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Doesn't the snow machine rely on the frigid temperature of the air to turn the water mist to snow? But then you'd just need to add a refrigeration unit somewhere. ++ |
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That's what I love about this site. I always learn something. I put a link up: "More than you've ever wanted to know about snow machines." |
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Yes Doc, I believe a hot weather version would require some serious energy input to make snow out of water without getting any help from the ambient air temperature. It would definately be a LOT more expensive than a regular fountain to run. Doubt you'd get the green seal of approval. |
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Still, I could see it being popular at a beach resort on a hot day. |
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I think this is grand. I don't think it'd take
much energy - a gram of water would
make a lot of snow. However, I think the
flakes would melt before they'd got very
far, unless the air were already quite cool.
[+] |
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Hmm. That might be a pretty effect anyway, having snow come up and sprinkles come down. |
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I think they had one of these in the movie _Toys_, which is one of my favorites. <Googling> Well, couldn't find it. |
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I do remember, in real life, seeing a CO2 horn spraying flakes into the air--that could be modified to cool down water spray, maybe. |
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Wow, I forgot about this. How is this not a thing yet? |
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//How is this not a thing yet?// |
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It's the prohibitive energy cost. And it probably wouldn't be as fun as you're envisaging, in practice. |
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It's of course possible - but given the constraints you end up with an insulated building containing frigid air and significant refrigeration capacity, in which you can house the snow blower, rather than a portable (or even transportable) device you can just run outside on a hot day. |
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Don't be misled by Max's old comment - generating a gram of snow wouldn't need much energy, but on a hot day it also wouldn't go very far in either sense of the word.
You /could/ create a snow fountain outside with sufficient plant - but to make the snow stay as snow until it landed you'd need to effectively refrigerate the air in the vicinity down to about zero degrees Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit) - at which point you're not going to want to be splashing around in it in your keks for long. |
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What about using our favourite weird-science phenomenon, the toroidal vortex? That could "contain" the frigid air for a reasonable distance, while people get hit by it. Have it on a rotating base, shooting horizontally. The details of creating snow & getting it IN to the vortex are left to the reader. |
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Or how about just throwing chunks of ice into a shredder? Instead of making it on the spot have it made in an appropriate factory, warehouse or whatever, truck it out and shoot it through a grinder. |
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Hmm. Might be scary loud. Have it in a sound deadening structure that shoots the snow into two alternating containers and blows it out until it's empty then switches to the other one so the screaming loud grinder is never exposed to the environment? |
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Even then need some pretty heavy sound deadening. |
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Is there any way to just transport snow without it sticking together? |
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Got it! In an insulated cement mixer! Drive it to the party, turn on the fan, there you go. |
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Better than what they did to get snow for the Wizard of Oz anyway. |
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Snow isn't crushed ice.
Agitating/tumbling is adding energy = melting & probably breaking the fine-structure of the snowflakes.
Maybe aerating with sub-zero air? Would keep the snow from compacting, probably wouldn't stick to the sides (if there are air jets everywhere). Increases the required volume, but reduces the density (so it's big but not heavy), you've already got a blower on board for distribution "on site".
Build it completely self-contained into a 40' container. The cooler/blower etc will take up about 1 metre, you lose a little volume for the aeration lining& insulation; but still got more than 60 m³ for snow. You could blow it out for a snow-storm, or just dump it out for a pile to play in. |
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True, snow has actual tiny crystalline structures, but little flakey ice bits would probably do the trick. |
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So your idea to blow them around to keep them "snowy" might work but dang, I'm seeing why nobody's done this before. |
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But besides getting the 'texture' right, you've got to deal with the fact that it melts - and these two things interact in an annoying way. Did you know that rain starts off as snow? It melts on the way down. |
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That is, if you were chucking out hailstones - small ice-cubes, basically - they'd fly on a nice parabolic trajectory and you'd be hammered by distinct lumps of ice in that not particularly enjoyable manner.
Snow, on the other hand, is much less dense (a tenth or less of the density: New snow 50-70kg/m^3), and falls relatively slowly, with its large surface exposed to more of the air. Unless the air is cold enough, it'll melt before it reaches you.
You could probably work around this to a certain extent if you could arrange larger aggregations, but I'm thinking that's trending away from pleasant cooling sprinkles towards big chilly globs down the back of your neck. |
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Oh yea, this could turn into a standard water fountain really quick. |
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Hmm. Time to apply the “If we can put a man on the Moon, we can…” dictum. |
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So if someone can do this I’ll supply the Hallmark card platitudes and cheer you on. |
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Other than that I’m kind of stuck. Doesn’t mean it can’t be done but I’m out of ideas. For now anyway. |
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