Patio mister

[jp1]

On weekdays I finish work usually at 5:30 or 6:00 and even on days that have gotten up into the 90’s our back deck is comfortable. I have a big umbrella and my chair is next to a fence that is blocking the sun by then. But on weekend afternoons it’s too hot for comfort even if it only gets up to 85. On a whim the other day I looked on Amazon for patio misters and bought one for $16. I am stunned at how well it works. Without it the temperature was 86. With it the temperature was 74. Just now (5pm) I turned it off because it was down to 70 degrees. Five minutes later the thermometer is at 82.

Since we are in a perpetual drought here I’m aware of the water usage aspect of it. With that in mind I just bought a water meter that attaches to the faucet. I barely had to open the faucet at all so I don’t ‘think’ it uses too much but I’ll know for sure tomorrow. The most I’ll use it is maybe 20 days per year for 2-3 hours. We pay $.015 per gallon so if I use 500 gallons of water with this for the season that would cost us $7.50 for water. And would be the equivalent of about 6 days of water usage for us. I’m ok with that. If it uses dramatically more than that I may have to reevaluate. I really hope it doesn’t come to that because gosh, it was so much nicer sitting outside with a book this afternoon than it is sitting inside in my den.

[befree]

I will be curious to know the final figures on this.

[catherine]

Today we went to a craft fair hosted by one of our favorite farmers up here. It was hot--about 84. One of the vendors actually had a mister attached to her canopy. I can't think of a better way to attract customers. I wound up buying a lavender-scented stress-putty for my daughter for when she'll be in labor in a couple of weeks. Not sure I would have noticed it if I hadn't been enjoying the mister.

[jp1]

That’s a smart vendor Catherine. It’s common for restaurants in hot dry climates like Palm Springs to use misters for their outside seating. Kind of the same but opposite concept of restaurants that use propane heaters outside to extend the outdoor season into the fall and early spring.

[gimmethesimplelife]

My new Honduran tenant is willing to install a backyard mister quite cheap - but with everything so up in the air, I just don't know. We sure could use it here in Phoenix, though. Rob

[jp1]

My new Honduran tenant is willing to install a backyard mister quite cheap - but with everything so up in the air, I just don't know. We sure could use it here in Phoenix, though. Rob

Mine took literally about 20 minutes to install. If you have a table out there and don’t want to get wet it would take more effort than I expended but not a huge amount of effort. I would imagine in Phoenix it would work quite well.

[nswef]

These sound great. I've seen them, but here in humid Maryland...they'd only add to the swampiness.

[ToomuchStuff]

Quite a few years ago, I saw one for sale at a computer store that dealt in damaged merchandise. They had installed one around their a/c unit to bring down the difference between the inside and outside. They said it seemed to make a difference.

Someone else I know, took that basic design and modified it, into a plant and lizard watering device (on a timer), for their pets (lizard and snake room in basement). Friend of theirs wanted to copy it for illegal growing.

[JaneV2.0]

I just realized that "patio mister" would be a nifty euphemism for pool boy...

[jp1]

I just realized that "patio mister" would be a nifty euphemism for pool boy...

Lol.

Just tested it with the water meter. About .15 gallons per minute. 9 gallons/hour. And that is with the water meter leaking like a sieve because I didn’t bother to read the instructions on setting it up to not leak so the real number is less. If I use it for 60 hours each summer that would be 540 gallons/year which is roughly equivalent to 8 days of water usage by us currently. And about $8/year for the water. I can live with that since we probably reduced usage by a larger amount when I got the HOA’s recycled water sprinkler head working to water the 5x10 patch of grass, the potted pine tree, and the box with the corn, basil and jalapeños.