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What did I do wrong?

I filled the space in between the 2 pots with sand and soaked it thoroughly (till water was seeping out the bottom a little)

Left it in the sun for a few hours.

The inside wall felt cold (uncomfortably cold) But then again, so did the outside wall. I used a few cans of coke as testers of temperature - the can in the sun was warm, the can in the pot was cool, the can in the cupboard was cool I would have thought if I had left a can in cold water it would have been even colder.

So to test it I put in the garden thermometer : 17oC in the pot, the outside temperature was around 24oC in the sun.

This doesn't seem good enough IMO, shouldn't it be hovering between 4 and 7 degrees? as a cooler would be.

Is the Scottish sun not hot enough? did I make a mistake of covering the pots with a dark teatowel?

Do things only get cold on contact with the inner pot, rather that the air temperature in the inner pot? would a damp tea towel in there help?


Any thoughts?

I would have thought it should be much cooler, i did find though that stuff in contact with the pot was very cold, compared to the general feel of the air inside, perhaps it needs more stuff and less air to work efficiently?

More than that I just wanted to say - 24 degrees!!!? How come you got that and I'm freezing my a$$ off in the south of spain?

Thanks Clara, sounds about right.

Lord only knows what is happening here - we are quite high up but, if the air is still and their is no cloud cover (and sometimes that means we are above the clouds - we get nicer weather than those in the valleys below us - result!

TBH 24oC is the hottest it got and that was only for an hour or so, but that is fine for me.... just right... ahhh

Hey AnnPan!

To get the best out of your PiP cooler it needs to be in the wind but out of the sun. Sun = heat gain; wind = more evaporation and heat loss.

Nev

Noted - I thought that the idea was to get the outer pot as hot as possible, to encourage evapouration

Doesn't look like it is going to be a good day here though Oh well, the garden needs a drink.