As stated in the introduction, we worked with many different combinations of sponge
heights, materials, and placement. However, the sponges did not end up being the biggest
difference maker in our results. As also stated in the introduction, the amount of time that the air
spent inside of the bucket cooler was a significant aspect of our success. Our results show that
this is a key component in keeping the air cool over a longer period of time. With our initial
design, we were simply sending air through the bucket allowing it to bounce off of cold materials
and hoping that this would cool it down. We eventually discovered that the longer the air
remained in the bucket, the cooler the air was when it came out of the cooler. One contradiction
we struggled with is the fact that when we tested our bucket using just ice at the bottom of the
bucket, we found similar results as when we tested with just cold water at the bottom of the
bucket. This surprised us because we previously thought that the addition of ice to the system
would lead to a significant decrease in the recorded air temperature difference. We learned from
this that the melting of the ice and eventual evaporation of the ice water combination is what
would create a significant temperature change, not just putting ice alone in the bottom of the
bucket. If we had more time for testing and refining our bucket, we could research techniques
for keeping the air inside of the bucket for a longer period of time. We could also research what
materials to use in order to create a more effective chamber inside of the bucket to hold the air
while cooling it.
.

5. REFERENCES
“Evaporative Cooling Introduction The Science of Evaporative Cooling.”
Allianceforwaterefficiency.org, 2018,
www.allianceforwaterefficiency.org/evap_cooling_intro.aspx.

6. APPENDICES
This is where you put your full data tables, photos of work, or any other collected data
related to the experiment or design – CAD drawings, sketches, etc.

APPENDIX A
Inner bucket assembly with bucket liner cut to size and outlet hole with PVC pipe inserted.

Inner bucket assembly with ring for shop towels.

Shop towels folded over with holes poked in them and placed over ring to maximize wet
surface area.
Front fan housing with doubled over sorbent pad sections draped over every other ridge to
allow air flow over pads.

¾ sorbent pad rolled up and placed inside of PVC pipe outlet.

Final view of assembly from the outside with the fan on top.

APPENDIX B
Sketch of final design

APPENDIX C

Thin ridged biodegradable Sponge cloth used in cooler to store water during the testing
period and contribute to evaporative cooling.