storms

[Patriot]

Is it me or are there more ice storms than usual????


Oklahoma, dbrown? Nebraska, NPPD whacked big time, worse than 76, kansas??. Global warming or el nino? I remember el nino of the 80's it was a weird year then to.

[BigClive]

Scotlands getting hammered with weird weather too. Not ice storms, but serious quantities of rain and wind. The temperatures a bit volatile for this time of year too. Very mild.

Just what you want when you're working outside. Continuous rain and it's too warm and clammy to wear waterproofs. Even the Gore Tex bibs are feeling a bit hot.

I've been working on a gadget to make life a bit less clammy in these conditions. I may stick some pictures up later on. It's basically a very low throughput and flat fan that you can tuck down the waistband of over trousers (waterproof pants) and it trickles a steady stream of air through to keep things a bit less clammy. It doesn't take much air flow to do this. Could be good for hotter climates where it would help with cooling too.

[loodvig]

We are getting heavy ice/rain right now. There's about 3/8" of ice on all the trees.

[Bigheadnc]

Hi Patiot. seems like alot more huh? If i hadn't had the stroke, I'm sure i'd be in kansas or MO. Sounds like a great idea Clive. let us know more about it

[Patriot]

It sure does Bighead. The weather is just plain screwed up.

I feel for all the guys that are getting seconds and even thirds from mother nature. So far here in Wyoming it is pretty normal, COLD!

[BigClive]

Sounds like a great idea Clive. let us know more about it

Here are some pictures of an experimental device I cobbled together after an annoying incident when I was working on a particularly stormy but mild night last year. I put on a pair of those cheap nylon overtrousers to get to work believing that I had left my breathable Gore-Tex overtrousers there. Unfortunately when I got there I discovered they were at home and I had to work the night in the cheap overtrousers and as usually happens I ended up just as soaked with sweat inside as with rain outside.

It got me thinking that a little airflow would expell the humidity emitted by your body and stop the overtrousers getting clammy inside. After a bit of thought I came up with the idea of using a tiny computer processor style fan to circulate a low volume of air using a thin flat duct (a scavenged drill box) to direct the air and allow the unit to sit in the waistband of the trousers. Here's the experimental unit minus a small fan guard. For scale the fan is just 1.5" (40mm) across and the battery box is four AA cells (just on the borderline of running the 12V fan):-

http://www.emanator.demon.co.uk/beltfan.jpg

The battery pack sits in your jeans or overalls pocket and the unit simply tucks behind the overtrousers waistband like this:-

http://www.emanator.demon.co.uk/beltfan2.jpg

Simple, and it does actually seem to work OK. The downside being that if you were wearing spikes over the outside of the leggings then that would block the downward flow of air. Maybe it would be more useful for ground workers.

I deliberately under-ran the fan because it stops it making an annoying whine and I didn't want refrigerated by a blast of cold air. Too high an airflow and loose fitting pants can result in a rather baggy look! The low voltage and the low current means a set of standard rechargeable batteries easily last a full shift.

Hmm, it was an interesting experiment, but I'll stick to the Gore-Tex. The idea might be useful to others who do get stuck with the cheap pants at work or for those in hotter climates who would appreciate a bit of personal air conditioning.