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Aw ruddy ell.

So does that mean if I set this up inside the house and then use the airconditioner in summer, it won't work? [insert dopey looking smiley here] It needs a warm environment, Muddy?

I am guessing... only a guess... that the sand is used to contain the water, as in hold it, rather than it actually leak through the porous walls of the pot, as I think it would probably do, maybe if it was fluid as such... Dunno, just guessing.

Well, it's an interesting feature of an evaporative cooler, that the faster the water evaporates, the more effectively it will absorb heat and cool things down. But I doubt it would ever be so efficient as to make a net gain by deliberately warming the surroundings up (if you see what I mean). I think that keeping the general environment cool will help keep your cooler cool.

However, it can be helped by encouraging the water to evaporate as much as possible. This can be aided by keeping the humidity down, and allowing the air to move. Air conditioning, which dries the air and moves it about, would be a positive boon in this respect.

I think that the sand helps maintain the space btween the pots, too much water and the inner one floats, especially if you only have light stuff in it like salad veggies. The sand allows the water to percolate through capillary action along the entire inside of the pots, otherwise you would only be able to put a smaller amount of water in (I think! )

Nev

Wombat wrote: It is one of the feature articles on the front page or try the link above!

Thanks. To reply to my own question - yes, I am daft.
I was searching through that long list of articles on the left, all in small print, and didn't see the great big headline in the middle!

Looks like one I'm going to try.