Even though we are cooling off, we could still need some air conditioning before winter settles in for good. Al had an interesting question: “Out here in Fallon, the ground water is less than ideal for use in “swamp” coolers. While cleaning my cooler recently, I found stalagmites/tites to rival Lehman Caves! Next year I would like to install a reverse osmosis system specifically for the swamp cooler. My concern is the RO system might not supply enough water during the hottest days. In lieu of installing a flow meter, is there a way to roughly calculate the gallons per hour needed?”

I don’t really know how to calculate the exact amount needed, but I doubt that you use more than a couple of gallons an hour, even on the hottest day. If you need to know, just look at the flow coming out of the float valve in the midst of its running… it is usually just a trickle. Any standard reverse osmosis system should supply plenty of flow.

Whether a RO system can take enough calcium out of the water to eliminate the cave art is another matter altogether!