Getting ready for triple digits

This will be my third year in the building and have no rust issues. The steel rack is stocked with HR and CR as well as tubing. All material is wiped and bare with no protection prior to stocking and zero rust thus far. The welding tables (surfaces) are also rust free. All the machines have a light coat of oil on exposed surfaces year round, but that's just preventative maintenance. Surprisingly enough, the humidity level is extremely low during use. In late June and early to mid July, the monsoons prevent the swamp from cooling 100% but then I usually just run the blower to keep the air moving. The insulation helps a ton year round.
Then electric bill reflects Swampzilla usage though.
 
Paco, you are cooling a very large metal building. I am curious how much water that unit consumes. Do you have any idea?
Based on my experience of filling by hand (on a very temporary basis) a much smaller cooler, I would guess 100-200 gallons a day on a unit that size. I was really surprised to hear the pump sucking air only a couple of hours after filling the sump.
 
Based on my experience of filling by hand (on a very temporary basis) a much smaller cooler, I would guess 100-200 gallons a day on a unit that size. I was really surprised to hear the pump sucking air only a couple of hours after filling the sump.

Each wet section holds about 5 gallons and the unit is on the east exposure and close to the ground so it only gets four hours of direct sunlight. I'm sure it consumes a fair amount of water, but our water bill is extremely inexpensive being on a community well. I keep 1100 sf of grass (year round) for the hell hounds that consumes way more water than the cooler as does the drip irrigation for the vegetation and two large citrus trees. My summer water bill is around $25-40 per month. Now if I lived in the city, it would be a different story. The quality of Tucson water (city) is only good for extinguishing fires and would cost $150-200/month. They had great water when I was kid, but the Central Arizona Water project (CAP) mucked that up and drove up the price.
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Were from the government, and were here to help you. Cheers, Mike.
 
We had a preview to this weeks hot temps yesterday so I took a few reading of the shop conditions vs outside. The readings where taken at noon with the hight temp to follow around 4 pm.

I broke out the hand pocket weather meter I use for precision shooting.
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I was surprised to see 5+ mph readings from the floor level.
5.5 mph breeze with 74.7 temp and 49.5% humidity reading.

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Then walked out side to this.

1.4 mph breeze (blow dryer) 106º ambient temp with 9.4% relative humidity.
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For good measure a hand held temp gun was used from 15' aimed to a register.
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The pocket weather meter shows a 31.3º pull down. Swampzilla has become my new best friend.
The added humidity levels have not effected the bare steel stock nor the machine surfaces but has helped my skin (I'm still ugly).
Turn and burn, but stay cool!
Paco
 
That's awesome performance Paco. 106F outside and 73 or 74F inside and you still have a bit of room to go in terms of inside humidity! Do you any throttle left in terms of raising the humidity 5 to 10 points more?

My experience here on the gulf coast is that if I keep my shop at 60% relative humidity or less there is no corrosion problem with my tools or issues with my woodworking. When it peeks above 60%, I dry it out with a dehumidifier and/or AC.

From the photo above, I am calling before I visit you. Your doggies might not like strangers showing up unescorted!
 
Hi Allen,
I think I could tune it further by using the roof vents vs garage doors to vent the hotter air. I also have a double belt motor sheave that can adjust the squirrel cage RPM. I currently have it set to 248 RPM with 8 amp motor draw. Any faster will probably result in water entrainment causing flocculation/dusting during start up.
The dry heat is hard on the skin as we don't sweat like one would in higher humid conditions. Ill take the dry heat any day . Last summer season during monsoon, I simply shut the pumps off and kept the blower moving air. This work surprisingly well as its cools down to the low to mid 80's after a summer storm.

The hell hounds love announced company. Gentle but love being touched a lot. They do turn it on when the door bell rings or a vehicle pull into the drive.
We hit 114º today and tomorrow and Wednesday calls for 115º. Stayed cool at the indoor gun range today but back to work tomorrow.
 
I sure wish there were an "envy" button next to the "like" button!

And to top it all off, our house A/C stopped working about 9PM tonight. Air handler running OK, compressor not running. Checked fuses. No joy. Well past the "after hours" availability of our usual service outfit. Hope they respond to our voice mail early tomorrow!
 
Damn John, I hope you get your A/C back online ASAP! I'm pushing two A/C duel packs since building the house in 98 and always get a bit nervous during the summer as they seem to cycle all day and night. At 19 years old, they still preform great, but we're on borrowed time. I had problems with both units (different times) within the first 3 years of service and replaced inferior relays on the circuit boards. Good luck getting your AC back in operation.
 
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