Vent Covers for Evaporative Cooler

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  vicrip on 11/04/2021 - 17:18

  I've got the Heatsavers vent covers on 6 evap cooler vents.

  Not cheap, but work well. Easy to initially install, then just takes minutes to put the up at the start of winter and take down at the end.

  You could make something, but these are quick and look OK. Sure someone else would make them also.

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  BertieBrown on 11/04/2021 - 17:20

  I know what you mean, they are a pain in Winter.

  Could you maybe put some ceiling insulation, or a wool blanket cut to fit above the vents instead?

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    overkillxx on 11/04/2021 - 17:45

    Insulation option sounds like a reasonable alternative. I was thinking of some place that sells a material (plastic or tin) that you can have cut to size and then sticking a magnetic strip on both the edge of it and to the edge of the vent (Right polarity of course).

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      BertieBrown on 11/04/2021 - 19:23

      3M sell window film called thinsulate. But it’s stupidly expensive. As expensive as Roller Shutters for the same window area, but wouldn’t really work for a film, or insulation, unless on glass.

      I mean maybe some Perspex would work? It’s fairly light, would probably stick to magnetic adhesive strip, but it probably wouldn’t have a great thermal property.

      What about some sort of either polystyrene? Cut it to fit, glue the adhesive onto one side, and the magnetic strip? It’s light weight, and is full of air pockets so should be fairly good insulation. But, I think the main issue is that stuff doesn’t stick to it that well.

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  thatonethere on 11/04/2021 - 17:32

  +1

  A ghetto method is to use clear contact for the winter season.

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    jason101 on 11/04/2021 - 19:40

    What kind of mansion are you living in?

    I use glad wrap (I think coles brand generic wrap actually) works great.

    Edit: should mention you have to wrap the individual quadrant/grills and then reinsert them

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  ms_caz on 11/04/2021 - 18:32

  We have these on 7 outlets and they work extremely well to lock out draughts. They are so easy to put up and remove. We noticed in our first winter of having them that they made a significant difference to our heating costs. We've had them for about six years and they are still going strong - in fact, we just put them up again this weekend because it is collllld here in Melbs.

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  Kandrew on 11/04/2021 - 20:12

  We went the cheapest method that we could think of. It was a bit of a pain to set up, but it was effective.

  Cardboard boxes of reasonably good quality are needed; the cardboard needs to be not flimsy, but not so firm that it cannot be cut or bent.

  Then you need to determine the inside size of the vent opening.

  Next, cut a piece of cardboard a fraction smaller than the size of the vent opening. I think that we cut the cardboard 1 mm less. You're cutting the cardboard so that it will sit on top of the flaps, but you don't want too big a gap otherwise you're defeating the purpose of the cardboard. And you're cutting it a fraction smaller than the vent opening because you need some manoeuver the cardboard into place without bending it too much.

  When we did this, we discovered that our vent openings were not all the same size. Don't cut all of your pieces of cardboard before you know the sizes of the vents!

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    randombrick on 11/04/2021 - 23:11

    This is what I did.

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  SF3 on 11/04/2021 - 20:26

  Make sure you/tradie doesn’t crack a roof tile.